This tracking algorithm is able to maintain the position and orientation of the drone while the object moves along the ground. The control system is divided in two subsystems: control position only (x,y) and control orientation only (theta). The first one use control curves to command speed to the drone. The second one uses a control surface for the rotations of the drone. Both subsystems work together to track down the object. The following video shows some of the tests performed with this control. In the following video you can see how the drone tracks down an object that is in the ground. The tracking is done in the X and Y axes. The algorithm uses control curves to command speed to the drone. In this tracking algorithm, the drone tracks down a red ball in a 3D space. The algorithm use three PID controllers to maintain the position of the drone. ardrone_server is a wrapper for the JdeRobot platform that belong to Ar.Drone SDK. It's inspired by the ardrone_brown and ardrone_autonomy ROS packages and implements the followings ICE interfaces: camera, ardrone_control and remoteConfig.

The camera interface provides images of the drone. ardrone_control allows the control of the drone and gets the navdata of Ar.Drone. remoteConfig can change the settings of the drone. My first challenge is to develop a jde wrapper to AR. In the first stage of my project, I worked with ROS (Robot Operating System) to control the drone. Thanks to ardrone_brown driver I was able get pictures from the drone and send commands to control its movement. Next you can see some projects I did with ROS. ARDrone GUI, is a GUI to control the drone developed ​​with Qt.ARDrone GUI allows to teleoperate the drone, get pictures from its cameras and get the nav_data. It also has a filtering algorithm to detect red objects. Next you can see a screenshot of the ArDrone GUI. In the following video you can see how ARDrone GUI allows us to change the view from different cameras. Object tracking, is a small program which provides the drone of sufficient "intelligence" to be able to follow a red ball.

The tracking algorithm is quite simple, it just checks where the ball is at any given time and corrects its position relative to the center of the ball. Object tracking, is able to follow the ball when it's above, to the left or to the right of the optical center. It hasn't got depth support and it's not based on any other more advanced algorithm as the PID. Object tracking 2, works just Object tracking but with depth support. Camera calibration is a ROS package that allows us to calibrate cameras. The following video shows an example of the use of rviz, TF and Progeo library of jderobot, to determine the position of the mouse click in 3D space. And finally we can see a small flight in the halls of the university.Drone is a quadcopter, developed by the Parrot company. It was designed for the creation of augmented reality video games, where the user can interact with the environment or others users. As is a very cheap robot is also commonly used in robotics research.

In my project, I'm going to study several visual navigation techniques with AR.Drone mainly for its price and because all the hardware is ready to use. In this blog, I will write the progress of the project and the greatest/failed hits. Parrot, the company that developed AR.parrot ar drone in south africaDrone, provides a SDK to develop applications with AR.parrot ar drone in south africaThis SDK allows to remotely control the drone with a wifi network card. drone it yourself achatAll applications are executed on pc or smartphone, never in the drone. parrot ar drone for huntingThe next image show an overview of the layered architecture of a host application built upon the AR.ar drone parrot api

The communication with the drone is done through 3 services:User Rating: ( votes) The Parrot AR Drone 2.0 Power Edition Quadcopter is the latest version of AR’s popular series of personal drones. The Power Edition introduces a new black color scheme with a variety of colored rotors and more importantly, a huge improvement in battery life – up to 36 minutes! ar drone 2 angle emergencyThis is achieved through the use of 2 batteries, something that previously could only be done with your modifications. In addition to the massive battery life, this quadcopter is also powered via the smartphone app; there is no controller. This is quite different from other quadcopters, such as the popular DJI Phantom FC40, which use a controller in conjunction with a smartphone. What this means for you is that you would have one less piece to tune and calibrate before taking off. The Power Edition of the Parrot has been redesigned with a much more stealthly and sleek look – all black.

The only color on the quadcopter comes from the rotors, which AR furnishes in orange, red, blue, or – you guessed it – black. So, if you’re a fan of the Sith or the Darkside, the choice is easy for you. However, the real appeal of the Parrot is it’s ability to pull off some extremely tight maneuvers, such as cornering and barrel rolls. If you’re looking for a speedy quadcopter that is a whole lot of fun to fly, this is the quadcopter you’ve been looking for. Just check out this video: While not the most aesthetically pleasing quadcopter on the market, the redesigned Parrot has some nice updates. Firstly, there are two bodies. There is an outdoor body, which is sleek and streamlined, allowing for some very cool maneuvers. Or, you can choose the “indoor” body, which provides circular rotor guards as well as foam like padding for the body. The new Parrot also includes two batteries, which theoretically doubles your flight time. However, you will have to land and swap batteries;

the 36 minutes of flight time is not continuous unless you modify the quadcopter to carry both batteries. Despite its flimsy looking appearance, the Parrot is designed to fly and that it does very well. The Parrot is extremely aerodynamic, which when combined with it’s lightweight design makes for some very fun flying. The Parrot is controlled via it’s smartphone app, which is an interesting approach. This eliminates a lot of the headaches of calibration and tuning users experience with a traditional RC controller. All you really need to do is turn on the drone, fire up and the app and you’re ready to fly. The app functions much like flying games and is quick and easy to learn. You can use the onscreen controls or your phone’s accelerometer to control the drone. The app can sometimes be glitchy and freeze, however it doesn’t seem to crash. The Wi-Fi connection between the drone and your phone is strong and does not drop out, which is a plus. Once in the air, the Parrot is a pleasure to fly.

We found it’s movements to be very precise and easy to maneuver, which at first is unexpected given it is being controlled from a touch screen. Flying indoors we were able to successfully navigate through an office – straight down hallways, around corners and through doorways. Never once did we feel the Parrot was drifting or out of control. Flying outdoors is where the Parrot really shines. Here we were able to take advantage of the drone’s speed and agility. Again, when it does work, the app performed surprisingly well when controlling the drone; it’s clear AR is really onto something with this. The really amazing feature of the Parrot is the barrel roll. A double tap on the touchscreen and the drone performs this super cool move. Check out the video below to see what we’re talking about: There are a few negatives here. Firstly, as we’ve already mentioned, the app can be glitchy. We noticed this most when doing barrel rolls, which really is a shame as it’s the coolest thing about the Parrot.

About 50% of the time the Parrot just didn’t roll when we double tapped the screen. To be fair, it could be the phone or it could be the app or it could be the way the app was running on the phone. Controlling a drone via a smartphone is a very new thing and undoubtedly there will be updates and improvements. But, for now, expect a few things to go wrong. Overall, we found the Parrot to be really fun and entertaining to fly, more so than other quadcopters. Clearly, this is a different kind of flying experience, one that’s geared more towards the RC crowd. The camera is a great addition for the Parrot and provides great footage. This is especially true when navigating indoors; we really had a lot of fun flying around the office and can see how this could make for some really entertaining video. Outdoors the camera proved to be slightly disappointing. The lens is rather narrow which made for scenes to be tight rather than wide and panoramic. This is an odd choice since the market for outdoor quadcopter video has really grown and still has high demand.