An Open-Source, Modular, VR Drone based on Raspberry Pi

[AndrewLoomis]

Hi, I'm a first-time poster, but I've been a fan of Dave and his forum for a while.

I've been working on a open source project called the Thanics Halo drone, and I'm looking to see if electronics hobbyists would be interested in having a modern drone platform to put their circuits/modules on. There is a great open source project called Ardupilot that is good for getting a drone to fly, but that's pretty much it. I'm trying to make a drone that is very immersive using VR live streaming (with a 360 camera), and spherical obstacle avoidance (using stereo computer vision and laser rangefinders), and of course very hackable, both software and hardware wise.

It is important to note that this project is far from complete, and not fully documented, but here's our GitHub repos (including ECAD files): https://github.com/ThanicsRobotics. You can also check out our website thanics.com. The files and pictures on the website depict the V2 drone, and we are now working on V3 (which we will be publishing PCB/MCAD designs soon), which is far more efficient, smaller, and 3D printable.

I'm envisioning having multiple modular "bays" with a suite of interfaces (UART/I2C/SPI/USB) to the host processor (Raspberry Pi CM3), so that hobbyists can easily design their own boards to interface with the drone. I figured this was the forum to ask to give me honest feedback. Thanks ahead of time.