pic: Touchscreen interface, theory of operation

[Jared Russell]

This discussion brings up an interesting rules question.

Presently, you can download code to a robot when it is on the field by plugging your laptop into the other Ethernet port. Doing a soft reboot would then complete the update. A few times this year we have done so to get in "last minute" code changes without having to tether up the bot in the queuing line.

However, if properly written, one could eliminate the need to reboot the robot altogether. Here's what I'm thinking:

1. Create your autonomous mode on the laptop.
2. The software then creates a text file representing the sequence of autonomous commands.
3. The laptop is connected to the driver station Ethernet port.
4. Using FTP, the text file is placed on the cRIO.
5. Upon the initialization of autonomous mode, the software parses the text file and acts upon the stored sequence of commands.

As long as all of these steps are complete by the time the robot is enabled, is there anything in 2009 (or past) rules that would preclude this scheme? As far as I am concerned, this solution is far easier than using an Arduino board and writing a custom communications protocol.

I think I have some coding to do.

(Even if the 2010 rules explicitly disallow transmission of packets from a laptop to the cRIO at any point when the robot is on the field, such a scheme would probably still be the easiest way to tweak autonomous modes without ever needing to rebuild or even reboot)