webflight-gamepad

This is a plugin for the browser-based AR.Drone ground control station webflight that lets you fly your drone with a joystick or gamepad.

How it works

The plugin uses the still-pretty-alpha Gamepad API for web browsers.

You can check whether your browser implements the Gamepad API with this test page.

Running the software

You will need the ardrone-webflight and webflight-traffic repos:

git clone git://github.com/eschnou/ardrone-webflight.git
git clone git://github.com/wiseman/webflight-gamepad.git

Run npm install for each:

(cd ardrone-webflight && npm install)
(cd webflight-gamepad && npm install)

Link webflight-gamepad into webflight's plugins directory:

(cd ardrone-webflight/plugins && ln -s ../../webflight-gamepad gamepad)

Copy ardrone-webflight's config.js.example to config.js:

(cd ardrone-webflight && cp config.js.example config.js)

Add "gamepad" and "public" to the plugins array in config.js, so it looks something like this:

var config = {
    plugins: [
      "video-stream"  // Display the video as a native h264 stream decoded in JS 
      , "hud"         // Display the artificial horizon, altimeter, compass, etc.
      , "pilot"       // Pilot the drone with the keyboard
      , "gamepad"     // Pilot the drone with a joystick/gamepad
    ]
};

module.exports = config;

Start the server

Now you can start the webflight server:

(cd ardrone-webflight && node app.js)

Plugin your gamepad, point your browser at http://localhost:3000/ and then press a button on your gamepad to activate the plugin.

If you have a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick, you should now be able to control the drone's roll/pitch/yaw with the joystick and climb/descent rate with the throttle.

If you have a device that doesn't work with the existing code you may have to change the code to use different control axes. Open an issue and let me know.