As someone who came from robotics to the RC side of drones I discovered that there were many things that I found not that well documented. The learning experience over the last 2/3 years taught myself and my team many things thereby a few weeks ago we decided to launch the Ubuntu DIY drone kit, a low cost kit available in red/white and yellow/black aimed for people that desired to build themselves a Linux (Ubuntu) drone with instructions and material to do everything step-by-step.
Today we present here our experience. Everything is based on technologies supported and sponsored by the Dronecode Foundation:
The assembly guide has been written with few assumptions in mind so that pretty much anyone can build their own smart drone (referring to the Linux side of it) and the operation manual provides an introduction to the basic concepts of autopilots and APM.
We were excited to see how many people started purchasing this kit thereby we though that it would make sense to organize a local session about "Building your own Linux drone" teaching people the basics about drone assembly and maintenance, APM, GCS and safety aspects.
The course duration was 2 weeks and it has been a complete success. We've had 15 students and they all were really satisfied. We closed the course with a visit to Erle Robotics and introduced slightly the engineering side of what we do.
Many thanks to Lander and David for a fantastic work supporting the course. Those interested in reproducing this experience can get in touch with us at https://erlerobotics.com/blog/dronedu/. We'd be happy to share material and additional content.
I'm personally quite interested in what the community thinks. Are there any previous experiences? Any advice on this side? Anyone interested to take over this initiative and reproduce it somewhere else?
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Comments
Hi everyone,
Thanks for the cheers. We are really surprised and excited by how good the outcome of the course was.
@Andy, we are considering several options to offer this opportunity to many more and we do appreciate suggestions.
Bests,
I would like to take Erles Robotic course online, either solo or more fun with some friends, in a workshop environment. Are you thinking about this?
Very cool!
Standalone Erle-Brain is 269 Euros but this kit is just 299 Euros which seems reasonable for students!
Thanks.
Really Great Victor,
Looks like a wonderful class and a very worthwhile outcome.
I think a similar thing could be very popular here in the US (Hint).
I also think the price on your DIY Drone Kit is very reasonable and it is a good simple design, excellent for starting out.
Best Regards,
Gary
Love this. Thanks so much for the documentation -- that's why this site was created!