Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (MRDS) offers an exciting new wayto program robots in the Windows environment. With key portions of theMRDS code available in source form, it is readily extensible and offersnumerous opportunities for programmers and hobbyists. This comprehensivebook illustrates creative ways to use the tools and libraries in MRDS so you can start building innovative new robotics applications.

The book begins with a brief overview of MRDS and then launches into MRDSconcepts and takes a look at fundamental code patterns that can be used in MRDS programming. You'll work through examples—all in C#—of common tasks, including an examination of the physics features of the MRDS simulator. As the chapters progress, so does the level of difficulty and you'll gradually evolve from navigating a simple robot around a simulated course to controlling simulated and actual robotic arms, and finally, to an autonomous robot that runs with an embedded PC or PDA.

What you will learn from this book

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How to program in the multi-threaded environment provided by the concurrency and coordination runtime
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Suggestions for starting and stopping services, configuring services, and packaging your services for deployment
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Techniques for building new services from scratch and then testing them
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How to build your own simulated environments and robots using the Visual Simulation Environment
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What robots are supported under MRDS and how to select one for purchase

Who this book is for
This book is for programmers who are interested in becoming proficient in the rapidly growing field of robotics. All examples featured in the book are in C#, which is the preferred language for MRDS.