About:

This is a quick and dirty fork of Bastian Venthur's python-ardrone library modified to support the ARDrone2 as inspired by (and mostly borrowed from) Jonathan Hunt's proposed changes.

The primary difference between this fork and the parent is support for the unique way the ARDrone2 transmits video to clients. Instead of sending raw images via UDP as the original ARDrone does, a TCP connection is maintained over which H.264 encoded video (wrapped in a strange codec designed by Parrot) is streamed.

Warning: This is dirty. Very dirty. Both the code (sloppy) and the architecture (piping H.264 over stdin to a separate ffmpeg process and listening for decoded frames over stdout). But it works! And performance seems to be perfectly acceptable.

A big thank you to Bastian Venthur and Jonathan Hunt for doing 99.99999% of the work behind this! Consider tipping Bastian Venthur's Flattr account (see the original python-ardrone) if you find this helpful.

Getting Started:

>>> import libardrone
>>> drone = libardrone.ARDrone()
>>> # You might need to call drone.reset() before taking off if the drone is in
>>> # emergency mode
>>> drone.takeoff()
>>> drone.land()
>>> drone.halt()

The drone's property image contains always the latest image from the camera. The drone's property navdata contains always the latest navdata.

Demo:

There is also a demo application included which shows the video from the drone and lets you remote-control the drone with the keyboard:

RETURN      - takeoff
SPACE       - land
BACKSPACE   - reset (from emergency)
a/d         - left/right
w/s         - forward/back
1,2,...,0   - speed
UP/DOWN     - altitude
LEFT/RIGHT  - turn left/right

Here is a video of the library in action:

Requirements:

This software was tested with the following setup:

• Python 2.6.6
• Psyco 1.6 (recommended)
• Pygame 1.8.1 (only for the demo)
• Unmodified AR.Drone firmware 1.5.1

License:

This software is published under the terms of the MIT License:

http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php