The Robot Class

Welcome to the backbone of the robot— the Robot class! Without this class, your robot literally won't do anything.

If you look at it for a bit, you might notice that it's packed with methods. You might also notice that their names end in either Init() or Periodic(). You might also notice that they all have some state in front of them, like Autonomous or Teleop.

If you know a little bit about FRC/FTC competitions, you might know about the different stages of the game— Autonomous, Teleop, and whatever. You also might notice that some of these methods begin with this stuff. Interesting. All of these methods can run depending on the state of the robot.

Methods that end with Init() run only when the robot just switched to that state (for example- when a robot switches from auto to teleop, TeleopInit() will be called)

Method names that end with Periodic() run while that robot is still in that state (ex: during Teleop, TeleopPeriodic() will be ran)

Here is a list of states you'd probably need to use.

• Robot— runs while the robot is powered.

• Auto— runs during the Autonomous period of a match

• Teleop— runs during the TeleOperated period of a match

• Disabled— runs when the robot is disabled (safety stop and stuff)

• Test + Simulation— run when Test and Simulation modes are ran

If you're wondering what Test and Simulation are for, they're just extra modes you can turn on through WPILIB's Command Palette (basically just a list of cool commands you can do).

a screenshot of WPILIB's command palette

Exploration— Adding Code to Your Robot

Let's try something. Let's write some code iforn the robot!

All you'll need is:

• A print statement inside TeleopPeriodic(). Just an ordinary print statement.

Yes, I know this is boring. However- this is exactly how I learned how to use these methods. Just screw around, sticking whatever in each method and changing the Robot's