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TechEd 2007 SEA: Robotics and Windows Mobile

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[3:14PM]

I'm here now in the Faculty Summit Academic Track.  Jennifer Perret has just given an overview of the various academic programs and initiatives in Microsoft from a worldwide level.  Loke Uei Tan, Technical Product Manager in the Windows Mobile Team of Microsoft Corporation is currently preparing for what should be a very interesting session on Robotics & Windows Mobile.

[3:16PM]

The session is starting.  Loke Uei (https://blogs.msdn.com/lokeuei) introduces himself as a former employee of MS Malaysia before moving up to Redmond to work for the Windows Mobile team.  "What is Robotics Studio?  A set of runtime, authoring tools, and samples and services to enable anyone to build robots."  Today, we are going to use Robotics Studio to build some robots.

There are two core primary elements of the Robotics studio runtime: CCR (coordination and concurrency runtime) and DDS (Decentralized Software Services).  Concurrency has traditionally been a problem and CCR allows you to address this program without having to write your own engine.

VPL (Visual Programming Language) allows you to take various components/services and tie them together in a click and drag manner.  Logic is built visually and deployed with a click of a button.

Loke Uei is now talking about the Sumo Robot competition they run at MEDC.  We ran a similar competition at MEDC Singapore a couple months ago.  Ironically, most of the participants were Microsoft Student Partners.  There'll also be a Sumo Robot competition here at TechEd 2007 SEA.  We brought a number of them up with us on the bus we chartered to KL.

Loke Uei is now showing a picture labeled WiMo (another robot).  It's a LEGO Mindstorm NXT with a Windows Mobile device attached to it.  He is now demonstrating WiMo to the audience.  The Windows Mobile device is communicating with the NXT via Bluetooth.  In turn, Loke Uei is communicating with the WM device via BT as well.  Visual Studio is now opened with the WiMo project loaded.  He is now starting up Robotics Studio (v1.5).

There is a reference to Mike Hall's blog: https://blogs.msdn.com/mikehall/ and specifically: https://blogs.msdn.com/mikehall/archive/2007/08/28/here-s-how-microsoft-robotics-studio-is-getting-used.aspx

There is a WiMo smart client application now on the screen that waits for user input via the keyboard.  The smart client application can also take live pictures from the camera of the phone (again, communicating through Bluetooth).  (The audience applauses.)  Loke Uei is now insisting that the robot can also dance and you'll hear the ringtone come out of the phone.  Hm - neat.

Loke Uei is talking about how the WiMo robot is advanced yet simple.  It can be used to get students interested and excited.  It's a very easy way to get started with Robotics and they can get more advanced as they learn more.  And of course, the focus is back on the software rather than on the hardware.

Learn more about WiMo: https://www.wimobot.com (source code, API, documentation, assembly instructions, everything!)
Learn more about Robotics Studio: https://www.microsoft.com/robotics/

[3:44PM]

The floor is now open for questions.  No questions :)

Comments

  • Anonymous
    September 25, 2007
    sounds like this was an interesting session - do you think there is much interest in Robotics and CCR/DSS programming over in Malaysia ?
  • Mike