Use the Crazyflie as a flying puppet in theater?

Discussions and questions about the Crazyflie Nano Quadcopter
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NateTheAverage
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Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2016 10:40 am

Use the Crazyflie as a flying puppet in theater?

Post by NateTheAverage »

I would like to swarm 10 - 20 Crazyflies decorated as aquatic sea creatures (prob Jellies) and send them over a live audience in pre-programmed 40 sec flight.

The theater uses smoke machines and a wide variety of lights, which I would have a lot of control over. The ceiling clearance is minimal.

I am a seasoned javascript / Arduino programmer, new to c++ & python but easy learning curve. Been using the intel Edison as my primary platform for the past few projects.

Never touched a drone of any sort.

I only have a mac available to me for this project my linux, and windows machines are overseas at home.

I have about 1 month to dedicate full time focus, so my questions are...

1. Would this be an insane project for me to consider?
2. Has anyone ever done this?
3. Would I need to locate a London, UK local pro to accomplish this?
4. If I were to do it how many modifications will I need to make? (so I can figure out a proper cost estimate)

I dream of a world that I don't need 20 puppeteers to create a under the sea theme!!!

Thank you in advance for any responses.
-N
arnaud
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Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 12:36 pm

Re: Use the Crazyflie as a flying puppet in theater?

Post by arnaud »

Hi,

This kind of setup will be achievable with Crazyflies 2.0 and the Loco Positioning System (LPS). However we are not at this point yet: we can fly 4 Crazyflie autonomously but we are working on algorithms that would allow to basically fly as much as we want. Currently we are having this kind of performance (this is our Maker Faire demo from last week-end Maker Faire Berlin, the Crazyflie is moving on a pre-programmed midi sequence): https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxnrW ... 29JQnJ2cnc

To answer the questions:
1. It is pretty chalenging, you would have to use the loco positioning system that we still consider as being in early-access, so it requires some commitment to get it to work.
2. I have no knowledge of anyone that has done something similar with Crazyflie yet.
3. No idea
4. There would need to be TDoA implementation to fly that many Crazyflie, this we are doing but I am not sure when it is going to be ready in a month. Then you would have to setup the LPS and program the flight path in ROS. I guess ROS could work on Edison but we have not tried that yet.

So I am afraid you might be just a bit too early for it, we are working at making this king of thing achievable with LPS.
NateTheAverage
Beginner
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2016 10:40 am

Re: Use the Crazyflie as a flying puppet in theater?

Post by NateTheAverage »

thank you for your reply.

Quick note * If you are reading this, in or near London and want to get in on this simi-big project shoot me an email natetheaverage ( a t ) gmail.

I actually just spent a couple hours reading up on everything with a strong focus on the locoP system. I am quite intrigued and completely prepared to be on the bleeding edge of this. I was thinking the Edison could possibly run the ROS but thats a down the road option. As of now I will just use a VM to run cat.

So my next question will be.... posted where loco positioning discussions are happening.

thanks again
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