What is a drone? Explicitly, it is a semi-intelligent, remotely controlled system. If you stumbled into Droneuncover.com and have no idea what this device is all about, continue reading.
The movement of a drone may depend on an operator’s commands. Its itinerary may have been programmed. The aerial device can also show a certain range of movement: it then follows a programmed route but can adapt to the conditions encountered.
An industrialist in the field goes so far as to propose this definition: “The drone is an extension of the hand of an operator who needs to do a job at height without having the infrastructure to carry it out on his own.”
The implementation of the unmanned aerial vehicle requires the operation of a number of technical components related to each other.
How Drones Work?
Dones work in many ways depending on how it is designed and what for but all drones feature basic similar principles that other aerial vehicles like airplanes have. In addition to the presence of a propulsion and suspension system in the air, the equipment includes various sensors and data signals, cameras, accelerometers, gyroscopes, sonars, GPS power plants, etc.
The captured data is sent to a command center. The drone then receives instructions from the operator in return. The computer unit in the device can also process some of this data so that the device can react immediately to specific weather conditions, such as offsetting the effect of a gust of wind.
Many models incorporate a safety system: in the event of a component failure, the drone will land or return to its base automatically.
Key Dates in the History of Drones
1916: In Britain, Archibald Low launched the first project of an unmanned and radio-controlled target aircraft.
1951: The American Ryan Firebee target aircraft is the first jet drone to be mass-produced.
1971: Israel became the first state to have an operational squadron of UCAV in its military forces.
1973: Designed and built in Israel, the Tadiran Mastiff performs reconnaissance missions during the Yom Kippur conflict. It is considered the first advanced military unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV)
1990: Japan uses drones for civilian applications: application and agricultural surveillance.
1991: During the assault in Iraq, for Operation Desert Storm, Pioneer aerial vehicles carried out more than 530 sorties and one of them filmed the surrender of Iraqi troops.
1994: General Atomics introduces a new generation of long-range UCAVs with the MQ-1 Predator.
1994: The first UCAV were dispatched to Bosnia, the Fox AT-1 from CAC Systems, and the Gnat 750 from General Atomics to carry out surveillance missions.
2002: Drones change scale with AeroVironment’s RQ-11 Raven, 1.1 meters long. It is powered by an electric motor but launches by hand.
2009: Iraqi insurgents manage, via Russian software, SkyGrabber, to intercept unencrypted information from a Predator UCAV.
2010: The Parrot AR, an iPhone-driven aerial device, is the company’s first mainstream success. Some 120,000 units are sold worldwide in six months.
Today, hundreds of thousands of aerial machines of different sizes have been manufactured primarily for aerial photography. One group of prominent users are Vloggers who use these devices for taking aerial photographs for their video contents. Most of these civilian drones used by videographers can be found at Droneuncover.com.
What Programming Languages are used to Program Drones?
In order for the drone to fly, complex programming is needed to command the device. Unlike other remote-control commands, drone programming involves 2 layers – high-level and low-level programming. High-level means the firmware needed by the device itself and low-level means that program needed by the ground command control, or the primary software. The following programming languages are primarily used when coding software needed to fly the machine.
To answer this question, we have to understand that there are two different layers of drone programming: low-level and high-level. In low-level programming, we are dealing with the device’s firmware, while in high-level programming, we are talking about applications or software level
C
C is a programming language that meets the imperative paradigm. It is low level (close to machine language), is (to my taste) not suitable for what most want to do. Nevertheless, there is still a very good basis in general computing (brings several basic concepts).
C++
Multi-paradigm programming language: Object-oriented (that’s cool) and procedural. It is a very complex language, which was once the “little brother” of the C. Now it’s a totally distinct language, but it has kept a (good) part of the syntax of C. It is used as a language in the Arduino embedded system. It is also very often used in the creation of games. Finally, there is a lot to talk about it.
C#
A programming language developed by Microsoft (so is originally designed only for Windows systems). It is mostly object-oriented and provides the .NET framework. It is very simple to create graphical interfaces with this language (for the time it is accompanied by its framework).
Python
Interpreted and object-oriented programming language. It is very often used in the WEB (server-side), because it is very simple and effective for “small tasks” (I mean that you will never create a multiplayer MMORPG in 3D only in Python (or so, it will be slow and ugly (personal opinion for “ugly” … (in short). However, it is possible to create beautiful graphical interfaces or to control an Arduino remotely. I even think it’s possible to program an Arduino python, but I prefer not to say.
Microsoft’s Framework NETWORK (short for .NET)
First of all, a framework is a set of software component that allows you to achieve a certain number of things without having to code these things by ourselves, it makes your life what easier (in broad outlines | see Wikipedia). There are plenty of them.
However, some languages that use this framework have been thought of, created so that they are in “perfect harmony” with it.
Can PHP be used to program a drone?
Many people are asking this question and it is understandable because many people also know how to code PHP. PHP is probably the most popular web programming language out there as according to statistics, it is used by more than 70% of websites with server-side applications.
But drone programming is different and PHP is not Python. Although it might be possible to code the device’s firmware with PHP, it still needs other languages like C++ and Python to complete the software. So to answer the question if you can use PHP, it’s YES but you need to incorporate it with other languages. It’s NO if you plan to use PHP alone.