Salik123

Hi,

I am a student attending college at the moment, and for a project of mine I am looking for help or advice to create automated robot using MSDS. The Hardware that I am using is the lego robotic microprocessor RCX 1.0. I am looking to create a program that will make the robot move using a code to make it turn certain directions at certain points. Please if anyone can help me that will be greatly appreciated. im not very familiar with the software. Also another problem is that i am wondering if the code or program can be send to the RCX microprocessor via infrared

Salik



Re: Microsoft Robotics - Community Need help with automated Robot using MSDS

Salik123

BUMP, need some assistance





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Community Need help with automated Robot using MSDS

Ben Axelrod [CoroWare]

MSRS does work with the Lego RCX, but it runs in what is called 'tethered' mode. This means that the PC must be in IR contact with the robot at all times. If you need the robot to venture far away from a computer, then you may want to (1) use another type of robot, or (2) program the RCX directly using the graphical brick language or one of the many other languages now ported to the RCX.





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Community Need help with automated Robot using MSDS

Salik123

thanks, that definately helps alot. one question though. If i did want to program the RCX using graphical brick can i use MSRS or do i have to program directly. My objective for this project is basically to link a lego robot with msrs so it can move through a maze




Re: Microsoft Robotics - Community Need help with automated Robot using MSDS

Omid K. Rad

MSRS does not support cross compiling to the native language to run directly on the RCX brick. Your code needs to be run on a computer or a Windows CE mobile device with IR Rx/Tx that can directly see the IR receiver on the RCX brick (though currently there are no services in the samples to do IR). Since you want your robot to go in a maze this will probably block the view for the IR, so you may want to place the IR emitter on top of the maze and have the brick look up but this makes it even more complex.





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Community Need help with automated Robot using MSDS

Salik123

Ok I understand, now im wondering how can i make a program in MSRS that can control the robot via infrared. I have already created a dialog drive code in VB to set the main controls.





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Community Need help with automated Robot using MSDS

Omid K. Rad

There is already an RCX service in the MSRS SDK under samples\Platforms\LEGO\RCX which uses a C++ wrapper (Rcx20wrapper) that can control the RCX robot via the RCX IR Tower. This service and wrapper are specific to RCX but it's a good example of creating an IR service. In your consumer services you just need to talk with the RCX services and don't need to connect with the wrapper directly.





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Community Need help with automated Robot using MSDS

Salik123

actually our plan has changed, all we really need it to do is to move forward, back, left, right and stop. it can be very close to the laptop, does not need to be far away, i just have no idea where to start when building a code in MSRS to make it move.





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Community Need help with automated Robot using MSDS

Omid K. Rad

OK then that's easy. First follow the instructions here to set up Lego RCX 2.0 hardware. When your robot is connected since the RCX services support the generic drive you can use it with any service that drives the robot such as SimpleDashboard and RoboticsTutorial4 service. For example try this: From the Microsoft Robotics Studio command prompt run:

Code Block
dsshost /p:50000 /t:50001 /m:"samples\Config\LEGO.RCX.Vehicle.manifest.xml" /m:"samples\Config\SimpleDashboard.manifest.xml" /m:"samples\Config\RoboticsTutorial4.manifest.xml"

This runs the RCX vehicle service and opens two windows to control the robot. You can also use VPL to make a diagram that drives the robot. You just need to use the DriveDifferentialTwoWheel service and configure it to use the lego RCX manifest. If you had any questions feel free to ask in the forums.





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Community Need help with automated Robot using MSDS

Salik123

can u use this still for rcx 1.0





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Community Need help with automated Robot using MSDS

Omid K. Rad

I'm not sure. The RCX services were written for Lego MINDSTORMS Robotics Invention System 2.0. We haven't tried the sample with RCX 1.0





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Community Need help with automated Robot using MSDS

Salik123

ok so i have downloaded both softwares, and connected the rcx to my pc. what would be the next step to connect the two services to the rcx.




Re: Microsoft Robotics - Community Need help with automated Robot using MSDS

Omid K. Rad

You can run the service by passing its manifest to DssHost (as in the command I sent earlier). If you want to write another service to connect to the RCX vehicle and control it then in your new service you need to partner with the generic services supported by RCX (i.e Generic Drive and Generic Bumper). See Robotics Tutorial 3 for an example.

Robotics Tutorial 3 - Creating Reusable Orchestration Services

C#: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb483052.aspx

VPL: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb483037.aspx





Re: Microsoft Robotics - Community Need help with automated Robot using MSDS

Salik123

ok so what i have done is used the robotics tutorial 4 and set the configuration on the Drive differential two wheel to RCX. the program runs, and opens the ie window. the direction dialog appears. and the infrared signal generator for the robot creates a signal, but how do i set the program number for the rcx in VPL. Cause the rcx has 5 different programmable states. and i need vpl to declare which one to set it on.




Re: Microsoft Robotics - Community Need help with automated Robot using MSDS

Omid K. Rad

Do you mean the hardware identifier If that's the case you can specify it in rcx configuration files. search for *rcx*.config.xml in the samples\config folder. A config file is essentially a snapshot of the state of the service with the values that you want to be loaded when the service starts.