paper: FRC #33 The Killer Bees 2013 Software - BuzzXVIII (Buzz18)

[apalrd]

Added new files:
buzz18_pal_lib.pdf
pal_lib_default.zip (LV example code, pal_lib code, and paper pdf)

A little bit about pal_lib:
-'pal_lib' WPIlib replacement for LabVIEW
-Replaces ENTIRE WPIlib LabVIEW with 30 VIs, contained in zip folder and inserted as a subfolder into your project.
-Heavily optimized architecture promotes execution efficienty, runtime performance determinism, and good embedded programming practices. Increases in execution efficiency are primarily done by reducing code size and removing unnecessary code, which significantly decreases compile and download times as an added benefit.
-FAST execution (all code currently executes at 10ms, for small or heavily optimized programs 5ms is possible). We could have run Buzz18 at 7ms iteration time, but ran at 10ms with ~55% CPU usage to leave overhead for LV probes and debugging.
-Supports basic commonly-used inputs, outputs, and control data. Large efficiency and code space gains are made by removing functionality that is not commonly used.
-Season-tested on Buzz18 (including five competitions and Einstein) at 10ms iteration time without any bugs EVER attributed to the library after initial library validation
-Extremely low CPU usage (initial validation tests provided initial functionality to default tank drive program with 1/2 CPU usage % at over 2x execution speed), library CPU usage does not increase with used functionality as the library is already handling all of the data it is capable of (e.g. adding another motor or encoder does not require any expensive VI calls and CPU usage of scaling function is inlined and negligible).
-zip contains example 'default' program which maps several joysticks, buttons, and limit switches to motors, solenoids, and relays, and operates the compressor. See comments in the code for exact mapping and IO pinouts. Entire example code is 4 VI's in addition to pal_lib
-Fully synchronous architecture forces efficient data-passing design, as all data can be passed via connectors. Use of global-visible data structures in Buzz18 further optimizes data-passing as all data is always available to all subsystems, any subsystem can change data without consequence to anything else, and order of operations is guaranteed (simplifies triggers significantly). Data structure architecture also simplifies dashboard programming, as all of the data structures are simply sent to the dashboard using the binary string method ('old-style', not NetworkTables) and the dashboard automatically has access to all key data.
-See buzz18_pal_lib.pdf for complete write-up
-Also see buzz18_sw_postcmp for complete robot usage of library