Building Smart Drones with ESP8266 and Arduino

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Title Page

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Contributors

About the author

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Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

Download the example code files

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Conventions used

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Reviews

Disclaimer

Things to Know Before You Build a Drone

Drone

Types of drones

How can we differentiate between drones

Drone frames

Types of motors used for drones

Several types of speed controllers

Flight control board

Radio transmitter and receiver

Battery

Propellers

Battery adapters/chargers

Connectors

Some modules to make the drone smarter

Power distribution board

Summary

Assembling Your Drone

Assembling the frame

Connecting the motors

Connecting the ESC

Connecting the ArduPilot

Connecting the radio

Connecting the RC receiver and transmitter

Connecting the battery

Binding transmitter to the receiver

Know the aerodynamics needed for flying a drone

Hovering

Rising or climbing or taking off

Dropping or descent or falling

Yaw

Pitch and roll

Saving your drone from crashing

Check things before flying

Check the security protocols for flying a drone outside

Summary

Preparing Your Drone for Flying

What is ESP8266?

Connecting the ESP8266 to Arduino

Downloading and installing APM Planner or Mission Planner

Configuring the quadcopter

Frame type selection

Compass calibration

Access calibration

Radio calibration

Flight mode calibration

Failsafe calibration

Summary

Building a Follow Me Drone

What is a Follow Me drone?

Making a Follow Me drone using ArduPilot

Using a smartphone to enable the Follow Me feature of ArduPilot

Using DroidPlanner 2

Using the Tower application

Building an Arduino-based Follow Me drone

GPS Tracker using ESP8266

Summary

Building a Mission Control Drone

Surveying with a drone

Using drones and delivery man

Some other tweaks with the Flight Plan screen

Communicating with the drone via the ESP8266

Summary

Building a Drone to Take Selfies and Record Videos

Photography drones

Requirements

Assembling the photography drone

Connecting the camera

Choosing a gimbal

Configuring the camera with the ArduPilot

Connection

Controlling the camera

Flying and taking shots

Tips for better quality videos

Controlling the camera gimbal using ESP8266

Summary

Building Prototype Drones – Gliding Drones

What is a glider?

Lift

Drag

Airfoil and its type

Incident and decalage angle