Products and Services

Glossary Item Box

Products and Services

Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio

Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (RDS) provides an integrated .NET development environment for designing, executing, and debugging highly scalable concurrent, distributed robotics applications. RDS facilitates dealing with hard software challenges present in robotics such as coordination, observability, configuration, deployment, and reusability. In addition to a tools and runtime environment, RDS comes with a large set of samples and tutorials for getting robotics enthusiasts and professionals started writing applications. 

Concurrency and Coordination Runtime

Concurrency and Coordination Runtime  (CCR) provides a highly concurrent, message oriented programming model with powerful orchestration primitives enabling coordination of messages without the use of manual threading, locks, semaphores, etc. CCR addresses the need of multi-core and service-oriented applications by providing a programming model that facilitates managing asynchronous operations, dealing with concurrency, exploiting parallel hardware and handling partial failure.

Decentralized Software Services

Decentralized Software Services (DSS) provides a lightweight, service-oriented application model that integrates key aspects of Web-based architecture (commonly known as REST) with a system-level approach for building high-performance, scalable applications. DSS services are exposed as XML-documents which are accessible both programmatically and through a Web browser. By extending the Web model with structured data manipulation, integrated pub/sub, and formal service composition, DSS addresses the need for writing highly observable, loosely coupled applications running on a single node or across the network.

DSS Manifest Editor

DSS Manifest Editor (DSSME) provides a graphical environment for wiring-up, configuring, deploying, and running applications on a single node or across the network. DSSME can wire up applications and services developed using VPL or directly written in Visual Studio. DSSME addresses the need for configuring and deploying services by enabling the user to determine which services should be part of an application, where these services should run, and what their initial state should be. The target audience consists of enterprise and professional developers who are looking for highly scalable solutions to hard problems in areas such as industrial automation, financial analysis, scientific computing, sensor networks, command and control systems, and related areas where coordination and distribution are key requirements.

Microsoft Visual Programming Language

Microsoft Visual Programming Language  (VPL) is a dataflow-oriented graphical development environment for writing CCR/DSS applications. Instead of a control flow typically found in conventional programming, a dataflow program controls which components are execute based on the arrival of data. Applications are compositions of services which are created by simply dragging and dropping components onto a canvas and wiring them together based on their data-dependencies. In addition to addressing the need to visually orchestrate concurrent, distributed applications, VPL can generate readable C#-based services that can significantly speed up project development.

Microsoft Visual Simulation Environment

Microsoft Visual Simulation Environment  (VSE) provides an integrated environment for creating and running simulations of robots, environments, and other entities using high-fidelity 3D rendering. In addition to the rendering engine which is based on Microsoft XNA Framework, VSE provides a real-world physics engine based on NVIDIA™ PhysX™ Technologies. The physics engine enables entities to interact with the surrounding environment in a highly realistic manner. In addition to editing and runtime facilities, VSE provides powerful features such as record and playback, creation of 2D floor plan editor, 2D labels and billboards, and much more.

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