Programming Firebird 5 using Microsoft Robotics Studio 2008

-weekly seminar presentation byAnirban Basumallik,

M.Tech 2, ERTS Lab,IIT Bombay.

2nd September, 2010.

DemonstrationBurn the suitable program on the Firebird 5

that keeps reading the sensor values on the bot and communicates that over Xbee/serial port to the PC and

keeps reading the motor values from Xbee/serial port (as received from the PC) and sets the motor accordingly

Run the suitable service on MSRDS 2008

Demonstration (contd…)The monitoring system on the web browser

Console outputService state

Two services are orchestratingThe ABMFirebird5 service; andThe ABMWhiteLineFollowerFB5 service

How it is working

Firebird 5ABMFirebird5

ServiceABMWhiteLineFollowerFB5

Service

MSRDS Runtime

Part

ners

hip

Service

A service model [1]

Subscription & Partnership

A subscription model [4]

ComponentsMSRDS 2008 has the .NET framework at the base levelCCR layer exists over that

No need of explicitly creating threads, using semaphores or need to synchronize

It is operative in a way such that the whole system is responsive*, scalable* and efficient in dealing with failure

Takes care of load balancing*, scheduling* and coordinating

DSS layer exists over thatLoosely coupled services interact through each other via

partnership

* Claims by Microsoft, not verified by me

Other features: VPLVPL – Visual Programming Language

Gives a GUI (user friendliness) angle to programming

It is a data flow based programming model

A VPL Program [3]

Others: SimulationVSE – Visual Simulation Environment

Hardware is expensive, difficult to debug, and hard for a team to work concurrently

Simulation has a low barrier to entry, easy to prototype and test out new ideas

Useful for education, good learning and debugging tool

Architecture [2] Simulation and services [2]

MSRDS: Pros and ConsPros

Design highly scalable, concurrent and distributed robotics applications.*

Efficient backend and rich simulator.VPL: Makes simple robotics applications easy to compose

ConsKnowledge of coding is required for some significant

work.The complexity of C#Modelling of objects using third party software.Real Time constraint handling missing.

* Claims by Microsoft, not verified by me

References[1] Microsoft Corporation. Dss documentation. Website.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/[2] Microsoft Corporation. Video tutorials on

simulation. Website. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/robotics/bb383569.aspx.

[3] Microsoft Corporation. Vpl documentation. Website. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb483088.aspx.

[4] Microsoft Corporation. Service Tutorial 4. Website. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb483060.aspx

THANK YOU