Want to perform an autonomous drone delivery mission in 200 lines of code? You can do that with dronekit python. That is because ArduPilot sends around 400 commands a second to the drone’s motors, which translates into smooth and steady flight.ĭronekit python is an open source python library that provides high level functions to command the drones movement, check vehicle status and many other things.Įssentially, this unlocks the application layer to drone programmers. Actually without ArduPilot, or some flight control firmware, it would be impossible to fly multirotor uavs. Just like how Windows firmware is responsible for communicating with the computer hardware, ArduPilot is responsible for commanding a drone’s hardware. The hardware layer on a drone consists of motors, escs, batteries, etc, but what about the firmware layer? Enter ArduPilot, the Linux of drones. Well, a similar relationship exists with drone software as well. Thankfully, the developer can simply write high level code and depend on the operating system (firmware) to communicate with the hardware on the high level code’s behalf. In order to work, the software will have to communicate with the physical hardware. Let’s say you’re a developer wanting to write a new online poker app.

Firmware (low level code that commands the hardware):.

Autonomous Drone Delivery with Python Open Source Drone Software StackĪ useful analogy to understanding the flight stack is computers.

Drones with video controller