2011

2010

FIRST® Team 1334 was invited to test the new elements of the control system that will be available for teams to use in the 2009/2010 season. Overall, there are 3 main changes that will be made for 2010. First, teams will be able to develop robot code in Java. This will be advantageous for many teams since Java is the language of choice for teaching programming in many high schools, and students attending these classes will have prior experience with the language. Java will be developed using the NetBeans IDE and will run on top of the Squawk virtual machine on the cRIO.

The second new addition is a new form of the Jaguar motor controller. These new controllers will allow teams to unlock some very useful features in all Jaguars (new and old) by using a CAN (Controller Area Network) interface. The third major change is that the Driver Stations from last year will be replaced by a Classmate laptop computer. This computer will run software (provided by FIRST) to interface with the robot via Ethernet, and will connect to Joysticks or other devices via USB. A breakout board called Cypress FIRSTTouch will allow teams to build custom input circuits. In addition to serving as a robot controller, the Classmate will be able to run other programs, including a LabView Dashboard to provide feedback from the robot.

On November 14th, 2009, FIRST Team 1334 hosted a seminar along with FIRST Team 188, from Woburn Collegiate Institute in Toronto. The seminar was divided up into five presentations which each discussed different aspects of the new hardware and software.

Presentation #1: Classmate

To start off the day, FIRST Team 188 presented the new hardware to do with the Classmate Driver Station. The FIRSTTouch board and software components were also explained.

Presentation #2: Jaguars

The next presentation was FIRST Team 1334 explaining the capabilities of the new Jaguars, as well as how to connect them.

Presentation Download

Presentation #3: Java

In this presentation, FIRST Team 1334 talked about using Java to program robots in 2010. The presentation outlined how Java works, what the advantages are, and how it compares to other programming languages.

Presentation Download

Presentation #4: Getting Connected

Next, FIRST Team 188 talked about how to set up various aspects of the control system. Topics discussed include how to image the cRIO and how the updates work for the new elements.

Presentation #5: Dashboard

Finally, FIRST Team 1334 discussed how and why teams might use a Dashboard to receive feedback from the robot. This was mostly a demonstration of how to set up and use the Dashboard.