With FRC Java's release just around the corner, I am proud to announce and release what we at team 192 have dubbed the GRTFramework!
Built on WPILibJ in Java, the GRTFramework is the system we will/have been using to develop high level and modular code for our robots..here's the idea:
The GRTFramework abstracts robot components away to entire mechanisms as machined by team members--think an arm, a shooter, an entire wheeled-base..
The GRTFramework manages the execution of code in parallel so that developers can write their own little modules without worrying about what executes their code or about the availability of hardware.
The GRTFramework provides a sort of Model-View-Controller pattern for robot development, allowing developers to focus on logic(which would sit in the controllers), which sits separate from hardware abstractions.
The GRTFramework ensures availability and safety of hardware resources BEHIND the scenes.
And much more...
The GRTFramework is open-sourced under the GPL v2 and is hosted at google code:
http://code.google.com/p/grtframework/
There you will find the source, documentation(Javadoc &c), and even example code written for GRT192s latest robot project.
http://code.google.com/p/grtframework/wiki/BriefUsage
Describes how it should be used.
While 100% functional, its certainly not finished and perfectly packaged, but the sooner people use it, the better!
Our hope:
if your team and many other teams can use the GRTFramework for programming 2010 FRC robots, we can work together towards more sophisticated robots--rookie teams can get around the classic troubles of getting a robot to drive where veteran teams can move toward fully autonomous robots. If FRC programming can be more focused around algorithms and logic, we can have smarter robots that are easier to program.
Please give this a shot and let us know what you think. If you are interested in committing, we'd love to have your help! If you find a bug, please post it too!