diff --git a/apriltag/src/main/java/edu/wpi/first/apriltag/AprilTagFieldLayout.java b/apriltag/src/main/java/edu/wpi/first/apriltag/AprilTagFieldLayout.java
index 2c9bc4769c5..b4317e4d322 100644
--- a/apriltag/src/main/java/edu/wpi/first/apriltag/AprilTagFieldLayout.java
+++ b/apriltag/src/main/java/edu/wpi/first/apriltag/AprilTagFieldLayout.java
@@ -202,6 +202,9 @@ public static AprilTagFieldLayout loadFromResource(String resourcePath) throws I
     try (InputStream stream = AprilTagFieldLayout.class.getResourceAsStream(resourcePath);
         InputStreamReader reader = new InputStreamReader(stream)) {
       return new ObjectMapper().readerFor(AprilTagFieldLayout.class).readValue(reader);
+    } catch (NullPointerException e) {
+      // Class.getResourceAsStream() returns null if the resource does not exist.
+      throw new IOException("Could not locate resource: " + resourcePath + "\n");
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/apriltag/src/main/java/edu/wpi/first/apriltag/AprilTagFields.java b/apriltag/src/main/java/edu/wpi/first/apriltag/AprilTagFields.java
index be9caecb9ee..89d256e1a4a 100644
--- a/apriltag/src/main/java/edu/wpi/first/apriltag/AprilTagFields.java
+++ b/apriltag/src/main/java/edu/wpi/first/apriltag/AprilTagFields.java
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 package edu.wpi.first.apriltag;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.UncheckedIOException;
 
 public enum AprilTagFields {
   k2022RapidReact("2022-rapidreact.json"),
@@ -25,9 +26,13 @@ public enum AprilTagFields {
    * Get a {@link AprilTagFieldLayout} from the resource JSON.
    *
    * @return AprilTagFieldLayout of the field
-   * @throws IOException If the layout does not exist
+   * @throws UncheckedIOException If the layout does not exist
    */
-  public AprilTagFieldLayout loadAprilTagLayoutField() throws IOException {
-    return AprilTagFieldLayout.loadFromResource(m_resourceFile);
+  public AprilTagFieldLayout loadAprilTagLayoutField() {
+    try {
+      return AprilTagFieldLayout.loadFromResource(m_resourceFile);
+    } catch (IOException e) {
+      throw new UncheckedIOException("Could not load AprilTagFieldLayout from " + m_resourceFile, e);
+    }
   }
 }