Programming

Coding is an essential part of the robot building process, and just as the physical aspect creates what one sees and interacts with, the code is what allows the robot to behave in the way we want it to and connect to the outside world.

We program our robots in the language Java, and we control the robot through a tool provided by FRC called Driver Station. Each function of the robot (such as moving, picking up objects or even climbing a wall) is divided into what is called a subsystem, which access the different components on the robot necessary to perform different commands. Commands are instructions as simple as moving forward, extending a claw or pushing off the ground. Event listeners, which are parts of the code that detect events such as a button being pressed, are used to trigger these commands at events of our choosing.

Once we deploy the code to the robot, we can use Driver Station to test if the robot behaves the way we want it to or practice using the controls. We keep all of our code in online repositories that have detailed logs of our changes as well as saved versions from the past that we can refer to if necessary.