Currently, there is alot of development going on. For the latest most accurate information, please go to screenstepslive.com. Once that documentation settles down, we hope to include it here.
RobotBuilder is an application designed to aid the robot development process. Robot builder can help you:
This section will take you through the basics of using RobotBuilder to develop a simple robot with tank drive. We will cover:
Subsystems are RobotBuilders way of organizing your robot. A subsystem should represent a distinct part of the robot that performs a particular subset of tasks. For example, a Drive Train consists of a series of motors that drive it and maybe some encoders to measure it's speed and distance. For more, see: Subsystems and Subsystem
The first step on the way to a fully functional subsystem is to create the subsystem, so that it exists in your robot tree.
To create the Drive Train subsystem:
A new subystem has been created.
After you have a subsytem created, it is very helpful to give it a name.
To name the subsystem:
It's properties will appear on the right.
It's new name appears in the tree.
The easiest way to make your robot drive is to us the RobotDrive object in WPILib. It provides methods for tank drive, arcade drive and mecanum drive.
To add a robot drive to your Drive Train:
Your Drive Train now has a robot drive object.
The RobotDrive object needs motors for both it's left and and it's right side.
To add motors to your robot drive:
The RobotDrive object tries to guess which motors are which, but it's helpful to check that they are correctly assigned to the proper side.
To add motors to your robot drive:
You now have a subsystem representing your robots Drive Train!
Commands are a way of representing actions that your robot can take. Commands can be bound to buttons and other triggers to run under certain conditions. They can also be chained in command groups to perform a more complex series of actions built from existing commands. For more, see: Commands and Command
The first step to create a command is to add it to the robot tree under commands.
To create the command:
A new command has been created.
After you have a command created, it is very helpful to give it a meaningful name.
To name the command:
It's properties will appear on the right.
It's new name appears in the tree.
After you have a command created and named, you must indicate which subsystem it requires.
To require a subsystem:
It's properties will appear on the right.
Follow the steps above to create a command named "Slow Tank Drive"
Subsystems can have default commands that run when no other command is running that performs the default behaviour.
To set the default command:
It's properties will appear on the right.
The operator interface is the glue that connects the buttons on the operator interface to the commands that make the robot act in interesting ways. For more, see: Operator Interface
The operator interface needs some joysticks to control driving and other commands.
To add joysticks to the operator interface:
Joystick buttons allow you to bind actions to buttons on a joystick.
To add a joystick button to the operator interface:
For the joystick button to do anything interesting, you have to configure it to run a command.
To configure a joystick button:
It's properties will appear on the right.
Once you've filled in RobotBuilder with the information you want, it can generate all of the important files and the bulk of code for an existing java project
In order to export to java, RobotBuilder needs to know where your java project should be.
To tell RobotBuilder about the java project:
RobotBuilder can generate the skeleton robot code from your robot model for you.
To generate the code with RobotBuilder for java:
RobotBuilder can generate wiring tables to simplify wiring of the robot.
In order to export th table, RobotBuilder needs to know where to put it.
To tell RobotBuilder where to put the wiring table:
RobotBuilder can generate a wiring table for you.
To generate the wiring with RobotBuilder :
RobotBuilder is an application designed to aid the robot development process. Robot builder can help you: