pic: Team 548 simulator pic 2

[Robostang 548]

Originally Posted by rohit

Wow! That looks amazing.

How does the program work, can you import from inventor/ 3ds max.. or do you build the robot in this? Do you plug your joystick into the computer? We never get enough time driving or testing our robot.

I searched for info about this program, but couldn't find it.. can you send me a link? thanks!

This simulator is something you actually have to program in Visual Studio 2005 with the help of the Microsoft robotics studio component. You can program it in any one of the visual studio 2005 languages. I wanted our programmers to program it in visual basic because that’s the language I am most proficient in but we couldn’t really figure out how to make the software work. There aren’t a lot of examples and documents out there for you to use Microsoft robotics studio because its still a relatively new tool. We found some example files at msdn.microsoft.com in C# and that gave us a footing on how to use the software. So we used the example files and built the program from there. You are able to import .obj files from 3ds max but if they are to scale 3d models made in AutoCAD or inventor when you import them to 3ds max and export them to .obj files, the robotics simulator will blow them way out of proportion. You can use just about any joystick you can plug into your computer. Here is the link for Microsoft robot robotics studio: http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics/

You will need a copy of visual studio 2005 to make your simulation, which costs quite a bit for the student developers wallet. But don’t worry. You can get an express(student/hobbyist) version of anyone of the visual studio development languages for free from Microsoft at this link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

You can program the sim in any one of the Visual Studio 2005 languages but if you plan on learning how to by, or building your simulation off of the example files then you are going to need C#. Thanks for your interest in our project.