Field Management System (FMS)

At FRC Sponsored events there is a significant amount of technical effort behind the scenes that makes the event work. This behind the scenes work actually begins at the start of the season with the software we get to program our Driver Stations and RoboRio. That code contains the ability to operate in the field environment present at the events in addition to the safety and game features.

What makes the technical piece possible at the event is called the Field Management System (FMS). The FMS is the electronics core responsible for controlling the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) playing field.

The documentation for the FMS is here. The best place to start is the overview of the FMS is in this white paper.. There is good information in here and it is a necessary read to understand the technical aspects of emulating the field environment. There are some key aspects of the FMS:

• The FMS server is key component responsible for managing field play, scoring, field control, Driver Stations states of each alliance: (Enabled, Disabled, Teleop, Auto, etc), Emergency Stop status, Match Time, and more.
• All communication is between the FMS server and the Driver Station. The FMS server does not communicate directly with the robots.
• Virtual Networks (VLANs) are used to ensure each team’s communications are independent from other teams, There is no DHCP, Teams are assigned a their Ip Address, their own secret wireless SSID and their own secret WPA Key (This is why the radios are programmed at the event, to load the secret SSID and WPA key.) Each VLAN consists only of the Robot, the Driver Station, and the FMS server.

FMS Off Season

There is a guide for doing off season events here.. They simplify the network and for previous seasons, provide the FMS Server software. Unfortunately, the 2020 off-Season FMS Server software is not available.

Requirements

• Laptop or desktop computer with Ethernet Port for Offseason FMS Server
• WiFi Access Point (Linksys WRT610N or equivalent)
• Ethernet Switch (Unmanaged, 8 port, qty 3 recommended)

Detailed Analysis of FMS, Robots, and Failures...

During the 2012 Championships there was a FMS failure which caused several matches to be replayed due to loss of communications. FIRST conducted and investigation and generated a report.. This a good read in troubleshooting and root cause analysis.