MatWsDrone

Matlab websocket gateway to Ar.Drone

Note

If you have the Instrument Control Toolbox installed, you will be better of with using the native ARDrone-Matlab interface instead of MatWsDrone.

Installation

Install tbxmananger for Matlab per the instructions on its webpage.

Then, in Matlab, run:

>> tbxmanager install matwsdrone wsclient matwebsocks matlabjson eventcollector

to install all dependencies.

Next, install the matwebsocks library by running

>> matws_install

and restart Matlab (really, this is necessary).

Finally, install Docker and pull two images:

$ docker pull kvasnica/swsb
$ docker pull kvasnica/wspydrone

Usage

1. In the terminal window, start the Simple Websocket Broker by

    $ docker run -it -p 8025:8025 kvasnica/swsb
   

2. Make sure your computer is connected to the Ar.Drone via wifi and start the wspydrone gateway:

    $ docker run -it --net=host kvasnica/wspydrone
   

3. In Matlab, start the client:

    >> drone = MatWsDrone()
   

4. Now you can communicate with the drone using one of the following commands:

• drone.takeoff() - make the drone take off
• drone.hover() - make the drone hover
• drone.halt() - shut down the drone
• drone.land() - land the drone
• drone.reset() - emergency landing
• drone.trim() - flat trim the drone
• drone.setSpeed(v) - set the drone's speed
• drone.setSampling(Ts) - set measurement sampling
• drone.move([lr, rb, vv, va]) - set speed
• drone.connect() - opens the websocket (done automatically when creating MatWsDrone() instance)
• drone.close() - closes the websocket

Navigation data are transmitted from the drone at a fixed sampling rate (0.5 seconds by default, can be changed by drone.setSampling(Ts)). The data are available in

>> drone.NavData
ans =

  struct with fields:

            vy: -14.0373
         theta: -5
            vx: 55.0681
            vz: 0
           psi: -53
      altitude: 290
       battery: 80
    num_frames: 0
    ctrl_state: 262144
           phi: 0

To connect the client to an instance of swsb that runs on a different server, use

>> drone = MatWsDrone('ws://server:port/t/topic')

Troubleshooting

• Make sure your computer (or the one which runs the wspydrone gateway) is connected to the drone via wifi.
• Restart wspydrone and/or swsb.
• Restart Matlab.
• If problems remain, submit a bug report.

Links

• swsb - Simple Websocket Broker
• wspydrone - Websocket gateway to python-ardrone for 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