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Ed Tech Thoughts from the Space Coast
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Ed Tech Thoughts from the Space Coast

Overview of Challenge ~ Smart Drone Programmer

  • First Level: Learn to Connect To and Upload a Flight Plan for Simple Take Off And ReturnOn this Level you will learn how to connect to and upload a very simple flight pattern for a Tello Drone.
  • Second Level: Fly a 10' Square PatternUsing the one foot square tiles as a guide, set the launch pad up at the center of a ten foot square. Mark of the corners of the square with the brightly colored cones. Program your flight plan to take off from the middle and fly all the way around the perimeter of the square, returning to the middle. If you beat this level - Go all out for a Bonus PRO PILOT Prize Package by videoing your drone flying diagonally through your square to create two triangles!
  • Third Level: Fly in Curved PatternsLearn how to fly on a horizontal incline, an arc, and finish with all sorts of curved patterns!
  • Fourth Level: OBSTACLE COURSE TIME!Design an Obstacle Course, Document Your Fastest Time Flying Through It, Challenge the Previous Team to Beat Your Time!
  • Show More
Background Resources for Teachers • 2019 the shupester with thanks to Ethan Barber, who (as an eighth grader) helped develop this challenge!

Level One : Connect !

Level 1 Complete!
Congratulations you have completed all of the steps successfully! Now lets start to build our programming and flight pattern skills.

Click on the tab at the top of this section - and move on to Level 2!

    Get To Know the Tello and DroneBlocks!

    Watch this video before you start the challenge to get an overview.

    play1
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    Prepare your Equipment

    Obtain the following items from your Teacher or Equipment Manager:

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    Tello Drone

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    Freshly-Charged Tello Drone Battery

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    HeliPad (Landing Target)

    And Your Period's iPad:

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    Orange iPad
    Period 3

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    Black iPad
    Period 4

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    Yellow iPad
    Period 5

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    Blue iPad
    Period 6

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    Green iPad
    Period 7

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    For the 1st Level, we need to establish communication to the drone so that we can upload the autopilot instructions.

    1. Open “DroneBlocks” on the iPad
    2. Touch the little grid marks in the right top corner
    Create a DroneBlocks Dev Account
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    Select Log In
    1. If you have already created a Developers account, and see your name at the top, just touch that and log in with your password.
    2. If this is your first time using DroneBlocks or you don't see your name at the top, select the second choice "Use another account."
    3. Log in with your school email account as shown below.
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    Use Your School Email Account
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    In Brevard County, you will be directed to this page, use the account you sign in to the computer with.
    Change Networks
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    Go to the iPad Settings App
    1. After logging in, go to the iPad settings.
    2. Choose Wi-Fi
    3. Turn on your Tello Drone (the Tello LED will alternate between green, red, and yellow a few times and then blink yellow)
    4. Select Your Drone under the Choose a Network – it will say TELLO-XXXXXX (the xx's represent your Tello's unique serial number.)
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    Return to DroneBlocks
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    Go back to the Drone Blocks app
    1. Click the three bars in the top right corner.
    2. Select the choice “Tello Blocks” at the bottom.
    Connect the App to Your Tello
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    Touch the words: Connect to Tello
    1. Look in the top right corner of the Drone Blocks App for Connect to Tello (be careful not to touch the question mark)
    2. Next touch the “Connect” in the box that pops up.
    3. If you see a white screen afterwards, with a multicolor column of programming categories on the left YOU ARE READY TO CODE!!!
    4. Place your Helipad (Orange Nylon Disk) on the floor at the center of the Drone Proving Ground.
    5. Place your drone at the center of the Helipad
    6. Confirm that you can get the drone to take off, move a little horizontally and then land again.
    7. Congratulations! Email your teacher a We Did It! note with the names of the DroneBlock Dev team, then move on to Level 2!
    8. Click on the Level 2 Tab (at the top of this block)

    Level Two : Fly a 10' Square Pattern

    Complete!
    Congratulations you have completed all of the steps successfully! Enjoy your new ringtone! Can you figure out how to assign a different ringtone for each of your contacts?
      Angular Flight Part 1

      Obtain the following items from your Teacher or Equipment Manager:

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      Tello Drone

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      Freshly-Charged
      Tello Drone Battery

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      HeliPad
      (Landing Target)

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      Cones

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      Tape Measure

      And your period's iPad:

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      Orange iPad
      Period 3

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      Black iPad
      Period 4

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      Yellow iPad
      Period 5

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      Blue iPad
      Period 6

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      Green iPad
      Period 7

      How Do Typical Drones Work?
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      Most Drones and Aircraft use a combination of radio signals from GPS (Global Positioning Systems) Satellites and Land Based Radio Signals from GBAS (Ground Based Augmentation Systems).

      Computers on your smart phone, outdoor drone and aircraft receive the signal from several satellites that they use to form       triangles. In high school math classes, you will learn about using triangulation: this is the process of using the parts of a triangle to measure angles and distances. This is how the devices figure out where they are on the face of the earth.

      However, our Tello Drone is designed to fly       indoors where it cannot receive GPS signals. How does the Tello know where it is and how far to fly when you program it?

      Click to find out!

      Our Drone Has 'Eyes'!
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      Our Tello Drone doesn't have a GPS receiver (and it wouldn't work indoors if it did), so it uses optical sensors (cameras) to calculate changes in sizes of objects below the drone and and in front of drone as it flies.

      Tello work best in a well-lit space. We will look at visual clues in our Drone Proving Ground to plan our flights.

      • Look at the floor of the space that your teacher has given you to fly.
      • Do you see any visual clues, patterns, or landmarks?
      • Look at your surroundings.
      • What objects are there in the room that you need to avoid?
      • Use your tape measure to determine the dimensions of the space that you will be flying in.

      Try This: Take off from the center of the Helipad. Slowly slide the Helipad across the floor. What does the drone do? Why?

      MAKE a Map of Your Flight Space
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      Pilots need to use navigation charts (maps) to build a flight path before they take off. Before you program your first Tello Flight, let's MAKE a map of your Drone Proving Ground.

      Key to MAKING this map is to use your measurements to represent your flight area and travel plans as accurately as possible.

      Draw it to scale and label the scale at the bottom of your plan (for example, One Block = One Meter)

      Your Choice (but as your technology teacher, I would suggest you do this digitally, that way you can reuse your file again and again):

      1. Get a piece of graph paper and draw the boundaries of your room, furniture, obstacles, where people are, etc. on a physical sheet of graph paper.
      2. Download the template pictured above in a Numbers format (for iPads and Macintosh computers). Add, delete or modify to represent each object to scale.
      3. Download the template pictured above in a Excel format (for Windows and Chromebook computers). Add, delete or modify to represent each object to scale.

      Hints:
      After selecting an object, try using the arrow keys to move it a pixel at a time.
      Hold the shift key down while resizing the object if you don't want them to distort (like a square becoming a rectangle).

      File a Flight Plan
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      File a Flight Plan with Your Teacher
      1. Take the Flight Space Map that you created, duplicate it, save it as period_last_names-Square.
      2. Arrange the cones and the helipad in a 10' X 10' square pattern as shown in the sample above.
      3. (all the stuff in red is just instructions, you don't need to include that)
      4. Show with arrows where you are going to fly (shown in purple below).
      5. Email or Airdrop a Copy of This to Your Teacher.
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      Fly the Flight Plan: Square
      Fit My Video Tag
      1. Try to fly up to 4 feet altitude, and around the square made by the cones.
      2. See how close you can get to flying out from the middle of the Helipad, turn right or left and fly over each cone. Drone should return to the Helipad, as close to center as possible.
      3. Make multiple trials, tweak your code as needed.
      4. Watch the flight path carefully – see if you can quantify (quantify means to measure with a quantity or number) or somehow estimate what the margin of error for the flight paths are.
      5. After your best flight, repeat and record a movie. Try to hold the camera steady and follow the drone around so we can see how close you came to the cones.
      6. Send a copy of the video to your teacher.
      Bonus Round - Extra Credit!
      Flight Plan 2

      Extra Credit: Create a program to fly diagonally across the center of the square, splitting it into 2 right angled isosceles triangles.
      Hint: You know the length of two sides of the triangle (10 feet) - how do you find the length of the longest side? Pythagorean Theorem!
      Submit your Triangle Flight Video to Mr. Shupe and collect your reward!

      If you choose not to do the Extra Credit… you can go on to       Next!

      Level Three: Program Curved Flights

      Complete!
      Congratulations you are now a DroneBlocks Master Pilot! Time to build a original Drone Obstacle Course! Move on to Level 4!
        Gather Your Equipment

        Obtain the following items from your Teacher or Equipment Manager:

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        Tello Drone

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        Freshly-Charged
        Tello Drone Battery

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        HeliPad
        (Landing Target)

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        Cones

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        Tape Measure

        And your period's iPad:

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        Orange iPad
        Period 3

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        Black iPad
        Period 4

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        Yellow iPad
        Period 5

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        Blue iPad
        Period 6

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        Green iPad
        Period 7

        You Are Ready: Advanced Tello Programming!
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        Enroll in the Online Course: Advanced Tello Programming with DroneBlocks
        1. Click the Sign Up Button.
        2. Use your school email address to sign up.
        3. Access your school email to verify that you have access to that email address.
        4. Then Log in and Enroll in the Advanced Tello Programming Course.
        Learn As Much As You Can!
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        Work your way through this course:
        1. Watch the Video Elevating Squares…
        2. Program The Flight
        3. Take Video of Elevated Squares
        4. Email the video with Pilot and Co-Pilot Name to your Teacher
        5. Go to the Next Step
        Continue the Course
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        Time to take on Curved Flight!
        Take a video of a Arch Flight and Angular Flight - email them to your teacher with the answer to the question above!

        Level Four : Make and Fly an Obstacle Course

        Complete!
        Congratulations you have completed all of the steps successfully! You are ready to move on to Level 3 - curved flight!
          Plan Your Obstacle

          Obtain the following items from your Teacher or Equipment Manager:

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          Tello Drone

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          Freshly-Charged
          Tello Drone Battery

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          HeliPad
          (Landing Target)

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          Hoops and Hangers

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          Tape Measure

          And your period's iPad:

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          Orange iPad
          Period 3

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          Black iPad
          Period 4

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          Yellow iPad
          Period 5

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          Blue iPad
          Period 6

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          Green iPad
          Period 7

          Fly the Drone Obstacle Course!
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          Remember What You Learned About Efficient Flight? (Advanced Tello Programming with DroneBlocks)

          If there is an Obstacle Course Already Set Up - Try to Beat the Best Time For This Obstacle Course.
          Before You Start Programming Take some Measurements and Build a Flight Plan.
          1. Key to MAKING this map is to use your measurements to represent your flight area and travel plans as accurately as possible.

          Draw it to scale and label the scale at the bottom of your plan (for example, One Block = One Meter)

          Your Choice (but as your technology teacher, I would suggest you do this digitally, that way you can reuse your file again and again):

          1. Get a piece of graph paper and draw the boundaries of your room, furniture, obstacles, where people are, etc. on a physical sheet of graph paper.
          2. Download the template pictured above in a Numbers format (for iPads and Macintosh computers). Add, delete or modify to represent each object to scale.
          3. Download the template pictured above in a Excel format (for Windows and Chromebook computers). Add, delete or modify to represent each object to scale.

          Measure Carefully!
          STEAM professionals (like you!) are very focused on accurately measuring things and making quantitative observations.
          Drones are expensive pieces of equipment, cargo may be valuable, running to another aircraft, a person or building is not acceptable, and in real world applications, you may not get second chances.
          Your Employer
          In order to program an autonomous drone to fly a crucial mission, (unmanned) we need to have accurate distances, compass headings, and altitudes.

          You will need

          EXACTLY WHERE do you want to go?
          What objects do you need to avoid in order to get there?

          If you were programming a drone to make an organ delivery for a near death patient, you can't afford to keep trying until you make it.

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          Work your way through this course:
          Watch the Video Elevating Squares…
          Program The Flight
          Take Video of Elevated Squares
          Email the video with Pilot and Co-Pilot Name to your Teacher
          Go to the Next Step
          Continue the Course
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          Take a video of curved flight and angular flight - email them to your teacher with the answer to the question above!
          Fly the Flight Plan: Square
          1. Try to fly up to 4 feet altitude, and around the square made by the cones.
          2. See how close you can get to flying out from the middle of the Helipad, turn right or left and fly over each cone. Drone should return to the Helipad, as close to center as possible.
          3. After your best flight, repeat and record a movie.
          4. Send a copy of the video to your teacher.
          Flight Plan 2

          Extra Credit: Create a program to fly diagonally across the center of the square, splitting it into 2 right angled isosceles triangles.

          Submit your Triangle Flight Video to Mr. Shupe and collect your reward!

          If you choose not to do the Extra Credit… you can go on to           Next!