Microsoft has lifted the lid on new technology it is currently developing, including a graphical programming language that allows people to control robots with a smartphone.
We present a visual robot development kit (VRDK) that tremendously eases the development of robot control applications in .NET. Our approach follows the model-driven paradigm. Thus, applications are modelled using a high-level graphical language. Model transformers and a code generation backend generate an implementation for the target language and framework. Our development tools have been designed for use in education and research. Current MDA & UML tools are very complex. Thus, they are not suitable for teaching computer science basics in high schools and undergraduate courses. In contrast, VRDK allows students to get a robot control application up and running in a few minutes. VRDK can execute the model directly from the model editor. This allows for easy testing and rapid prototyping. Using model transformation and code generation, students can extend their application using Visual Studio.NET and their choice of .NET language.