Getting started with drones

The Parrot AR.Drone runs Linux off the shelf, and its downward-facing camera and optical flow algorithms make it a great (very stable) platform. The main drawback is a lack of payload capacity and non-open flight control firmware. It's probably what you heard of with respect to Node.JS, because https://github.com/felixge/node-ar-drone is very popular. However, that project doesn't run Node.JS on the copter itself but rather on a control node, transmitting commands to the copter over WiFi.

To build "fully programmable," self-contained drones in a more open manner, I've started with an off-the-shelf flight control system (in my case, an ArduPilot knockoff) and then attached an Android phone as payload, wired in to provide some control input via UART. This way the off-the-shelf flight control system can handle the hard real-time PID loops without worry, and the Linux side can run a conventional kernel and userspace with whatever algorithms I need to run, providing me with softer timing requirements.

So far I've had good luck using ArduCopter, an older Nexus phone, and OpenCV via the NDK to implement a basic "follow a shape" quadcopter. My goal is to build a simple "follow me" functionality for recording cool car and sports videos.

The Parrot AR runs a web server, and is easily controlled with the HTTP client of your choice.