In this meeting we will go over the enhancements in the 2008 release. Also, over time, some of you may want to get your "hands dirty" by spending some time building robots with this technology. We will discuss some potential robotic applications that members may be interested in teaming up to build. As always, members are free to discuss their own robotic interests. Specifically, we will discuss the following:

1. Improvements in version 2 of MSRS CTP Release
2. Microsoft RoboChamp Competition
3. Potential Robotic Applications (Competition and Industry Related)

In this meeting we will use MSRS to design and implement a selected member's robotic application. Tell us what robotic application that you want to build and we will white board a design and implement (on the overhead) a skeletal solution (in code) during this meeting. This is more of a workshop than a meeting because we will build your robot "on the fly".

Specifically, we will:

1) Identify the services needed for your robot
2) For each service, identify it's state and operations
3) Implement in code the services, state, and operations.
4) Verify implementation using VPL (and possibly simulate it)

At the end of this process, you will have code that you can "build out" to further customize and enhance your robot and all participating members will have a basic understanding of how robots are built using MSRS. Because several members may want help in designing and implementing their own robotic applications, we will probably repeat this "workshop" so other members will have this benefit too.

If you want us to build your robot in this meeting, please indicate so via email. I hope to repeat this workshop for several members so that we can help our members get started with this technology and include a disparate set of robotic applications (such as robots for prototyping, instrumentation, competition, medical, scientific research, etc.).