Mavelous

November 7, 2012 11:58 AM

Mavelous
Mavelous is an open-source web/HTML-based ground control station for amateur UAVs/DIY drones. It is the first open-source ground control station that lets you control your drone from your tablet or even your phone.

Drones are changing the world, and the world of amateur drones is roughly in the Homebrew Computer Club-stage of enthusiasm and innovation.

I began the mavelous project when I decided I wanted to be able to tap a map location on my iPad/iPhone and make my drone fly there. There was no existing ground control station that could do that, so I created one with the goal of being extremely portable, able to run on anything with a modern web browser.

Mavelous is still in the early stages of development, but tap-the-map flying is a reality; This YouTube video shows my collaborator Pat Hickey flying his drone with an iPad and with an Android phone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNql3n4C8iA

Mavelous has a front-end that is written in javascript, and a back-end written in Python.

We have a mailing list, and we welcome additional contributors: https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/mavelous

Video of Pat giving a little general background info on Arducopter and ground control stations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTw9d9u7w2s

My ideal outcome would be for mavelous to grow to become the ground control station of choice for applications like drone journalism, surgical flavor strikes, and anti-surveillance protest tools.

Role: Founder & programmer

posted by jjwiseman (3 comments total)

This project was posted to MetaFilter by double block and bleed on December 8, 2012: Marvelous Mavelous

This is so awesome. Well done.
posted by clearly at 10:31 PM on November 18, 2012

Thanks, clearly!
posted by jjwiseman at 2:29 PM on November 19, 2012

I didn't realize that drone aircraft were so accessible to hobbyists. The thing that has kept me from buying an RC helicopter all of these years was the fear of my expensive toy crashing into a million bits before I could learn to fly it properly.

I cloned the software and spent an hour playing with it and looking at arducopter kits. I may have found my next hobby.

The web interface is wicked cool. You've done some very nice work here.
posted by double block and bleed at 9:23 PM on December 8, 2012