Merge pull request #62 from jeffallen/help GoDrone is a firmware for the Parrot AR Drone 2.0. by Felix Geisendörfer and others using the Go programming language. There is no affiliation with Parrot and running this firmware may void your warranty. Please read the docs at: http://www.godrone.io/en/latest/This article was taken from the April issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing onlineParrot's AR.Drone is a quadricopter with an 18kph top speed and Wi-Fi remote control via an iPhone. An onboard processor translates your tilts into expert aerial acrobatics, while video streaming puts you directly inside the cockpit for augmented reality. It's an open platform -- so how would four leading designers build a game around it?Tom DowdingLead developer, Mobile Pie (makers of B-Boy Beats and Oh, My Word! 2) "Remote bomb disposal: standing in one room, the player pilots the drone through the building in search of a bomb which is represented by an AR marker.

Once found, it must be carried outside to the disposal team. But be careful -- the slightest bump will set it off. The clock is ticking."Charlie PohlManaging director, Conduct (makers of The Hidden Park)"A high-speed race through an urban obstacle course. AR tags representing boost pads, shield upgrades and missile ammo are littered throughout -- so play dirty. Winning races earns you valuable points which you can use to upgrade your drone's engine, handling and weapons."Simon Johnson Director, Simon Games (co-organiser of the Interesting Games Festival)"A professional treasure hunt over a small area, contested by several teams. ar drone 2 reset buttonAR tags are hidden on rooftops accessible only by the drones, each tag triggering a video clue or puzzle game. black ops 2 origins drone locations

Find the solution to reveal the next location, but be quick - the battery won't last forever!"Gary NapperGame designer, EA Bright Light (makers of the Harry Potter game series)"A futuristic game of cat-and-mouse. Humans wearing AR glyphs must avoid the drone prowling the corridors. People who are 'shot' must switch sides and join the hunt for those who remain. The ultimate survivor wins the right to control the drone in the next round and exact their revenge."Thinking about upgrading your AR.ar drone battery alternativeDrone to a more capable quadcopter? parrot ar drone in malaysiaHave a look at this informative side-by-side comparison between a Parrot AR.ar drone parrot usbDrone 2.0 and a DJI Phantom. ar drone parts germany

The DJI doesn’t come with a camera but you can use it in combination with a GoPro. The DJI Phantom can be bought for around $450 at the moment of writing. That is excluding the GoPro. If you want an integrated camera you could go for the more expensive DJI Phantom 2 Vision which has an integrated camcorder but is double the price (~$1.000). MAVLink is a very lightweight, header-only message marshalling library for communicating with micro air vehicles. MAVLink was first released early 2009 by Lorenz Meier under a GPL license. parrot ar drone led redThe MAVLINK Common Message Set describes the various message headers. You can integrate MAVLink with the Robot Operating System (ROS) in order to control your micro air vehicle. QGroundControl, the open source Micro Air Vehicle Ground Control Station / Operator Control Unit can be used to operate your Drone. It is based on PIXHAWK’s Groundstation.

Further development is now done in a joint effort with the community. Have a look a the QGroundControl video to get an idea of its control interface. Parrot is planning to release the GPS Flight Recorder add-on for the AR Drone 2.0 on July 20th. The flight recorder connects through USB and will allow you to geolocate your AR.Drone, keep track of its position and store videos (4 GB onboard = 2 hours of video) in its built-in flash memory. You will be able to point to a location within the limits of the Wi-Fi connection on a map and the AR Drone will automatically fly there. Pressing the Return Home button will make the AR.Drone come straight back to its take-off point in a straight line. Flight recorder mode will allow you to track your AR Drone’s flight in 3D. Micro Air Vehicle Communication Protocol (MAVLink) support will make it possible to program a detailed flight plan with QGround Control, available for Windows/Linux/MAc OSX. recently received their Leap Motion developer’s kit.

Within a day they were able to control the AR.Drone with Leap Motion gestures based on the AR.Have a look at the video for some awesome Mission Impossible style Quadrotor controls. A short while ago Felix Geisendörfer wrote a tool to install node.js on the AR.Drone and wrote a library to control it with JavaScript. Although developed for the AR.Drone 2, it also appears to work for the first version of the AR. Graham Robinson has written a long explanation about the Siri-controlled AR.He based his AR.Drone+Siri hack on the Windows SDK for the AR.Drone built by Stephen Hobley, Thomas Endres and Julian Vinel, some SAP ABAP and the SiriProxy project by Pete Lamonica. Skip to around 4’11” for the Siri-demonstration in the video below. Since this month the official AR.Freeflight App is also available for Android devices and can be downloaded from the Android Market. Previously you had to rely on third party apps like AR.Pro, but now you can also use the official Parrot App on your Android device.

Researchers from the computer science department at the Stevens Institute of Technology have added a 3G-radio to an AR.Because of the mobile hookup the AR.Drone can be controlled from a greater distance than the normal wifi connection and can be maneuvred into the range of a wifi-network. It could then attack that network and gain access to the network with the onboard software. And once it has gained access it could be used to issue commands to a botnet, acting as a command-and-control-server, powered by a small solar panel. Because the attackers would dial-in to the AR.Drone through the 3G-connection and the drone would us wifi to hookup to a third party network it would be much harder to find out who was responsible for the botnet attacks. You can read further details about the SkyNET project in the paper that was presented by the researchers at the USENIX Security Conference in August. Spooky stuff if you ask me. Below you will find a 23 minute video by kenv8 explaining the previously mentioned AR.

The flight range of the AR.Drone is limited because the wifi range is limited to somewhere between 30 – 100 meters depending on where you fly and whether you have line of sight.Drone can be drastically extended to 1.5 – 2.5 kilometers by using RC equipment. The 2.4 GHZ RC hack instructions describe how the range can be extended in full detail. The actual flight range will depend on the RC transmitter & receiver used. According to the tutorial it has been tested to work with Spektrum DX6i and Spektrum AR6200 DSM2 6 Ch Rx Ultralite. The Spektrum DX7 with the AR6200 (2.4Ghz), Futaba 9CH with Assan module and X8R7 (2.4Ghz) and the JR790UL spcm Rx (72 Mhz) have also been tested to work according to the tutorial. You will need a 5 volt BEC (Battery-Elimination Circuit) to power the Arduino and the RC-receiver since the AR.Drone’s battery is 11.1 volt. This will cost you around $10. The wifi signal is passed from the RC-receiver to the AR.Drone through a small Arduino compatible device called YellowJacket ($55).