(Ⅳ) Crazyflie Drone Swarm Control Notes Part 2

Ⅰ. Motion Capture Software SDK Configuration

Taking motion capture software version XINGYING 4.2.0.5495 as an example, other versions are similar. Open the motion capture software and connect the cameras. Click View -> Data Broadcast in the menu bar. In the network card address dropdown, select an address on the same network segment as ubuntu. Here, select 192.168.5.141. Under the SDK stream, select multicast mode and enable SDK.

Figure 1 - Open Data Broadcast View

Figure 2 - Enable SDK

Ⅱ. Crazyswarm2 Platform Configuration

(Ⅰ) Place SDK in Specified Directory

Place the nokov_sdk folder in the deps directory of libmotioncapture (path: ~/crazyswarm2/motion_capture_tracking/motion_capture_tracking/deps/libmotioncapture/deps).

Figure 3 - Place SDK in Specified Directory

(Ⅱ) Compile motion_capture_tracking Source Code

Modify "set(LIBMOTIONCAPTURE_ENABLE_NOKOV OFF)" in the CMakeLists.txt file of motion_capture_tracking to "set(LIBMOTIONCAPTURE_ENABLE_NOKOV ON)" to enable SDK.

Figure 4 - motion_capture_tracking Enable SDK

Then modify "option(LIBMOTIONCAPTURE_ENABLE_NOKOV "Enable Nokov" OFF)" in the CMakeLists.txt file of libmotioncapture (path: ~/crazyswarm2/motion_capture_tracking/motion_capture_tracking/deps/libmotioncapture) to "option(LIBMOTIONCAPTURE_ENABLE_NOKOV "Enable Nokov" ON)"

Figure 5 - libmotioncapture Enable SDK

Use the following commands to recompile the motion_capture_tracking source code (the previous document pulled the motion_capture_tracking source code to the crazyswarm2 directory)

cd ~/crazyswarm2/
colcon build --symlink-install
source ~/.bashrc

(Ⅲ) Configure SDK in Crazyswarm2

In the motion_capture.yaml file in crazyswarm2 (path: ~/crazyswarm2/crazyflie/config), change type to nokov, and modify hostname to the network card address selected in Section Ⅰ: 192.168.5.141.

Figure 6 - Configure type and hostname

Ⅲ. Basic Operation Flight Demonstration

(Ⅰ) Single Aircraft Takeoff and Landing Control

Turn on 1 crazyflie and place it in the motion capture site with the nose facing the positive x-axis direction. Create a rigid body in the motion capture software with the name nokov1.

Figure 7 - Create Rigid Body

Add the configuration of this crazyflie in crazyflies.yaml.

Figure 8 - Add One Crazyflie Configuration

Open a terminal and run the following command to start the service node.

ros2 launch crazyflie launch.py gui:=False rviz:=True

Open another terminal and run the following command to view the position data of crazyflie.

ros2 topic echo /poses

Open another terminal and run the following command to start the takeoff and landing script.

cd crazyswarm2/crazyflie_examples/crazyflie_examples/
python hello_world.py

Figure 9 - rviz Display

Figure 10 - Crazyflie Takeoff

(Ⅱ) Swarm Figure-8 Control

Turn on 3 crazyflies and place them in the motion capture site with the nose facing the positive x-axis direction. Create rigid bodies in the motion capture software with names nokov1, nokov2, and nokov3 respectively.

Figure 11 - Create Rigid Bodies

Add the configuration of these crazyflies in crazyflies.yaml.

Figure 12 - Add Three Crazyflies Configuration

Go to the ~/crazyswarm2/crazyflie_examples/crazyflie_examples folder and modify figure8.py, comment out lines 29~32 (fly to initial position).

Figure 13 - Comment Out Code for Flying to Set Initial Position

Open a terminal and run the following command to start the service node.

ros2 launch crazyflie launch.py gui:=False rviz:=True

Open another terminal and run the following command to view the position data of crazyflies.

ros2 topic echo /poses

Open another terminal and run the following command to start the figure-8 script.

cd crazyswarm2/crazyflie_examples/crazyflie_examples/
python figure8.py

Figure 14 - rviz Display

Figure 15 - Swarm Figure-8