Lesson 2: Keyboard Remote

What does it mean for a robot to be autonomous or remote controlled? An autonomous robot is a robot that can perform an action automatically without being directly controlled by a person. These robots are usually able to use their sensors to gain information and make decisions! A remote controlled robot is a robot that has a person directly controlling what the robot does with a remote controller.

Try taking the “Autonomous or Not?” quiz below. You will see a a bunch of different robots and answer which you think is an autonomous robot or a remote controlled robot!

Copy-of-Autonomous-or-Not_

Pseudocode is a helpful way to keep your code organized and it can help with planning big projects like a keyboard remote! Here is an example of how pseudocode might be used.

if I enter "w"
then my drone will fly up towards the ceiling for 1 second

Can you think of any other buttons we might need to build a keyboard remote? What flight direction do you think your drone should go for each button?

User input is also great for remote controlling your drone! In this activity, you will program your keyboard to act as a remote, with “wasd” and “ijkl” as the joysticks.

First, import the CoDrone Mini and time libraries, and then create the drone object and pair your drone. 

Next, include print commands for “Command options” and then for each of the eight flight directions: positive and negative roll, pitch, yaw, and throttle. Make sure to include a “quit” option, which will land the drone.

Your menu should look something like this:

import CoDrone_mini

import time

drone = CoDrone_mini.CoDrone()

drone.pair()



print("Command Options: ")

print("w: throttle up \n"

    "s: throttle down\n"

    "a: yaw left\n"

    "d: yaw right\n"

    "i: pitch forward\n"

    "k: pitch backward\n"

    "j: roll left\n"

    "l: roll right\n"

    "q: quit")

Have your drone take off, and then set your trim if needed. This is for if your drone is drifting and you want to fix its pitch or roll, so if you’re not having that issue, you can skip this step. 

Next, create a variable called power and set its value to 40. This way, the default power will be 40%.

Your code should look like this:

drone.takeoff()

drone.set_trim(0,0) # Adjust for your drone

power = 40

Set up a while loop so that while true, the program can take user input to make decisions. Next, reset the roll, pitch, yaw, and throttle to 0.

Create a variable called direction to store input(). In the parameters for input(), write “Input a command: “. This will print the command, and when the user inputs a letter, it will be stored as an option and called later on.

Your code should look like this:

while True:

    drone.set_throttle(0)

    drone.set_roll(0)

    drone.set_yaw(0)

    drone.set_pitch(0)


    direction = input("Input a command: ")

Just like the user input menu, you need to use if, else if, and else statements to have your drone fly in different directions based on the user input. For the w key, use an if statement and then include a command for your drone to throttle up. In the parameters, use the power variable, which will have the drone move at 40% power.

    if direction == "w":

        drone.set_throttle(power)

For the other 7 flight commands, use else if statements. If you want the drone to go to the left, down, or backwards, put a negative sign next to the power variable in the parameters.

    elif direction == "s":

        drone.set_throttle(-power)

    elif direction == "a":

        drone.set_yaw(-power)

    elif direction == "d":

        drone.set_yaw(power)

    elif direction == "i":

        drone.set_pitch(power)

    elif direction == "k":

        drone.set_pitch(-power)

    elif direction == "j":

        drone.set_roll(-power)

    elif direction == "l":

        drone.set_roll(power)

Write one more else if statement for the quit option. This will wait so the landing command isn’t skipped, land the drone, and break out of the loop.

    elif direction == "q":

        time.sleep(0.05)

        drone.land()

        break

Include an option that will let the user know they made a mistake if they input something that isn’t an option in the program. 

    else:

        print("Not a command")

Finally, include a delay and a move command with one second in the parameters. This is what will actually move the drone, along with the code you wrote for each key!

    time.sleep(0.05)

    drone.move(1)

Outside of the loop, include a print command so you know when you’ve exited the program.

print("Done")