The documentation for Microsoft Robotics Studio, a new Windows-based development environment that allows the creation of robotics applications for the LEGO Mindstorms NXT (and other robotics hardware), has been pretty skimpy lately. In fact, any help thus far has consisted only of a few tutorial files provided with the installation. Being familiar with software implementations, however, I can understand that the focus may be centered first on getting the product to work before documenting how it works.

That said, I have to give kudos to the guys over at Microsoft for updating their site today with several new Robotics Studio tutorials. The new content takes aim at creating and subscribing to services.

Writing an application using the Microsoft Robotics Studio is a simple matter of orchestrating input and output between a set of services. Services represent the interface to software or hardware and allow you to communicate between processes that perform specific functions.

If you are new to Microsoft Robotics Studio, we strongly recommend that you begin with these tutorials to create a strong foundation upon which you can build as you progress with Robotics Studio.

It looks like they have several tutorials in the pipeline to cover general robotics and simulations, as well. The great thing with these latest tutorials is that a robot is not required. Good for me 1000 miles from home!