CobbleDrone

Inspiration

Drones are cool and crowd-sourcing is cool, therefore crowd-sourced drones must be really cool. This idea came when trying to find an interesting input source for the drone. Why do just one input source when you can do many?

What it does:

Focusing on the Parrot AR.Drone, our project utilizes user input from a variety of devices. Typically speaking, a single user is confined to a particular method of unmanned system manipulation. Our software eliminates this conundrum, utilizing multiple devices from multiple pilots. The immense selection of devices capable of controlling the device provides the user with an increased variety of options to control the unmanned system.

How The Device Was Constructed

Language Utilized

Python because its easy. Who doesn't love a language you can run right in your terminal?

Sources of Input

Wii Remote:

Functionality: The Wii remote further enhances the user's ability to control the pitch and yaw of the Parrot Quad-Copter. The user can control the drone using either the D-Pad or the accelerator of the WiiMote.

WiiFit Balance board:

Functionality: The WiiFit Balance Board controls the pitch and yaw of the drone based upon how the user stands on or touches the board..

Twitter

Functionality: Twitter shall serve as an interface that responds to audience input. When the user enters the prompted hashtag the vessel will preform a flip. This feature was not fully implmented, but a somewhat sassy bot can be found @twittydrone

Challenges we ran into

Connectivity with everything: Bluetooth connections to the WiiMotes and Wii balance board proved problematic and system dependent. A change in software helped to fix most of this issue. Also, connectivity to the Drone was initially difficult and unstable due to a lack of transparent documentation.
Libraries: Some initial libraries proved to be difficult or lacked the required functionality, but libraries were found that met the project requirements
Bugs: A significant amount of our time was spent in bug fixing. Bugs were found throughout the entirety of the code, from first input to drone control.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Programmatically controlling the drone.
Multiple input sources
One sassy, although incomplete, Twitter bot

What we learned

Bluetooth SUCKS!
With the right library, the work is significantly more simple.
With enough caffeine, all bugs are shallow

What's next for CobbleDrone

Future improvements might include more finish the Twitter api to control the drone. More control and input from the WiiMotes.

Built With

parrot-uav
python
twitter
wii-balance-board
wii-remote

Submitted to

tribeHacks
- Winner Domain.com: Best Domain Name

Created by

I designed the web-cite and assisted with the Devpost.

Erika McLaughlin
Applied Physics Student at Christopher Newort University; Society of Women Engineers Interest Group Founder
I utilized the 'cwiid' library to interface with the Wiimotes, including both accelerometer and button input, and the accelerometer data from the sensors in the Wii Balance Board to create a way to control the Parrot AR Drone.

Patrick Hennis
I wrote the twittyDrone twitter API. It takes in user mention commands and returns valid commands for the drone, along with tweeting messages at users during certain events.

Tim May
I wrote the drone interface code, utilizing the libardrone and extending it to meet the needs of the project. I also wrote the code to provide an abstract interface for the input sources to push to. It was difficult to control the drone and I squashed a ton of bugs, but I learned a ton about multi-threaded python code and how difficult it is.

Nigel Armstrong
CNU Graduate in Computer Engineering