This tutorial will guide you through controlling a drone in the AirGen simulation environment within the GRID platform. You’ll learn fundamental operations including takeoff, altitude control, navigating using different movement methods, path planning, and landing.

Notebook for this example can be found: Here

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Getting Started: Initializing Your Drone

First, let’s initialize a drone object in the AirGen environment. This is our entry point to controlling aerial vehicles in the simulation.

from grid.robot.aerial.airgen_drone import AirGenDrone 
airgen_drone_0 = AirGenDrone()

This code creates an instance of a drone that we can control in our simulation. The AirGenDrone class provides an interface to the underlying vehicle simulation.

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Basic Flight Operations

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Taking Off and Setting Altitude

After initializing our drone, the first steps are to take off and reach a safe operating altitude:

# Take off from the ground
airgen_drone_0.client.takeoffAsync().join()

# Move to an altitude of 25 meters
airgen_drone_0.client.moveToZAsync(-25, 5).join()

In AirGen, altitude uses a negative Z-axis convention, which means negative values represent positions above the ground. The second parameter (5) specifies the velocity in meters per second.

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Flight Patterns Using Different Control Methods

AirGen provides multiple methods to control drone movement. Let’s explore three different approaches to fly the same square pattern.

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Method 1: Velocity Control

The first method uses velocity control, where we specify the speed and direction for each segment:

# Fly in a square path using velocity control
airgen_drone_0.client.moveByVelocityAsync(5, 0, 0, 5).join()  
airgen_drone_0.client.moveByVelocityAsync(0, 5, 0, 5).join()  
airgen_drone_0.client.moveByVelocityAsync(-5, 0, 0, 5).join() 
airgen_drone_0.client.moveByVelocityAsync(0, -5, 0, 5).join()

The moveByVelocityAsync method takes four parameters:

  • vx: Velocity in the X direction (east/west)
  • vy: Velocity in the Y direction (north/south)
  • vz: Velocity in the Z direction (up/down)
  • duration: Time to maintain this velocity in seconds

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Method 2: Position Control

The second method uses absolute position control, where we specify exact coordinates for the drone to reach:

# Fly in a square path using position control
airgen_drone_0.client.moveToPositionAsync(25, 0, -25, 5).join()   
airgen_drone_0.client.moveToPositionAsync(25, 25, -25, 5).join()  
airgen_drone_0.client.moveToPositionAsync(0, 25, -25, 5).join()   
airgen_drone_0.client.moveToPositionAsync(0, 0, -25, 5).join()

The moveToPositionAsync method takes four parameters:

  • x, y, z: Target position coordinates
  • velocity: Speed at which to move to the target position

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Method 3: Path Control

The third method uses path control, where we define a series of waypoints for the drone to follow:

# Import AirGen for Vector3r class
import airgen

# Define waypoints for a square path
waypoints = [
    airgen.Vector3r(25, 0, -25),   # First corner
    airgen.Vector3r(25, 25, -25),  # Second corner
    airgen.Vector3r(0, 25, -25),   # Third corner
    airgen.Vector3r(0, 0, -25),    # Back to start
]

# Move along the defined path
airgen_drone_0.client.moveOnPathAsync(
    waypoints, 5, 60, airgen.DrivetrainType.MaxDegreeOfFreedom, 
        airgen.YawMode(False, 0), -1, 1).join()

The moveOnPathAsync method is more complex and takes several parameters:

  • waypoints: List of Vector3r points defining the path
  • velocity: Speed in m/s
  • timeout_sec: Maximum time to complete the operation
  • drivetrain: Control mode for the drone’s movement
  • yaw_mode: Controls how the drone’s heading changes during flight
  • lookahead: Distance to look ahead on the path
  • adaptive_lookahead: Whether to adapt the lookahead distance based on velocity

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Controlling Orientation During Flight

You can control the drone’s orientation (yaw) while following a path:

# Fly the same square path but with yaw angle relative to direction of travel
airgen_drone_0.client.moveOnPathAsync(
    waypoints, 5, 60, airgen.DrivetrainType.ForwardOnly, 
        airgen.YawMode(False, 0), -1, 1).join()

By changing the drivetrain parameter to ForwardOnly, the drone will automatically adjust its yaw to face the direction of travel, similar to how an airplane flies.

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Landing Sequence

When finished with flight operations, it’s important to land the drone safely:

# Descend to a low altitude before landing
airgen_drone_0.client.moveToZAsync(-2, 5).join()

# Execute landing sequence
airgen_drone_0.client.landAsync().join()

The landing sequence first descends to a safe height (2 meters) and then performs the landing operation.