dronekit_delivery

About

This repo contains python code to establish a socket connection with server by which an android app can retrieve drone data as well as send commands like RTL, takeoff, land, upload missions to drone via dronekit simulation or a real pixhawk flight controller.

• The main code is sendData.py which establishes socket communication with the server to enable communication with client via android app.
• server_test.py is a test code to test successful socket connection to the server.
• drone.service is a systemd service program to start sendData.py on bootup of companion computer, ie. raspberry pi. It needs to be copied to /etc/system/systemd folder and the service needs to be enabled and started.

Method of Operation

• The dronekit delivery software requires a node server to be setup to establish a successful socket connection and communicate. Follow the instructions as suggested from https://github.com/prokuranepal/Drone-Monitoring-server/tree/development and setup the server first.

• After successful server setup then you can proceed on working of dronekit delivery. Install all python dependency packages

    pip install -r requirements.txt

• Make a few edits to the code sendData.py. Specifically change the ip/domain of the server, ie

    socket1 = SocketIO('https://nicwebpage.herokuapp.com', verify =True)

    REPLACE IT WITH THE IP/DOMAIN OF YOUR SERVER

    socket1 = SocketIO('http://10.42.0.200', 3000, verify=True) #here 3000 is port number 

• Make sure you are connected to the internet. Now you are good to go. Run:

python sendData.py #sends data to server using dronekit simulation

• You can also connect a real pixhawk flightcontroller to the pc/onboad computer using a usb cable and run the code as:

    python sendData.py --connect /dev/ttyACM0

• If you want to just test the socket connection with server without the need to run simulation run:

    python server_test.py

• You can also view the drone status and give commands to drone using android app. Refer https://github.com/Swainstha/DroneFly.git to build an android app to receive data or send commands to the drone.

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Auto start at bootup(Only for Linux distro)

• To start the code at boot we will create a systemd service. Create a new drone.service file in /etc/systemd/system

    cd /etc/systemd/system 
    nano drone.service

• Copy and paste the following contents in drone.service file

[Unit]
Description = dronekit delivery
After=network-online.target
Wants= network-online.target

[Service]
ExecStart= python -u /home/dronekit_delivery/sendData.py --connect #changethe path of sendData as appropriate
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• Run the following commands on terminal

    sudo systemctl enable drone
    sudo systemctl start drone
    sudo systemctl daemon-reload

• That's it restart the system and it will execute automatically. You can also check the status of the service using:

    sudo systemctl status drone