MRDS

From RobotinoWiki
Revision as of 19:52, 4 March 2012 by Indorewala (talk | contribs) (The RobotinoMRDS ZIP Package)

Introduction

Robotino mrds4 icon 64.png The MRDS support for Robotino is here! Follow the instructions below for information on using the package. Please note that the Robotino MRDS package only works with the API2 installed on Robotino.

Package links

downloads

The RobotinoMRDS ZIP Package

Installation

Prerequisites

  1. Please note that the Robotino MRDS package only works with the API2 installed on Robotino.
  2. Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio. MRDS requires .NET 4.0 but does not install it because this comes with Visual Studio.
Simulated Robotino in MRDS

Download & Installation

The RobotinoMRDS ZIP package can be downloaded from the link under the Package links section on the top right of this page. After the download please go through the following steps:

  1. Extract the contents of the ZIP package to Microsoft Robotics Dev Studio 4 Beta\packages directory. After extraction, your directory structure should look like Microsoft Robotics Dev Studio 4 Beta\packages\RobotinoMRDS.
  2. Fire up the MRDS 4 DSS Command Prompt and navigate to the Microsoft Robotics Dev Studio 4 Beta\packages\RobotinoMRDS directory
  3. Run the script Setup.cmd
  4. Now run the script BuildRobotinoMRDS.cmd
  5. If the above mentioned steps were followed properly, then the build should complete without any errors.

Connecting to Robotino

If you would like to control your Robotino using MRDS, you will need to modify the following line in RobotinoMRDS\Services\Robotino\Robotino.cs

_robotino.Connect("192.168.5.5");

With the IP address your Robotino.

Note: After you make the changes, make sure you build the project once again to reflect the changes in the dll which is used by other projects within RobotinoMRDS.

Robotino Services

The services which can be found in the RobotinoMRDS\Services directory are:

  1. Robotino
  2. RobotinoBumperService
  3. RobotinoDistanceSensorsService

More services shall be supported in the future.

Examples

It is highly recommended that you go through the examples provided for better understanding. These examples can be found under the RobotinoMRDS\Examples directory.

A video of this example in action can be viewed below. {{#ev:youtube|KVD_eiG4x8Q}}

Robotino Simulation Services

A simulated Robotino is also available for use in the Visual Simulation Environment (VSE). The related services can be found under the RobotinoMRDS\Simulation\Robotino directory.

Example Simulation Scenario

An example simulation scenario which simulates wall-following can be found under the RobotinoMRDS\Simulation\Scenarios\WallFollow. A video of the wall-follow scenario can be viewed below: {{#ev:youtube|rcJsAbxi1BY}}

The RobotinoMRDS sources

The ZIP package above contains pre-compiled dlls of the RobotinoAPI2. If you wish to stay on the bleeding edge, you may check out the sources from here. Please note the following:

The bleeding edge RobotinoMRDS sources use the environment variables ROBOTINOAPI2_32_DIR and ROBOTINOAPI2WRAPPER32_DIR to locate the required DLLs. These DLLs are built by the RobotinoAPI2 and RobotinoAPI2 Wrapper projects. Read below for more information.

Building RobotinoAPI2

Please follow the information on this wiki page to build the RobotinoAPI2 from the sources. Please do not forget to set the ROBOTINOAPI2_32_DIR environment variable.

Building RobotinoAPI2 Wrapper

Please follow the information on this wiki page to build the RobotinoAPI2 Wrapper from the sources. Please do not forget to set the ROBOTINOAPI2WRAPPER32_DIR environment variable.

The Openrobotino Forum

The Openrobotino Forum connects the developers with the users. Here you will find more support and you can also post your questions/problems/bugs etc and get a quick response.