![]() You then have to use the chosen language to express the solution's concepts using data structures and procedures which take advantage of the hardware and libraries (API) that are available. Googling and Pasting other people's code is NOT programming no more than downloading a song from iTunes and pushing the play button makes you a musician. In FIRST Robotics, we have no choice in the main control hardware we are allowed to use. We are also limited in the choice of programming languages and hardware accessories. However, sometimes that is the way it happens in real life. The choice of platforms and languages may be determined by accountants rather than engineers. There are many tutorials and step-by-step instructions on how to install the development environment for this year's control system so I won't duplicate that effort. I will provide links to authoratative resources as I find them (in the Quick Reference). No forums to wade through (everyone complaining about the same thing with no answers). What I will be offering is a way to break down complex control concepts into simpler solveable challenges that a motivated high school student with little or no experience should be able to implement with help from a mentor (because that is how it works in FIRST. RIGHT?).įirst, you must define the problem, then solve it. You've probably already heard this if you attend any "Strategy Dictates Design" sessions. You don't start building your competition robot on day one or even week one. You and your team analyze the game, come up with a winning stategy, do some experiments, then start designing a robot to implement your strategy. It's obviously the same practice in "software engineering". ![]() You need to set up your development system just like setting up the CAD software for mechanical design. However, you can design and build a robot without CAD. Ultimately, in software development, all you are doing is editing a text file, converting it to machine code, transferring the code to the controller (RoboRio), debugging it, rinse, repeat. Back in my day - we had 3 programs running on our computer (and before 1984, not at the same time). An editor which allowed us to create the text files.
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