Microsoft Robotics

This is cool. Microsoft introductory courseware for Microsoft Robotics Studio (1.5). I really like that the demo robot they work with is from iRobot (makers of the excellent Roomba and Scooba) – the iRobot Create.

I’m looking forward to hearing from anyone who runs it up. Was it accessible? How does it compare with other Robotics programming kits?

Here are some details from MSFT:

“The robotics introductory courseware is a set of labs that can be completed individually or as part of an introductory course on robotics. The labs take you through common robotics concepts such as reading sensors, controlling actuators, designing simple behaviors, and having a robot interacting with its environment using Microsoft Robotics Studio.

Going through the labs you will learn how to write services for Microsoft Robotics Studio using a combination of Microsoft Visual Programming Language (VPL) and C#. While the labs are introductory, they do require basic knowledge of Microsoft .Net and C# to complete.

Many of the labs can be completed either using Microsoft Robotics Studio Simulation or actual hardware in the form of an iRobot Create. In Lab Tutorial 7 (C#) – Multirobot Coordination you will need two iRobot Creates or use Microsoft Robotics Studio Simulation to simulate the robots. In addition, some of the labs such as Lab Tutorial 5 – Using Vision to Estimate the Distance to an Object use additional sensors including cameras, microphones, and speakers that need to be plugged into your PC.”