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Robotics And .Net

Philip WheatSingularity Innovations

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The State of Robotics• After being a “up and coming” technology for

almost 50 years, Robotics is now coming into the mainstream

• While Self Driving Cars, Roombas, and Drones take front stage – factors such as 3D printers are helping push the boundaries

• Internet of Things push will continue to create more forms and usages of Robotics

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The State of .Net• .Net can be found from the top of the computing

world to the bottom• As a managed environment though, .Net still

provides some challenges• Microsoft Robotics Studio seems to be on hiatus• Managed languages on the rise in lots of places• Javascript is now a key language again

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So what gives?• Lots of .Net experience in the world• Managed Languages still help rapid development• Javascript performance is up, but requires good

hardware to accelerate• Robotics still has a lot of incompatible approaches• .Net has lots of depth for approaching most

problems.• Stack needs to be mixed – you need the correct

software environment at the correct level

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Examples of Uses• Mission Planner for ArduCopter/Plane

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Examples of Uses• Guesture controlled Skateboards

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Examples of Uses• Robotic Shopping cart

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Parts of your Robotic System• Robots have 3 basic parts– Inputs (your sensors)– Processor (your control process)– Outputs (your action systems)

• Turtles aren’t just for beginning programming (ie, each of these systems can be made up of the same 3 systems.)

• Know the boundaries and focus on those

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Inputs (sensors)• Sensors can be a .Net target or not – primarily

depending on complexity• Many sensors are either tightly integrated to their

processors or may even require no processors• Larger scale sensors such as vision systems are a

target for

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Processor• Put high level control here• Balance resources with need• .Net allows lots of flexibility in resources

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Outputs• Direct control is useful• Systems with output should have heartbeats• Balance resources with responsiveness