RIOdroid: RoboRIO + Android USB Communication

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by Peter Mitrano

Sounds cool... I think?

If all you're doing is using it as an interface for displaying information, maybe sending a bit of data, and viewing camera streams, why not just write a smart dashboard client for android? Network tables has java bindings and everything...

Please speak up if I'm missing something here...

That's one of the eventual goals. You still need to able to launch apps from the roboRIO side to make sure it's actually running during a match, etc. Having ADB running on the roboRIO is very helpful for that sort of thing. This is also so we can run it during a match so it needs to be a wired connection that's where getting USB networking and port forwarding working comes in.

[Peter Mitrano]

Why would you want the RoboRIO to control the phone? Launching an app during the match doesn't seem like a really key/useful feature. Why not just launch the app once the robot boots? Although it occurs to me that for network tables stuff you'd have to figure out how to connect the android phone to the network... not sure what the rules are about that stuff and if that's even possible.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by Peter Mitrano

Why would you want the RoboRIO to control the phone? Launching an app during the match doesn't seem like a really key/useful feature. Why not just launch the app once the robot boots? Although it occurs to me that for network tables stuff you'd have to figure out how to connect the android phone to the network... not sure what the rules are about that stuff and if that's even possible.

I would want the robot to be able to ensure that the app is loaded and to reload it if it crashes, etc. For network tables it works with ADB because you can virtually forward a port over the USB connection.