Ways to program your drone to do awesome stuff

Drones, quadcopters, RS helicopters and other remote controlled crafts are hot topic these days. We programmers are more interested in how to program them to do something cool. Indeed, it’s become more and more easy.

In this article I’ll look at drones to program automated behavior with, and programming languages that can be used for this purpose. If you don’t know where to start, take a look at our simple step by step guide on how to program a drone with Java.

We start our analysis by looking at what languages are being used in the OpenSource drone programming projects. This is often an indicator of what is possible and best for you.

• NodeJS
  JavaScript is a powerful and very modern language. It gives you the opportunity to fly robots from a browser. There are a lot of OpenSource projects implementing networking protocols used by the Parrot AR Drone. Some are even compatible with older versions:
  – node-ar-drone
  – Ardrone WebFlight
  – Howto with Xbox controller and JavaScript
  – or write from scratch like here: http://drones.johnback.us/blog/2013/01/28/writing-your-first-ar-drone-plus-nodejs-program

  But beware, there is a serious backdoor in the ar.drone API that allows anyone within a WiFi range to hijack your drone.

• Java
  Java is also a modern language with many professionals working with it. It can be easier for some people to use Java.
  – Java API for Ar.Drones
  – Another Java API for Ar.Drones
  – JADrone/YADrone. Step by step guide on how to start programming with YADrone.
• C#/.NET
  – Ruslan-B for Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 SDK in C#/.NET
  – Mission Planner
• Python
  There are plenty of projects for Python programmers as well:
  – Python-Ardrone
  – AR.Drone AutoPylot
  – ArduPilot Drone API
• Scala
  There are even projects for scala developers. Not many, but still:
  – OpenDroneControl
• Ruby
  – Artoo Adaptor For ARDrone
  – Argus
• Clojure
  – Turboshrimp
• Apps development
  Lately, more popular solutions to program drones come with apps development. It’s also logical as it’s easier to take your phone along to fly a drone than your PC.
  – Open source Android based framework – Flyver.co
  – DroneKit
  – Special apps like Tickle for Parrot Rolling Spider minidrone
• Build a drone from scratch
  There are people who do that. In this case you will need a flight controller like multiWii at least.

As you see there are more options to program AR.Drones than any others. It also maybe the easiest way to start programming drones with a type of Parrot AR.Drone. The manufacturer released an API for their machines AR.Drone API that is written in C++ and is available to public. A good thing is that there is a ton of information out there on how to program these drones with AR.Drone API (just google it) as the API has been there for a while. Although the API is written in C++ you can use whatever language you want to connect to it.

Choose a drone or a quadcopter to your taste. Take a look at the article about best drones for sale or at these awesome AR.Drones from Amazon:

Many of the projects are old, though. It’s more common to use Android Apps development to make drones do stuff these days.

If you prefer to have fun while programming drones – visit a drone programming event! For example Nodecopter. There are also drone programming communities like reddit at /r/DroneApps where you can ask and discuss stuff.

And a little bit of cool stuff – free drone synthesizer: http://d00m.org/~someone/so666/