Flight Movements

Air vehicles move a little differently than land vehicles. While land vehicles can move forward, backward, and sometimes side-to-side, air vehicles can do all of that and move up and down. To keep track of how CoDrone moves in a three-dimensional space, you can use the terms below:

Roll controls the CoDrone’s horizontal, or side to side, movement. Positive roll will make the CoDrone move to the right, and negative roll will make the drone move to the left.

drone.set_roll(power) # power represents power out of 100%
                      # power can be between -100 and 100

Pitch is the CoDrone’s forward and backward tilt. Positive pitch will make the CoDrone tilt and move forward, and negative pitch will make the CoDrone tilt and move backwards.

drone.set_pitch(power) # power represents power out of 100%
                   # power can be between -100 and 100

Yaw is the CoDrone’s left and right rotation. Positive yaw will make the CoDrone turn to the right, and negative yaw will make the CoDrone turn to the left.

drone.set_yaw(power) # power represents power out of 100%
                     # power can be between -100 and 100

Throttle controls the CoDrone’s vertical, or up and down, movement. Positive throttle will make the CoDrone fly higher, and negative throttle will make the CoDrone fly lower.

drone.set_throttle(power) # power represents power out of 100%
                          # power can be between -100 and 100

Be careful with yaw and roll! Yaw will make your CoDrone turn left or right, while roll will move your CoDrone left or right.

One of the best ways to learn new words is to see them in action, so instead of you just memorizing all of the flight movements, you’re going to do an obstacle course! Have a friend sit down on a chair and then blindfold them (or just have them keep their eyes closed). Next, guide them through an obstacle course to have them sit down on another chair at the end using only flight movement words. Make sure that anything dangerous is out of their way first!

• Positive throttle: stand up
• Negative throttle: sit down
• Positive pitch: move forward
• Negative pitch: move backward
• Positive yaw: turn right
• Negative yaw: turn left
• Positive roll: move right
• Negative roll: move left

For example, if you wanted to tell your friend to move forward, you could say, “Positive pitch 2 steps.” That would let your friend know that you want them to move forward by 2 steps. Once your friend successfully completes the obstacle course, switch roles so they can give you directions!

Your first challenge: have your CoDrone take off, go forward, then turn left, and land. First, you need to import the CoDrone library and pair your drone:

import CoDrone

drone = CoDrone.CoDrone()
drone.pair(drone.Nearest)
# drone.pair() if paired to CoDrone before
drone.takeoff()

Next, you can add the new functions that you just learned!

import CoDrone

drone = CoDrone.CoDrone()
drone.pair(drone.Nearest)
# drone.pair() if paired to CoDrone before

drone.takeoff()	        # takeoff for 2 seconds

drone.set_pitch(30)	# Set positive pitch to 30% power
drone.move(2)	        # forward for 2 seconds

drone.set_yaw(-50)	# Set negative yaw to 30% power
drone.move(2)	        # turn left for 2 seconds

drone.land()	        # lands the CoDrone
drone.close()	        # disconnects CoDrone

Wondering why you need two lines of code for one movement? drone.set()will prepare the CoDrone to move in a certain direction and speed, while drone.move()will actually move the CoDrone in the air.

You might also notice that CoDrone was still moving forward while turning left. We will explain a bit more why this happens in the next step.

Anytime you use a flight command, it sets the value for that direction permanently! Well, at least until you change it back to 0 or another value. This is how your CoDrone can fly in multiple directions at once. We know this sounds crazy but it just means you will be able to do stuff like fly diagonally or spin while flying in another direction.

Run this code and see what happens!

import CoDrone

drone = CoDrone.CoDrone()
drone.pair(drone.Nearest)
# drone.pair() if paired to CoDrone before

drone.takeoff()	        # takeoff for 2 seconds

drone.set_pitch(30)	# Set positive pitch to 30% power
drone.set_roll(-30)	# Set negative roll to 30% power
drone.move(2)	        # forward and right for 2 seconds

drone.land()	        # lands the CoDrone
drone.close()	        # disconnects CoDrone

Flight commands can be confusing. Try drone.go() instead! This is what the function looks like:

drone.go(direction, duration, power)

This is what each part means:

• Direction: where the drone will fly. You can use FORWARD, BACKWARD, LEFT, RIGHT, UP, and DOWN, but make sure you type in all caps like you see here.
• Duration: how long the movement will happen in seconds. You can leave it as blank, zero, or any positive number. If duration is zero, it runs indefinitely. If duration has no number, it automatically sets to 1. If you put any positive number, duration is equal to that value.
• Power: the speed of the drone. It can by any number between 0-100, with 0 being no power and 100 being full power. If power has no number, it will default to 50.

Here’s some examples:

drone.go(UP, 3, 75)     # go up for 3 seconds at 75% power
drone.go(FORWARD)	# go forward for 1 second at 50% power
drone.go(LEFT, 6)	# go left for 6 seconds at 50% power

If you want to use drone.go() in your programs, you’ll need to include this line at the top, right underneath import CoDrone:

from CoDrone import Direction

After that, you’re good to go! Try using drone.go()in the program you wrote for Step 3 in place of drone.set()and drone.move(). What happened?

Program your CoDrone to fly in a square using the CoDrone directions you recently learned. You can use drone.set() and drone.move() or drone.go().

Using drone.set() and drone.move() will require you to keep resetting flight directions back to 0 after each movement in the square. See the example below:

import CoDrone	
drone = CoDrone.CoDrone()	
drone.pair()	        # pairs to previous drone
        
drone.takeoff()	        # takeoff for 2 seconds
drone.hover(3)	        # hover for 3 seconds
        
drone.set_pitch(30)	# set positive pitch at 30% power
drone.move(2)	        # forward for 2 seconds
drone.set_pitch(0)      # reset pitch to 0 to stop moving forward
        
drone.set_roll(-30)	# set negative roll at 30% power
drone.move(2)	        # left for 2 seconds
drone.set_roll(0)       # reset roll to 0 to stop moving sideways
        
drone.set_pitch(-30)	# set negative pitch at 30% power
drone.move(2)	        # backward for 2 seconds
drone.set_pitch(0)      # reset pitch to 0 to stop moving backward
        
drone.set_roll(30)	# set positive roll at 30% power
drone.move(2)	        # right for 2 seconds
drone.set_roll(0) # reset roll to 0 to stop moving sideways

drone.land()	        # lands the CoDrone
drone.close()	        # disconnects CoDrone

Using drone.go():

import CoDrone
from CoDrone import Direction

drone = CoDrone.CoDrone()	# easier to type drone
drone.pair(drone.Nearest)	# pairs to nearest drone

drone.takeoff()	                # takeoff for 2 seconds
drone.hover(3)	                # hover for 3 seconds

drone.go(FORWARD, 2, 30)	# moves the drone forward for 2 seconds at 30% power
drone.go(LEFT, 2, -30)	        # moves the drone left for 2 seconds at 30 power
drone.go(BACKWARD, 2, -30)	# moves the drone backward for 2 seconds a 30% power
drone.go(RIGHT, 2, 30)	        # moves the drone right for 2 seconds at 30% power

drone.land()	# lands the CoDrone
drone.close()	# disconnects CoDrone

Challenge Jumper

Have two tables or chairs 2 feet apart. The goal is to have the CoDrone take off from one chair, land on the other, turn around, fly back, and then land at the starting point. It should look like this:

A -> B then B -> A

Rules:

• The CoDrone should always fly forward between chairs.
• If you succeed, move the tables or chairs an additional 2 feet apart. Continue adding 2 feet for every success until you reach the ends of the room.

Hint: You can use drone.land()in the middle of the code and take off again.

Once you have written your code to have the CoDrone fly from chair to chair, take a look at the example solution code to compare your program!

import CoDrone
drone = CoDrone.CoDrone()
drone.pair()
drone.takeoff()
drone.hover()
drone.set_pitch(30) 
drone.move(3) # drone flies forward toward chair
drone.set_pitch(0) # reset pitch
drone.land() # land on chair
drone.takeoff() # takeoff from chair
drone.set_yaw(40)
drone.move(3) # drone turns right towards starting chair
drone.set_yaw(0) # reset yaw
drone.set_pitch(30) 
drone.move(3) # drone flies forward toward chair
drone.land()