Smart Photography Drone

Published on 19 May 2022. Written by Jagmohan

Drone is one of the best invention of the flying industry. In this project you will build a drone that can fly on its own. You will also install a camera at its base. It will have the ability to detect humans and take snapshots by itself. You will program it to fly without a remote control.

You will use Raspberry Pi as the brain of the system. Brushless motors to fly the drone. Accelerometer to keep a track of speed. Gyroscope to provide stability. You will use the concepts of video processing to detect a human.

Project Description:

Raspberry Pi 3: It is a third-generation, single-board computer. It contains a 64-bit quad-core processor. The clock speed is 1.5 GHz. An external micro SD card provides memory to Raspberry Pi. You can give instructions using the Raspbian OS.

Raspbian OS: It is similar to Windows or Ubuntu OS. You can code the Raspberry Pi using Python in the Raspbian OS. It is user-friendly and allows multi-tasking.

Brushless Motors: It is majorly used in drones. It provides high torque to weight ratio, has longer lifetime, reduced noise and more torque per watt.

Accelerometer sensor: It detects the acceleration in three axes. You will use this sensor to keep the acceleration and velocity of the drone in control.

Gyroscope sensor: It senses the angular velocity of the drone. You will use this sensor to stabilise the motion of the drone.

Camera: You will use a camera to do video processing as well as take snapshots. You will video processing libraries to detect humans. You will program it to take snap shots only when it detects humans.

ESC: Electronic Speed Controller. You will use it to control the speed of the brushless motors. Based on this your drone will move.

Python: You will use Python to program the drone.

Li-Po battery: It will provide the power supply to the drone. It is rechargeable and gives a long power backup.

Project implementation:

Begin with the fabrication of the frame for your drone. Use the carbon fibre rods to make a quad-rotor drone. Design it such a way that all the additional components can be fixed.
Fix the brushless motors and the propellers. Fix the Raspberry pi, sensors and the camera on the designated places.
Use wires to interface the sensors with the Raspberry Pi.
Use long wires to interface the motors. Fix these wires on the carbon fibre rods. This will make the drone stable.
Type the code for motion of the brushless motors. Read the input from the sensors. Use the sensor inputs to make the drone hover around and keep it stable.
Run the code to start the drone and test it to optimise the flight.

Programming Language: Python

Kit required to develop Smart Photography Drone:

Technologies you will learn by working on Smart Photography Drone:

Smart Photography Drone

Any Questions?

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