Python or other language

[killercatfish]

Is it possible to code the mambo with python?

[Bobrobot1]

To do what? automate it?

[killercatfish]

I teach high school computer science. I'd like to include coding drones in my python course. The mambo is at a nice price point. But yea, the main idea would be to set up an obstacle course and teams of students would have time to code the drone and compete for best time and success rate.

[RorschachUK]

Hi, there's a Python library here, and documentation for it here. It works by communicating with the Mambo via wifi (for the FPV one with camera attached) or Bluetooth (if without the camera).

[RorschachUK]

I've experimented with this pyparrot library by Dr Amy McGovern and had it running on a Raspberry Pi 3+. Works great! Although, try it out with plenty of space, feels a bit alarming if it's autonomously flying near stuff and you've no direct control to stop it, I did have to be ready to gently bat it away from stuff it was going to hit.

The ability to process images externally via the great computer vision library OpenCV opens up a lot of possibilities for e.g. face recognition and following marked paths, though in practice the lag involved presents some challenges.

A more modest goal might be a simple flight recorder - fly it once, record the inputs, replay them over bluetooth to create a repeatable flight mission. Or, simplified mission programming in the style of the great old 1980 programmable car Bigtrak. Or, try to calculate all the relative movements as an absolute position to make it possible to set a flight path clicking waypoints on a map. Or - control via exotic input devices like Leap Motion gesture control.

So many possibilities!

[singh1rahul]

The gun can also be controlled through the python interface. In this demo program, the mambo takes off, opens and closes the claw, and lands again. Once the FPV camera is integrated, we can use it to actually pick up objects.