TU Delft - Lasergame with Autonomous AR Drone

Introduction

This page will guide you through the development of an autonomous quadrotor, the AR Drone 2.0 from Parrot, which will be eventually used in an application. In this case, in combination with lasergaming.

About the AR Drone 2.0

Parrot's AR Drone 2

Exploded view of the AR Drone 2.

The AR Drone from Parrot is an affordable, wifi controlled, flying quadrotor. It is designed to be controlled with Android and iOS devices. Parrot has made an open source API (Application Programming Interface), to gather developers and game studios. By registering on Ardrone.org the developer will be able to download the SDK (Software Development Kit) and start developing.

For this project, we will be using the AR Drone 2, which has the following technical specifications:

• HD Video:
  • HD Camera 720p 30fps
  • Wide angle lens: 92 degrees
  • H264 encoding base profile
  • Video storage on the fly with the remote device
  • JPEG photo
• Electronic assistance:
  • 1 GHz 32 bit ARM Cortex A8 processor with 800MHz video DSP TMS320DMC64x
  • 1Gbit DDR2 RAM at 200MHZ
  • USB 2.0 high speed for extensions
  • Wi-Fi b,g,n
  • 3 axis gyroscope 2000 degrees / second precision
  • 3 axis accelerometer +- 50 mg precision
  • 3 axis magnetometer 6 degrees precision
  • Pressure sensor +/- 10 Pa precision (80 cm at sea level)
  • Ultra sound sensors for ground altitude measurement
  • 60 fps vertical QVGA camera for ground speed measurement
  • Linux 2.6.32
• Motors:
  • 4 brushless inrunner motors, 14,5 watt and 28.500 RPM
  • Micro ball bearing
  • Low noise Nylatron gears for 1/8.75 propellor reductor.
  • Specific high propelled drag for maneuverability
  • 8 MIPS AVR CPU per motor controller.
  • 3 elements 1.000 mA/H LiPo rechargeaple battery
  • Fully reprogrammable motor controller
  • Water resistant motor's electronic controller

Getting Started

This project is developed by using Linux, ubuntu. Following these steps are at your own risk. You can only perform these steps if you use ubuntu. Before the developing part will start, the following installations are required:

• Download the SDK from Ardrone.org
• Download and install Paparazzi, see the installation guide for help: [1] Do not follow the instructions from 4), we use another cross-compiler for this project.
• Follow the instructions described in the "Getting the cross-compiler".

Getting the cross-compiler

1. Download the cross-compiler from [2]
2. Open the terminal and direct to your home directory.
3. Type the following commands (without the $):

$ sudo chmod +x codesetup.sh
$ sudo ./codesetup.sh

Wait a few minutes and you're done!

Manuals and guides

• Step by step guide for beginners
• Developers Manual