Drones, Rovers, and Javascript
Making things move for education
I’ve been a fan of the AR Drone movement for quite some time. These things are great to tinker with but they play a more important role elsewhere: education.
The first nodecopter event in Berlin
So far there have been 24 nodecopter events since the project began in late 2012. There are roughly 2-3 of these every month all around the world.
The popularity of these events has proven one fact: We love to make things move. We get even greater joy when we make something move without physically touching it. The feeling you get when you type “up(1)” and watch your drone shoot off into the sky is a combination of awe, nerves, and raw enthusiasm.
The AR Drone Blues
10 minutes after taking your first flight your battery will start to die. If you haven’t already smashed into a tree and damaged your drone, this is when you need to grab the charger for your proprietary AR Drone battery. Want to buy another battery to maximize your air time? $30.
Common complaints about the AR drone
- Cost: $300-$400
- Range: 200ft
- Flight time: 10 minutes
- Fragile: VERY
Learning
After fatally wounding my second drone, I decided not to get a new one. It wasn’t until 6 months later while attending a nodeconf workshop featuring the AR Drone that I realized how important this piece of tech actually is. The workshop worked like this:
- Grab a partner
- Grab a drone
- Grab a copy of the README
- Make something cool
Within minutes drones were up in the air — flipping, spinning, diving, and smashing into trees. When the time was up nobody seemed to want to leave. Everyone had their own idea for something awesome that they just HAD to finish. Having instructed workshops before, I know first hand how hard it is to summon enthusiasm. With things that move, this isn’t the case.
Rovers
Without a doubt the biggest problem with the AR Drone is the price. I wanted to find something that people could learn with that won’t empty your wallet. After a few problems with false advertising, I ended up finding a WiFi controlled Rover from Brookstone that met my criteria. Here are some of the highlights:
- Price: $80
- Video Camera (+ motor to move it up and down)
- Microphone
- Speaker
- Two motors (one for each side/track)
- Infrared sensors
- Up to 2 hours of battery life moving
- 200ft range (+ you can screw on a bigger antenna for more)
After spending some time reverse engineering I have created a library for it.
Github (work in progress): https://github.com/wearefractal/rover
Conclusion
This post isn’t a complaint about the AR Drone. This post is a request for help in creating a new way for people to learn programming.
- Find something that moves
- Write a node module for it
- Teach the world
