04. Simulator Exploration - Manual Flight

Simulator Exploration - Manual

Before you learn about new programming paradigms, you might want to get setup with the Udacity drone simulator.

Download and Installation

You can download the simulator here.

Once you've downloaded the latest release, unzip the file and open the simulator by double-clicking on the app/executable.

The Udacity drone simulator

The Udacity drone simulator

Arming

Arming implies that the power is now being supplied to the motors and the drone is ready to fly. Think of it like using your keys to start your car before you hit the gas! You always need to arm your drone first before you begin to fly. Once you click on arming, you'll notice that the propellers start to spin. And once you click Disarm, the motors stop. Remember to always Arm your drone before you can fly and Disarm the drone when not flying it.

Were you able to arm your Drone?

SOLUTION: Yes! The propellers are spinning and it's ready to take off.

Manual vs Guided

As the name suggests, when you are flying the drone in Manual mode, you are the pilot. If it's a real drone, then you'll be using an RC controller. In the simulator, you can use your keyboard to fly the drone. Note that even in Manual mode, the drone is doing a lot of the work "autonomously" as it converts your high-level commands into rotor rotation rates.

Guided mode is used when you want the drone to perform tasks autonomously without any human control. You can do this either by sending commands to the drone via console or by writing a script to execute those commands depending on the mission requirements.

For this project, you'll be writing a program that will lead the drone to execute a mission. In order for the drone to run the mission on its own, it needs to be in Guided mode.

In the simulator, you can apply upward and downward thrust using the Space and C keys on your keyboard.

What happens when you try to use these keys when the drone is in Guided mode?

SOLUTION: The commands have no effect.

You can manually control the drone using the following key commands:

Key(s) Control
W/S move forward / back
A/D move left / right
Q/E turn left/ right

Try using these controls to take off, fly in a square shape, and then land.

Were you able to take off, fly in a square, and then land?

SOLUTION: Yes