BLine¶
BLine is an open-source path generation and tracking suite designed for holonomic drivetrains (swerve, mecanum, etc.) made by students for students. It's built around simplicity and performance in time-constrained environments where quick iteration and rapid empirical testing prove advantageous.
BLine offers the advantages of simplicity, easy tunability, and excellent real time performance while performing at the same (or potentially better) level as other autonomous solutions.
The BLine Suite¶
BLine consists of two main components that work together:
GUI - Visual Path Planning¶
BLine-GUI is a visual path planning interface for designing and editing autonomous paths with real-time simulation preview.
Library - Path Following¶
BLine-Lib is a Java library for FRC robots that loads paths and provides the path-following algorithm for your drivetrain.
Quick Links¶
- Installation — Get BLine set up on your system
- Quick Start — Create and follow your first path
- Core Concepts — Understand path elements, constraints, and parameters
- API Reference — Full Java API documentation
External Resources¶
Performance¶
BLine has been validated through extensive testing with a WPILib physics simulation, utilizing Theta* for initial pathfinding and an Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) optimizer to benchmark the system against PathPlanner.
Quantitative Results from randomized Monte Carlo trials:
- 97% reduction in path computation time
- 66% reduction in cross-track error at waypoints
- Negligible 2.6% decrease in total path tracking time compared to PathPlanner
License¶
BLine is released under the BSD 3-Clause License.