Introduction to the Java Robot Class in Java

This class is used to generate native system input events for the purposes of test automation, self-running demos, and other applications where control of the mouse and keyboard is needed. The primary purpose of Robot is to facilitate automated testing of Java platform implementations.

Using the class to generate input events differs from posting events to the AWT event queue or AWT components in that the events are generated in the platform's native input queue. For example, Robot.mouseMove will actually move the mouse cursor instead of just generating mouse move events.

Note that some platforms require special privileges or extensions to access low-level input control. If the current platform configuration does not allow input control, an AWTException will be thrown when trying to construct Robot objects. For example, X-Window systems will throw the exception if the XTEST 2.2 standard extension is not supported (or not enabled) by the X server.

Applications that use Robot for purposes other than self-testing should handle these error conditions gracefully.