newbie_sg

I've been programming using microsoft robotics studio sumo simulation. I managed to do some programs. Just recently I get to use the real Irobot create robot and I've no idea how to program in my codes.

Anybody knows how to program in the codes to the real robot and if I need to change anything to my codes because I was doing it in the simulation.

Thanks.


Re: Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Sumo Robot

KyleJ - MSFT

You need more than just an iRobot Create to run the Sumo code. The Create doesn't have an onboard processor that can be used to run user code to allow the robot to be autonomous. For the Sumo competition that we sponsored at MEDC, we built sumo robots that used the iRobot Create as a base along with a webcam and an ICOP eBox 2300 processor. You can find complete instructions for assembly a similar sumobot here:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/robotics/bb403184.aspx

-Kyle





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Sumo Robot

newbie_sg

Thanks for the reply Kyle. And sorry for the incomplete info. We already have a complete robot which includes everything, (Irobot Create, the webcam, the Icop_ebox). it is already has the sumo player service inside.

We have been trying to connect with the robot based on a step by step(including cofiguring the Ebox) guide referred to us by our friend but we still having some problems connecting to the robot. We already do the IP addressing but everytime we tried to connect using Visual Studio 2005. We get the error message "connection failed. The device is not ready."

We just want to put our prgram into the sumo robot and make it work. Is there any other way to go about it

Thanks for your time.





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Sumo Robot

Ioana Butoi

A few things to check

1. That you can ping the ebox

2. Run ConmanClient and CMAccept on the ebox

Let us know if this solves your problem.

Ioana





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Sumo Robot

newbie_sg

Thanks for the idea, Ioana. We found out that the MVS 2005 has some compatibility issue with the conman client, we upgraded our MVS 2005 with SP 1 and the error is solved. And was able to connect successfully but we encountered a new error upon deploying the codes to the ebox.

"Deployment and/or registration failed with error: 0x8973190e. Error writing ile '% csidl_program
_files%\msrs\bin\cf.webcamservice.y2006.m05.proxy.dll'. Error 0.80070020:
The process cannot access te file because it is being used by another process."

We appreciate your replies and is really of a big help to us.

Thanks a lot.




Re: Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Sumo Robot

Ioana Butoi

Hi,

When you are trying to deploy are there any MSRS nodes running on the device you are trying to deploy to It looks like you have a process running that is using cf.webcamservice.y2006.m05.proxy.dll. One thing you could try is to restart the device, reconnect it to VS and then deploy again.

Let me know if this helps.

Ioana





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Sumo Robot

Ioana Butoi - MSFT

Hi,

What might happen is that a MSRS node is started automatically when you reboot the device ( MSRSAutostart does that) which would be the reason why you cannot copy the file because it in use. What you want to do is restart the device and then hit cancel when MSRSAutostart tries to start a node.

Then you can deploy to the device.

Let me know if this helps.

Ioana





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Sumo Robot

newbie_sg

Thanks Ioana, it was the webcam like you said. Now we are able to successfully deploy the codes into the Ebox, but we can't change default startup manifest so the original sumo codes is still the one running when we on the robot.

We found this step in the tutorial but we can't change the manifest to our program name.

The \Windows\StartUp folder contains a link to \bin\msrsautostart.exe. This exe calls \bin\startdsshost.cmd. The cf.dsshost.exe is started with the following parameters.



/p:50000 /t:50001 /mTongue TiedumoPlayer.Hardware.Manifest.xml



This manifest launches the sumo player service that is part of the sumo player package. It needs to be replaced with an appropriate manifest for the contestant¡¯s service.


We think this is the reason why it is still running at the original one and when we deploy the codes, we noticed that we are missing some filenames like

" SumoPlayer.Hardware.manifest"

in the Ebox /Program Files/MSRS/bin directory.

We only have ;
" cf.SittingDuck.Y2007.M07"
"cf.SittingDuck.Y2007.M07.Proxy"
"cf.SittingDuck.Y2007.M07.Transform"
"SittingDuck.Hardware.config"

These are the files that came out after deploying from our visual studio 2005.

Could there be any files that we are missing

Thanks!




Re: Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Sumo Robot

Ioana Butoi - MSFT

Hi,

You are missing the manifest file for your service. The manifest is the file that tells the node what services it needs to start and what initial configuration they should have.

If you created SittingDuck project using DssNewService it should have created a manifest for you. You need to modify that manifest to start the service that you want. You can do that directly or using the DssManifestEditor that is part of Microsoft Robotics Studio.

When you deploy you need to mark the manifest file as Copy Always as well as the SuttungDuck.hardware.config. Make sure you copy the manifest file in the MSRS bin directory on the Ebox.

Then you can start your service in 2 ways.

1. Manually from the bin folder >cf.dsshost.exe /p:50000 /t:50001 /m:<your manifest file>

2. By modifying the startdsshost.cmd commnad and replacing the name of the manifest with your manifest. Doing this will ensure each time you reboot the device that your service gets started.

Let me know if this helps,

Ioana





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Sumo Robot

newbie_sg





We have already deployed all the neccessary files into the Ebox. But the robot is still running at the default program. After we programmed our codes into the Ebox, the webcam couldn't be loaded and this error pops up.

File or assembly name 'CF.DssRuntime, Version = 1.0.446.3, Culture = neutral, PublicKeyToken = 31BF3856AD364E35' , or one of its dependencies, was not found.

Should we delete the default SumoPlayer files located in the /bin folder which is already in the ebox

Thanks Ioana.




Re: Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Sumo Robot

Ioana Butoi - MSFT

Hi,

Looking at you version number it looks like you are running on the May CTP. Could you please install Microsoft Robotics Studio 1.5 from here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/robotics/aa731520.aspx. You also neeed to install the Sumo Package. After you've done follow again the instructions and copy the right runtime and files to the EBox.

Did you replace the manifest in the autostart. Also in your manifest for SittingDuck can you check that you have the correct service uri.

Let me know if you run into any other issues.

Ioana





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Sumo Robot

newbie_sg

Hi Ioana,

We have downloaded the new packages and version already but the error is still the same. We noticed that the Microsoft robotics studio 1.5 (new version - the one u asked us to download ) when creating a new service, the manifest file is automatically named SumoPlayer.manifest.

So should we still change the autostart manifest from the ebox or should we rename our own manifest to the same name as our service

We tried the step by step tutorials on deploying to the robot from the new help readme from the microsoft robotics studio 1.5 but at the last step when we run the service (F5) and we checked the screen for the Ebox, the same error occurs.

Thanks!




Re: Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Sumo Robot

Ioana Butoi - MSFT

Hi,

When you installed the new version of MSRS 1.5 and the Sumo package did you replace the files in the bin folder on the ebox Looks like you might have the wrong version on the ebox.

In 1.5 when you create a sumo service following the instructions it renames the manifest to sumoplayer. You can name it whatever you want. However make sure the MSRSautostart starts the right manifest. Also the manifest file should be placed in the same folder on the Ebox as the services and cf.dsshost.exe.

Let me know if you this helps.

Ioana





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Sumo Robot

newbie_sg

Hi Ioana,

we have replaced all the old files from the Ebox with the files found in our new version of MSRS/bin in our computer. Then we deployed our codes and managed to run it using Visual Studio while it's connected. We can view the webcam on the Ebox already. This should means that the codes are already working right

But when we try to run the robot, it's still running the old default program. So I think the problem lies with the MsrsAutoStart command. But the thing is we try to change the autostart but we still can't find a way to change it successfully.

We try to change the properties shortcut of the AutoStart to

¡°\Program Files\MSRS\bin\MsrsAutoStart.exe¡± ¡°\Program Files\MSRS\bin\cf.dsshost.exe¡± ¨Cp:50000 ¨Ct:50001 ¨CmTongue Tiedumoplayer.hardware.manifest.xml"

but when we on the Irobot it makes an "error" sound (or that's what we think). Then the power LEDS blink red and it doesn't run at all.

Sorry for being such newbie. This is our first robotics experience.

Thanks a lot!




Re: Microsoft Robotics - Hardware Configuration and Troubleshooting Sumo Robot

Dogulas

hi newbie_sg,

I've been following along with this thread and I am in about the same place as you.

This is what I have found out so far:

When I created the link by copying MsrsAutoStart.exe and selecting "paste link" in the \Windows\Startup folder, the link appears with a size of about 55 bytes. When I look in the properties window of that link, I see two tabs. The shortcut tab has a target containing:

"\Program Files\msrs\bin\cf\MsrsAutoStart.exe"

which is correct for my machine. When I edit this field and put all the parameters in it, similar to your example, I notice that the byte count goes to zero. If I then look at the properties, I see that the shortcut tab is missing.

Through trial and error, I discovered, at least on my machine, that there is a limit of 117 bytes that you can put in that field. Any more and the link goes into that wierd state and is unrecoverable. I must delete it and create a new one.

To get around this limitiation, I had to put the arguments into a text file that I called "DssArgs.txt", the contents of which look like this:

-p:50000

-t:50001

"-m:\Program Files\msrs\bin\cf\SumoPlayer.hardware.manifest.xml"

I had to put this in the root directory because there doesn't seem to be anything like a Path variable in CE. The resulting value of the target field in the shortcut tab of the link property looks like this:

"\Program Files\msrs\bin\cf\MsrsAutoStart.exe" "@DssArgs.txt"

This seems to have gotten me past this hurtle, and I'm stuck at the next. I don't know if this helps you or even if it is the right approach, because I've found no documentation on the subject. Anyway I thought I'd share my little adventure.

Good luck,

Dogulas