Structuring a Command-Based Robot Project

While users are free to use the command-based libraries however they like (and advanced users are encouraged to do so), new users may want some guidance on how to structure a basic command-based robot project.

A standard template for a command-based robot project is included in the WPILib examples repository (Java, C++). This section will walk users through the structure of this template.

The root package/directory generally will contain four classes:

Main, which is the main robot application (Java only). New users should not touch this class. Robot, which is responsible for the main control flow of the robot code. RobotContainer, which holds robot subsystems and commands, and is where most of the declarative robot setup (e.g. button bindings) is performed. Constants, which holds globally-accessible constants to be used throughout the robot.

The root directory will also contain two sub-packages/sub-directories: Subsystems contains all user-defined subsystem classes. Commands contains all user-defined command classes.

Robot

As Robot (Java, C++ (Header), C++ (Source)) is responsible for the program’s control flow, and command-based is an declarative paradigm designed to minimize the amount of attention the user has to pay to explicit program control flow, the Robot class of a command-based project should be mostly empty. However, there are a few important things that must be included

22  /**
23   * This function is run when the robot is first started up and should be used for any
24   * initialization code.
25   */
26  @Override
27  public void robotInit() {
28    // Instantiate our RobotContainer.  This will perform all our button bindings, and put our
29    // autonomous chooser on the dashboard.
30    m_robotContainer = new RobotContainer();
31  }

In Java, an instance of RobotContainer should be constructed during the robotInit() method - this is important, as most of the declarative robot setup will be called from the RobotContainer constructor.

In C++, this is not needed as RobotContainer is a value member and will be constructed during the construction of Robot.

33  /**
34   * This function is called every 20 ms, no matter the mode. Use this for items like diagnostics
35   * that you want ran during disabled, autonomous, teleoperated and test.
36   *
37   * <p>This runs after the mode specific periodic functions, but before LiveWindow and
38   * SmartDashboard integrated updating.
39   */
40  @Override
41  public void robotPeriodic() {
42    // Runs the Scheduler.  This is responsible for polling buttons, adding newly-scheduled
43    // commands, running already-scheduled commands, removing finished or interrupted commands,
44    // and running subsystem periodic() methods.  This must be called from the robot's periodic
45    // block in order for anything in the Command-based framework to work.
46    CommandScheduler.getInstance().run();
47  }
11/**
12 * This function is called every 20 ms, no matter the mode. Use
13 * this for items like diagnostics that you want to run during disabled,
14 * autonomous, teleoperated and test.
15 *
16 * <p> This runs after the mode specific periodic functions, but before
17 * LiveWindow and SmartDashboard integrated updating.
18 */
19void Robot::RobotPeriodic() {
20  frc2::CommandScheduler::GetInstance().Run();
21}

The inclusion of the CommandScheduler.getInstance().run() call in the robotPeriodic() method is essential; without this call, the scheduler will not execute any scheduled commands. Since TimedRobot runs with a default main loop frequency of 50Hz, this is the frequency with which periodic command and subsystem methods will be called. It is not recommended for new users to call this method from anywhere else in their code.

56  /** This autonomous runs the autonomous command selected by your {@link RobotContainer} class. */
57  @Override
58  public void autonomousInit() {
59    m_autonomousCommand = m_robotContainer.getAutonomousCommand();
60
61    // schedule the autonomous command (example)
62    if (m_autonomousCommand != null) {
63      m_autonomousCommand.schedule();
64    }
65  }
33/**
34 * This autonomous runs the autonomous command selected by your {@link
35 * RobotContainer} class.
36 */
37void Robot::AutonomousInit() {
38  m_autonomousCommand = m_container.GetAutonomousCommand();
39
40  if (m_autonomousCommand) {
41    m_autonomousCommand->Schedule();
42  }
43}

The autonomousInit() method schedules an autonomous command returned by the RobotContainer instance. The logic for selecting which autonomous command to run can be handled inside of RobotContainer.

71  @Override
72  public void teleopInit() {
73    // This makes sure that the autonomous stops running when
74    // teleop starts running. If you want the autonomous to
75    // continue until interrupted by another command, remove
76    // this line or comment it out.
77    if (m_autonomousCommand != null) {
78      m_autonomousCommand.cancel();
79    }
80  }
46void Robot::TeleopInit() {
47  // This makes sure that the autonomous stops running when
48  // teleop starts running. If you want the autonomous to
49  // continue until interrupted by another command, remove
50  // this line or comment it out.
51  if (m_autonomousCommand) {
52    m_autonomousCommand->Cancel();
53  }
54}

The teleopInit() method cancels any still-running autonomous commands. This is generally good practice.

Advanced users are free to add additional code to the various init and periodic methods as they see fit; however, it should be noted that including large amounts of imperative robot code in Robot.java is contrary to the declarative design philosophy of the command-based paradigm, and can result in confusingly-structured/disorganized code.

RobotContainer

This class (Java, C++ (Header), C++ (Source)) is where most of the setup for your command-based robot will take place. In this class, you will define your robot’s subsystems and commands, bind those commands to triggering events (such as buttons), and specify which command you will run in your autonomous routine. There are a few aspects of this class new users may want explanations for:

23  private final ExampleSubsystem m_exampleSubsystem = new ExampleSubsystem();
32  ExampleSubsystem m_subsystem;

Notice that subsystems are declared as private fields in RobotContainer. This is in stark contrast to the previous incarnation of the command-based framework, but is much more-aligned with agreed-upon object-oriented best-practices. If subsystems are declared as global variables, it allows the user to access them from anywhere in the code. While this can make certain things easier (for example, there would be no need to pass subsystems to commands in order for those commands to access them), it makes the control flow of the program much harder to keep track of as it is not immediately obvious which parts of the code can change or be changed by which other parts of the code. This also circumvents the ability of the resource-management system to do its job, as ease-of-access makes it easy for users to accidentally make conflicting calls to subsystem methods outside of the resource-managed commands.

61    return Autos.exampleAuto(m_exampleSubsystem);
34  return autos::ExampleAuto(&m_subsystem);

Since subsystems are declared as private members, they must be explicitly passed to commands (a pattern called “dependency injection”) in order for those commands to call methods on them. This is done here with ExampleCommand, which is passed a pointer to an ExampleSubsystem.

35  /**
36   * Use this method to define your trigger->command mappings. Triggers can be created via the
37   * {@link Trigger#Trigger(java.util.function.BooleanSupplier)} constructor with an arbitrary
38   * predicate, or via the named factories in {@link
39   * edu.wpi.first.wpilibj2.command.button.CommandGenericHID}'s subclasses for {@link
40   * CommandXboxController Xbox}/{@link edu.wpi.first.wpilibj2.command.button.CommandPS4Controller
41   * PS4} controllers or {@link edu.wpi.first.wpilibj2.command.button.CommandJoystick Flight
42   * joysticks}.
43   */
44  private void configureBindings() {
45    // Schedule `ExampleCommand` when `exampleCondition` changes to `true`
46    new Trigger(m_exampleSubsystem::exampleCondition)
47        .onTrue(new ExampleCommand(m_exampleSubsystem));
48
49    // Schedule `exampleMethodCommand` when the Xbox controller's B button is pressed,
50    // cancelling on release.
51    m_driverController.b().whileTrue(m_exampleSubsystem.exampleMethodCommand());
52  }
19void RobotContainer::ConfigureBindings() {
20  // Configure your trigger bindings here
21
22  // Schedule `ExampleCommand` when `exampleCondition` changes to `true`
23  frc2::Trigger([this] {
24    return m_subsystem.ExampleCondition();
25  }).OnTrue(ExampleCommand(&m_subsystem).ToPtr());
26
27  // Schedule `ExampleMethodCommand` when the Xbox controller's B button is
28  // pressed, cancelling on release.
29  m_driverController.B().WhileTrue(m_subsystem.ExampleMethodCommand());
30}

As mentioned before, the RobotContainer() constructor is where most of the declarative setup for the robot should take place, including button bindings, configuring autonomous selectors, etc. If the constructor gets too “busy,” users are encouraged to migrate code into separate subroutines (such as the configureBindings() method included by default) which are called from the constructor.

54  /**
55   * Use this to pass the autonomous command to the main {@link Robot} class.
56   *
57   * @return the command to run in autonomous
58   */
59  public Command getAutonomousCommand() {
60    // An example command will be run in autonomous
61    return Autos.exampleAuto(m_exampleSubsystem);
62  }
63}
32frc2::CommandPtr RobotContainer::GetAutonomousCommand() {
33  // An example command will be run in autonomous
34  return autos::ExampleAuto(&m_subsystem);
35}

Finally, the getAutonomousCommand() method provides a convenient way for users to send their selected autonomous command to the main Robot class (which needs access to it to schedule it when autonomous starts).

Constants

The Constants class (Java, C++ (Header)) (in C++ this is not a class, but simply a header file in which several namespaces are defined) is where globally-accessible robot constants (such as speeds, unit conversion factors, PID gains, and sensor/motor ports) can be stored. It is recommended that users separate these constants into individual inner classes corresponding to subsystems or robot modes, to keep variable names shorter.

In Java, all constants should be declared public static final so that they are globally accessible and cannot be changed. In C++, all constants should be constexpr.

For more illustrative examples of what a constants class should look like in practice, see those of the various command-based example projects:

In Java, it is recommended that the constants be used from other classes by statically importing the necessary inner class. An import static statement imports the static namespace of a class into the class in which you are working, so that any static constants can be referenced directly as if they had been defined in that class. In C++, the same effect can be attained with using namespace:

import static edu.wpi.first.wpilibj.templates.commandbased.Constants.OIConstants.*;
using namespace OIConstants;

Subsystems

User-defined subsystems should go in this package/directory.

Commands

User-defined commands should go in this package/directory.