Getting into the air ASAP
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As a newcomer to the field, you probably want to get hands-on experience, to get your own AI drone in the air. ASAP (= about 9 weeks minimum).
This is the workflow:
- 1 Get a work laptop (optional)
- 2 Buy Work tools (constant activity)
- 3 Organize a work area
- 4 Train in flight Simulator
- 5 (Epic 1) Build/fly an FPV (small) drone (recommended before trying to build an AI drone)
- 6 (Epic 2) Build/fly a Pixhawk (large) drone
- 7 (Epic 3) Add AI to the Pixhawk drone
PS: Why do I use the word "Epic" above? Because if you dont have experience and are not careful, you can go down a rabbit hole or hit the wall (run into an error you cant solve). So those first 3 epics are each a big deal, and a major accomplishment for any newbie.
You need
- Win11 and Ubuntu machine (I have been working on a Windows 11 i3 with 8GB ram and an i7 Ubuntu with 32GB).
- Possibly a laptop just for working on drones if you are concerned about installing unsigned software (some of the required open source software is not signed, meaning there is no security certificate chain to a root certificate that guarantees who the author is; this is a security risk, albeit minor in this case)
- The shopping list lists everything I bought in the first 6 months working on drones. I am not a fan of Amazon.com, but its indespensable for getting what you need. I spent total about $2500 for all the things I needed.
- You will need to buy stuff like solder gun, hex screwdrivers, shrink wrap, etc. If you are a newbie, you will need lots of little tools. If you are missing one small thing, then you need to order from Amazon.
- Consider Amazon prime, because you will often need something ASAP. I often made $10 orders, so the $15 monthly Prime membership was worth it.
Below: Just a small portion of my Amazon purchases
You need space. Clean space. If you lose one little component, you might not be able to make progress, and buying that component might not be that easy (especially if you dont have Amazone prime). Most major parts are delivered without a single extra screw, bolt, nut, or jumper.
- Train to fly a drone in an FPV simulator. Flying an FPV drone is like learning to ride a bike without training wheels. Its highly advised to spend at least 10 hours (over the span of a week) flying simulation before trying to fly your drone. The most difficult part is acquiring the instincts for how to move the RC sticks.
I damaaged my FPV because I was flying on wet ground. I had the terrible habit of always adding throttle whenever I was losing control of the copter. When the copter got too high and too close to some trees, I panicked and moved the throttle to 0. But I forgot to disarm the engines (I was always getting my switches mixed up). The copter hit the ground, flipped over, and the props started cutting wet grass. After taking the copter apart and cleaning it up, reassembling it, I discovered that the ESC (motor driver) was shot. $50 minimum to replace. This could have been avoided had I trained more on the simulator.
The simulator does not have to be perfect. What you need are the instincts for how to move the sticks.
Below: Mowing wet grass with a drone, the RC (with sticks and switches), and simulator (with stick positions shown)
- Buy the components (and required tools) for platform 1 (SBeeF405) in the shopping list.
- Build and fly the FPV copter as described in part (2) SBeeF405/INAV (1a).
PS: Why you cant put AI on the FPV drone:
- Its too small for the extra required AI components (companion computer (Jetson nano), Nano battery and camera; see screenshot at the bottom of this page).
- FPV firmware does not have the required APIs (software such as Mavlink, Mavsdk, etc) for an AI copter.
A Pixhawk drone has the
- Extra lifting capacity
- Required FC (flight controller) functionality to support AI
You need to
- Buy the components (and required tools) for the Pixhawk 6c X-500 platform (see the shopping list).
- Build/fly the copter as describes in part (5) Pix6c/PX4 (2a).
Below: The FPV drone (small) and Pixhawk drone (large, for AI)
- Buy the required components
- Follow the directions in part (7) AI JNano (7.2) to add AI components (a companion computer and extra software components).
Below: The Pixhawk drone with (blue) Jetson Nano dev board, (green) Nano battery, and (red) Logitech 920s camera.
7.2.2 Flight build test in outdoors
In this video (note the load motor noise from the struggle to keep all that extra weight in the air) I put the copter into loiter (hold) mode and then walked around in front of the camera... the nano AI recognized me as human, and put the copter into land mode (it overrode the loiter mode). Just a 10 second video, but a big deal for me. :)
My first test flight AI object recog with this Pixhawk PX4 copter, and it worked. I am having great luck with this copter.
Note: I did not use a laptop. I just brought the copter to the field, powered on and tested.