WPILib was designed a few years ago for teaching robot programming to high schools students here at WPI. Since then it has been enhanced greatly and now there are versions for the 2k4-5 and 2k6 FRC controllers. It is being used by EasyC for FRC as the runtime system inside the robot.
What does it do for you?
- First and foremost - it's easy to use. For example, a program to drive in a straight line using a gyro is literally 11 lines of code - including the braces! And that's the whole program, all you need to write or look at.
- It's free - no licenses, just use it on as many computers as you want as long as it's helping you.
- There is support for all the standard 2006 kit of parts sensors plus a bunch of others that you might want to use, i.e. rangefinders, compasses and encoders.
- It is a true library - that is updates to the library don't require any source code editing or merging with your code. Programs written to the WPILib API from 2 years ago will still work today virtually unchanged.
- It is completely extensible - advanced programmers can add new devices to the library (there is an example of adding a compass in the documentation) and it doesn't require any source code merging to add it to existing programs.
- And, I think the expression is, "we eat our own dog food" - that is to say, we are using the library with Team 190 and any updates are quickly posted back for everyone else to use.
- There is a large document that describes how to use it, and how to extend it (that part intended for the more experienced programmers).
Who should use it?
It you have little C programming experience you could use EasyC - it will help with all the syntax problems and still will be using WPILib since it's built in. But if you are comfortable with C programming and want to use MPLab or Eclipse or other development environment, give WPILib a try. It's easy to get things going fast.
Where to download it
You can download WPILib from
my web site. I'll be posting updates there as they come out. There are also lots of example programs.
Support
We'll be monitoring this forum with the help of others at WPI to answer questions as they come up. New versions will be posted on the web site and will be announced on this forum.
Versions
There are versions right now for 2004-5 and 2006 robot controllers. The VEX and Robovation (EDU) versions will go up as soon as I have time. The guys here are bugging me to put up a new version for a battery conditioner/recycler they built out of an old EDU controller.
We hope this helps, and please feel free to email us with comments and suggestions.