MyWingman: Gesture Controlled Drone

myWingman is a Parrot AR Drone controlled with a Leap Motion sensor, with LabVIEW providing the interface between the two. The Leap sensor detects hand movements, and this then gets translated by LabVIEW into movement by the drone. Along with the direct video feed from the drone to the LabVIEW front panel, this is a completely new and innovative way to fly a drone.

For more Information- http://bit.ly/2s0OCZP

Step 1: Step 1- Hardware and Software Requirements

The Hardware

Unlike many drone projects, the hardware used here is all widely available and affordable:

Parrot AR Drone 2.0- I chose to use this drone due to it already having an API built within LabVIEW, which would make the integration of hardware and software cheaper. This drone is used within a lot of maker projects, as it gives its own wifi connection, which makes it very easy to run custom code on, and is also incredibly easy to fly and control.

Parrot Website- £229- https://www.parrot.com/uk/drones/parrot-ARDrone-2...

Leap Motion Sensor- This innovative piece of technology is able to plug into your computer to allow you to control your applications using hand movements. It is also becoming widely used as a way to control other pieces of hardware, and it is easy to interface with software such as LabVIEW

Leap Website- £55- https://www.parrot.com/uk/drones/parrot-ARDrone-2...

A laptop is also required to make this project portable

The Software

LabVIEW 2016

AR Drone Toolkit- Although there was a readily available toolkit within VI Package Manager, this did not have the functionality I needed in terms of the video. Therefore I edited the existing API to create my own. Details on how to install this are located in the 'Steps' section

Leap Motion Toolkit- Available from VI Package Manager

Step 2: Steps 2-

Steps to run project

1. Ensure LabVIEW 2016 (32 bit) is installed

2. Install the Leap Motion interface for LabVIEW https://www.labviewmakerhub.com/doku.php?id=libra...

3. a) Download the attachment AR Drone Toolkit

b) Navigate to the following path- C:\Program Files (x86)\National Instruments\LabVIEW 2016\vi.lib

c) Create a folder called LVH if it does not already exist

d) Unzip the AR Drone Toolkit into the LVH folder

4. Install Leap drivers from https://www.leapmotion.com/setup/desktop/windows

5. Plug Leap device into computer and test using Leap software.

6. Download Drone Project.zip, and unzip onto a local drive on your computer- for example in My Documents

7. Open the Drone project.lvproj file

8. Within the LabVIEW project open Quadrotor.vi and Video.vi

9. Turn on drone and connect to the drone's wifi from the laptop

10. Press run on Quadrotor. vi, then press run on Video.vi

11. Have fun flying your drone!