LeapDrone Python

Last edit: February 1, 2016

What is it ?

LeapDrone Python is a Python script that enables you to control your Ardupilot drone with your hand thanks to the Leap Motion controller.

For now it can just handles the pitch and roll.

Dependencies

In order to work properly, this script needs the following dependencies:

• Python v2.7
• DroneKit-Python 2.X
• Leap Motion SDK (Python)

Installation

1. Install Python v2.7 and pip if not already installed

2. Download and install the python version of the Leap Motion SDK

Follow instructions on the Leap Motion developer portal.

To avoid inserting the path of the Leap Motion SDK in all your Python projects, you can copy the libraries in the Python site-packages directory.

The following steps show how to do it on a mac OS X setup.

Locate the path of the site-packages directory

$ python
>>> import site; site.getsitepackages()
['/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python', '/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages']

Copy the files into the site-packages directory

Refer to Leap Motion Website to know what are the needed files.

$ cp LeapSDK/lib/{Leap.py,LeapPython.so,libLeap.dylib} /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages

3. Install DroneKit-Python 2.x

Please refer to Dronekit official documentation.

4. Install LeapDrone

A simple git clone is all you need to install this project:

$ git clone https://github.com/TenOs/leapdrone-python.git

Running the script

Command usage

usage: leapdrone.py [-h] [-d] [-a Z] [-b B] [-l] [-t] [-o VAL] [-r]
                    vehicle_address

Control a drone with your hand thanks to the Leap Motion tracker

positional arguments:
  vehicle_address       For vehicle's address format see
                        http://python.dronekit.io/guide/connecting_vehicle.html#get-started-connecting

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -d, --debug           Show debug messages, kind of a verbose mode
  -a Z, --altitude Z    Relative flight altitude in meters, default is 5m
  -b B, --baud B        Set connection Baud rate
  -l, --land            Land and disarm when flight is over
  -t, --takeoff         Arm and takeoff the vehicle
  -o VAL, --overrideThrottle VAL
                        Override throttle to a value (default value is 1500)
  -r, --rtl             Return to launch, land and disarm when flight is over

NB: if both land and return to launch are set, the vehicle will only land, the priority is on land mode

Please refer to the Dronekit documentation for the vehicle address format.

Example

$ python leapdrone.py udp:localhost:14551 -a 7 -d

Technical notes

The script currently only supports the pitch and roll. For safety measures the flight mode is switched to ALT_HOLD.

Since the Leap Motion SDK only supports Python v2.7 this script cannot be run with Python 3.

License

LeapDrone Python is released under the permissive open source Apache v2.0 license.

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Copyright 2016 Jean-Baptiste Martin (github at martinjb dot com)