Is there a way to control the drone with arrow keys to fly manually?

[jueunkwon]

Is there a way to fly the drone manually using the arrow keys (without a RC)?
I am currently working with the Landscape Mountains environment. Thank you!

[ahmed-elsaharti]

Hi @jueunkwon , you could always use the C++ or Python APIs to write your own tool that would control the drone's velocities (as an example) on keypress.
Here's a crude example using python's keyboard library that I wrote a couple of months ago:

import airsim
import keyboard  # using module keyboard (install using pip3 install keyboard)
 
vx=0
vy=0
vz=0
 
client = airsim.MultirotorClient()
client.confirmConnection()
client.enableApiControl(True)
 
 
while True:  # making a loop
    try:  # used try so that if user pressed other than the given key error will not be shown
        if keyboard.is_pressed('w'):
            vx=5
        elif keyboard.is_pressed('s'):
            vx=-5
        else:
            vx=0
        if keyboard.is_pressed('d'):
            vy=5
        elif keyboard.is_pressed('a'):
            vy=-5
        else:
            vy=0
        if keyboard.is_pressed('space'):
            vz=-5
        else:
            vz=5            
        print("vx" + str(vx) + " vy " + str(vy) + " vz " + str(vz))
        client.moveByVelocityAsync(vx,vy,vz,12)
    except:
        break  # if user pressed a key other than the given key the loop will break

[thomasTUK]

What othey key shorts would be needed to turn the drone as well?

[ahmed-elsaharti]

If you want to yaw the drone using the arrow keys you can use:

import airsim
import keyboard  # using module keyboard (install using pip3 install keyboard)

vx=0
vy=0
vz=0
yawrate=0
client = airsim.MultirotorClient()
client.confirmConnection()
client.enableApiControl(True)
 
 
while True:  # making a loop
    try:  # used try so that if user pressed other than the given key error will not be shown
        if keyboard.is_pressed('w'):
            vx=5
        elif keyboard.is_pressed('s'):
            vx=-5
        else:
            vx=0
        if keyboard.is_pressed('d'):
            vy=5
        elif keyboard.is_pressed('a'):
            vy=-5
        else:
            vy=0
        if keyboard.is_pressed('space'):
            vz=-5
        else:
            vz=5        
        if keyboard.is_pressed('right arrow'):
            yawrate=100
        elif keyboard.is_pressed('left arrow'):
            yawrate=-100
        else:
            yawrate=0
        client.moveByVelocityAsync(vx,vy,vz,12,airsim.DrivetrainType.MaxDegreeOfFreedom,airsim.YawMode(True, yawrate))
    except:
        break  # if user pressed a key other than the given key the loop will break

Also, if you want the motion to be relative to the direction the drone is pointing in you'll need to:

1. Be using the latest fork of airsim
2. Save this script to the PythonClient/multirotor directory
3. Add import setup_path before import airsim
4. Replace moveByVelocityAsync with moveByVelocityBodyFrameAsync

[jueunkwon]

Thank you so much!!