As drone shows are becoming more accessible to event companies because of the maturing of the technology and the controlling software being even more easier to use, many event companies are considering adding drone shows to their portfolios. Many companies that already have running business in the field of event management, might have the means and technology to do fireworks, laser and other show technologies. Therefore a request to integrate drone shows into the existing ecosystem seems entirely logical.

To provide a solution for these requirements, three milestones must be completed:

• Drone show must be synchronized with the existing hardware like pyro consoles, lasers etc. - this means adding timecode capabilities to drone shows
• Fireworks must be integrated on the drones themselves
• The drone movements and pyrotechnical effects must be in sync with the music

 In order to achieve a synchronised start of the drone show and launch of the fireworks and to add a nice celebrating mood to the venue, we decided to add music to the show and sync the movements of the drones and fireworks shots to it.

 As the whole process is complex and involves different industries of the show (like animators, pyrotechnics and drone specialists) we decided to split the work into smaller tasks to ease the planning.

 To achieve the first milestone all the involved parties had to agree on how they would communicate the timecode and what timecode standart will be used.

 The initial Timecode support for Drone Show Software was designed with a specific hardware - FireOne TimeMachine in mind. This industry leading device is fully supported for use with Drone Show Software and can be integrated with other Timecode reliant hardware as well. The most common use for this TimeMachine is in case that a show must be started based on a Clock as the machine features a GPS receiver to get exact time.

In this case the goal was to synchronise all the involved system launch and exact clock time was not critical. Therefore it was decided to use a PC with a professional audio interface to transmit timecode. A software (ShowSim 3D) on the computer would generate the Timecode and any Timecode reliant hardware could be connected to the multi-output audio interface.

The additional benefit of this configuration is that it allows more flexibility - any involved device can get the Timecode in its required format, be it fireworks, drones, lasers, fountains or other.

• It was agreed that the most universal way to provide timecode to all parties is a professional audio interface with several XLR type Line out outputs. And that the timecode would be generated from ShowSim 3D software
• From the audio interface the timecode would be then passed to the fireworks control unit over one output and to the drone Ground Station PC (Drone Show Software) over another audio output. From a third line output the music would be transmitted to the amplifier and speakers.

Another task to complete was to decide on exact music that would be played during the show and what the drones would display in the sky. We decided on a celebrative audio track: https://audiojungle.net/item/victory-day/24011338

Meanwhile the animators were doing their job and making sketches of show scenes that would be displayed, the ideas included:

• A firework as a symbol for the 4th of July celebrations
• Americal bald eagle
• The shape of the USA
• The Statue of Liberty
• 4TH JULY wording as to be clear what is the show for
• The US flag

Once the animation scenes and the music were agreed upon, the animators began to create the animation itself while trying to match the scenes in the animation with the music.

Then with the finished animation ready, the fireworks technicians planned the timings and pyro shots that they will use and set up a timecode track.

Meanwhile the drone engineers were developing a triggering solution to trigger the electric match igniter from the drone flight controller. It was decided that the easiest way to trigger the charge would be using available PWM based drivers where input would be 4S (14.2V) from drone battery and PWM signal from flight controller servo output and the electronic match would be connected to the outputs.

To position the fireworks charge on the drone a 3D printed holder was designed to hold the charge. In the picture - neon green pyro holder and on the right is the PWM driver:

With the holder and triggering system ready, drone team would do a pre-show - fly the whole animation started with the help of timecode to verify the following aspects of the process:

• Show can be successfully launched with timecode and is in sync with the music
• The animation is safe to fly and speeds and distances are within safe limits
• The electronic match can be successfully triggered during the animation

After a successful pre-show everything is ready for the actual venue. We decided to celebrate the US Independence Day with the show (therefore the symbols and music). And here is the final result:

Within the bustling world of drones there are always open opportunities to be followed and a drone show service is certainly one of them. Even if you don’t have the funding or the technical knowledge of setting up your own fleet of drones, there are other convenient ways to score that investment pitch without even having touched a drone. 

Let’s start with the basics of your show – it’s the vision of what you want to present your audience. Get yourself a clean sheet and make some sketches – short scenes that you would want to display using the drones.  For example, you have a wedding in mind, so you start with the obvious symbols – a heart, a diamond ring, a pair of wedding rings and the magical words “I DO”

Now you should make these symbols nice and regular as well as turn all of this into something watchable so you take the free and open source 3D creation tool Blender. Spend a few hours learning about basic concepts of drawing animation using the tons of Blender tutorials available online and set yourself on a dedicated path to getting your basic animation ready.

Covering all nuances of creating specific animations for drone shows requires more than a few pages and an hour of watching tutorials, but with some dedication everyone is able to get it done. During the process of creating the animation it is important to respect physical limitations of the drones which might actually perform the animation - this means keeping the distance between every two objects (drones) at least 2.5 meters and the speeds the objects are moving under 5 meters per second.

Let’s assume that a few days later you’ve got your simple animation ready. The end product would look like a grid of colored spheres where each sphere represents a drone and its color during the show.

Still to be completely sure that your creation is up to the task of lighting the sky with dozens of drones, it must be verified using the Drone Show Software provided Python scripts which help to verify the finished animation for safety. 

A more accessible and visually appealing way of checking the finished animation is the Path Viewer tool which is available with the Drone Show Software - leading software solution for drone swarm control.

The Path Viewer can be used to check the animation for collisions and speed problems as well as to demonstrate the finished animation on the map at a specific location.

The tool also allows to visualize any possible dangerous situations during the show - the drone paths are colored based on each of the drone’s speed or proximity to another drone.

Once the animation has been confirmed to be safe you can use the same Path viewer which is included with the Drone Show Software to beautifully visualize your creation anywhere on earth using a three dimensional map. Here is a simulated flight of the animation in Drone Show Software:

With the help of such good looking visualizations it is easy to gain momentum and find investors who can help to actually fly the created animation with real drones. The last step is to perform the finished animation with real drones and here is the video how such animation looks in real life:

This is all it takes to become a creator in the sky using Drone Show Software. In about a week anyone can get one's idea into the air and display to the public or simply present it as a lucrative opportunity in the future.

Other real shows are available on our portfolio page: https://www.droneshowsoftware.com/portfolio

Greetings, 
Some interesting news from UgCS Team.

We have modified the firmware based on ArduCopter v3.2 firmware for it to allow us to control the speed of the vehicle in an automated mission in real time through the throttle channel on the RC remote.

How it happens:

1. Install the new firmware through Mission Planner. After installing, make sure you recalibrate the compass.

2. Create a mission in UgCS, upload it to the vehicle and start flying.

3. As soon as the vehicle is in “Auto” flight mode you will be able to control the speed of the vehicle with the throttle stick of your RC remote.

The speed can be changed between 0 m/s (when throttle is set to zero) and 10 m/s (when throttle is set to maximum) and anything in-between. For instance, when the throttle on the RC remote is set to 70% the vehicle will fly at approximately 7 m/s.

The behavior of the vehicle in other flight modes is not altered in any way and they work as normal

A few notes:

• This has been tested to work on a Pixhawk flight controller on the Iris+ platform.
• The change in speed is not instantaneous. By default the acceleration of the vehicle is limited to 100 cm/s². It can be changed via Mission Planner by increasing the parameter “WPNAV_ACCEL” to a higher value, e.g. 500, which corresponds to 5m/s².
• The vehicle will still automatically slow down before sharp turns.

This feature of variable speed control can be used in fields such as aerial photography, sports videos, monitoring industrial and agricultural objects and other. If you are interested in this, feel free to contact us!

Safe flights,
UgCS Team