Nex robotics has added support for MRDS on SPARK IV research platform. SPARK IV is one of the widely deployed research platform manufactured by Nex robotics. It has many sensors and actuators which can be used for carrying out research in embedded systems, robotics, AI, sensor networks and RTOS domains. Nex Robotics provides CCR and DSS architecture compliant services for controlling and observing states of all the sensors on SPARK IV platform. To find out more about SPARK IV platform click here.
The sensors and actuators on SPARK IV platform can be programmed by using Visual Programming Language (VPL). Microsoft Visual Programming Language (VPL) enables everyone to create and debug robotics programs very easily. The Visual Simulation Environment (VSE) enables a novice user with little to no coding experience to develop interesting applications on SPARK IV platform.
Nex robotics also offers the SPARK IV platform as a simulation entity. Services are available in the simulation environment for all the sensors on SPARK IV platform. Essentially, this allows a user to carry out initial experiments without using the actual hardware platform. Even if you have the hardware platform, it is always beneficial to test your algorithm/application in a realistic simulation environment provided by MRDS.

You can download the Nex Robotics SPARK IV software installer for MRDS here.
You can download the Nex Robotics SPARK IV software user guide here.
You can download the Microsoft Robotics development studio here.
You can download the Nex Robotics SPARK IV Firmware for MRDS here.