ex_drone

BEAM-native drone control for Elixir and Erlang. Fly, monitor, and simulate programmable drones using supervised processes, telemetry, and missions.

Safety Warning

Drones are physical devices that can cause injury or property damage.

• Do not fly near faces or people
• Use prop guards at all times
• Test in the simulator before connecting to real hardware
• Use open indoor spaces or outdoor areas with clear lines of sight
• Have an emergency stop ready at all times
• Understand and follow local laws and regulations

Installation

Add ex_drone to your list of dependencies in mix.exs:

def deps do
  [
    {:ex_drone, "~> 0.1.0"}
  ]
end

Quick Start

# Connect to the simulator (no hardware needed)
{:ok, drone} = Drone.connect(:sim, name: :my_drone)

# Enter SDK mode
Drone.connect_sdk(drone)

# Fly
Drone.takeoff(drone)
Drone.move(drone, :up, 40)
Drone.move(drone, :forward, 100)
Drone.rotate(drone, :cw, 90)
Drone.land(drone)

# Disconnect
Drone.disconnect(drone)

Safety Policies

All commands pass through a safety pipeline before reaching the drone:

# Indoor flight with tight limits
{:ok, drone} = Drone.connect(:sim, name: :classroom, safety: [indoor: true])

# Custom safety limits
{:ok, drone} = Drone.connect(:sim, name: :safe,
  safety: [
    max_altitude_cm: 200,
    max_distance_cm: 500,
    prop_guards: true
  ]
)

# Dry-run mode (validates commands without sending)
{:ok, drone} = Drone.connect(:sim, name: :test, safety: [dry_run: true])

See Drone.Safety.Policy for all safety options.

Tello Connection

{:ok, drone} = Drone.connect(:tello, name: :tello_1)
Drone.connect_sdk(drone)
Drone.takeoff(drone)
Drone.land(drone)
Drone.disconnect(drone)

Mission Scripts

mission =
  Drone.Mission.new()
  |> Drone.Mission.sdk_mode()
  |> Drone.Mission.takeoff()
  |> Drone.Mission.move(:up, 40)
  |> Drone.Mission.rotate(:cw, 90)
  |> Drone.Mission.land()

{:ok, results} = Drone.Mission.run(mission, :my_drone)

Architecture

• Drone.Vehicle -- One GenServer per drone, supervised
• Drone.Adapter -- Behaviour for drone communication (Sim, Tello, future adapters)
• Drone.Geometry -- Shared position math (move, rotate, flip deltas)
• Drone.Safety -- Pure validation module, no side effects
• Drone.Telemetry -- :telemetry events for observability
• Drone.Mission -- Command sequence DSL

License

MIT