All right, I can use the usb ps2 controller provided with the FTC kit to control the robot but I was wondering if there was a way to control the robot without it. What I would like to be able to do is to set it up so that if I press the "F" key on my laptops keyboard, the robot's right motor will move forward. Then when I press the "B" key, the right motor will move backwards. I would really like to be able to do this so that I don't have to bring the oddly shaped ps2 controller around with me to control the robot.

I suppose you could find a way to run via keypad if you looked around long enough, but I don't think it would be very efficient. During a match in the competition, you will have to be standing in an enclosed area right next to the field with a table right behind you for holding computers. In order to tell what your robot is doing you would have to face the field, and in order to run the robot you would have to be facing the computer. There are three solutions to this problem: either ignore the horrible aching neck pains you get from constantly looking over one shoulder, get plastic surgery to reverse your arms so they are constantly facing behind you, or hold the laptop with one hand and type with the other, which bypasses both problems but means you have to focus equally on the laptop and the robot. You could just use the keypad while practicing and then switch to joystick to run the robot, but then you would have to adapt to a whole new form of driving the robot, and in the long run it's much better to have good driving skills than a good robot. And besides, using the PS2 in practice will gaurantee that you know how to use it in programming.

Use the "Remote Display" window of ROBOTC's debugger. It shows a copy of the NXT LCD and the four buttons. If you click on the buttons on the window it is the same as if you physically pressed them on the NXT itself. I recall that there are keyboard shortcuts for the four buttons as well -- I think it was the four arror keys.

Now write a small test program on NXT that controls the motors based on whether the buttons are pressed.