The whole purpose of combining the mechanical and electrical aspects of a robot is to control it.

   The robot uses a National Instruments cRIO robot controller which is provided in the Kit of Parts for all FRC teams. It is an interplay of hardware and software that’s capable of executing many commands per second. Using LABVIEW programming code stored in its memory, the cRIO can receive inputs from onboard sensors as well as the Driver Station to perform the desired tasks. This is the first year that teams are using the cRIO to control their robots. Another change this year is the move from 900MHz wireless radios to commercially available 802.11n wireless devices.

   There are 2 ways to control a robot, autonomously or with a human at the controls.