DIY Mini Drone Part 3: Arduino Altitude Control

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You've seen for yourself, or in videos, planes flying, rockets hurdling towards space, boats racing through the water and submarines exploring the depths of the ocean. Have you ever stopped and thought about the aerodynamics and hydrodynamics involved in their operation? There is a lot of interesting science that goes into how they work! Read more

How do drones automatically hover at a constant distance from the ground? Find out in this fun drone project as you build an altitude control circuit for a popsicle stick drone using an ultrasonic distance sensor and an Arduino™. See this page for a complete list of our mini drone projects. You may wish to do the projects in order. Read more

Design a PID controller to control the altitude of a DIY mini drone using an ultrasonic distance sensor. Read more

Most drones fly with a mix of human input and autonomous control based on feedback from electronic sensors. This allows the drone to fly up and down when the human operator presses a joystick on a controller, but automatically hover at a fixed distance above the ground when the operator lets go of the joystick. In this project, you will explore drone programming with an Arduino. What types of inputs and sensors can you make your drone respond to? What behaviors and responses can you program… Read more

Use these free STEM lessons and activities to introduce and experiment with robotics with students. From designing and building simple robots to thinking about how robots can be used to solve real-world problems, these hands-on projects help students gain and practice circuit-building and robotics engineering skills. The free STEM lessons, projects, and activities below help introduce students to robotics, robotics engineering, and the kinds of… Read more

Series of STEM activities guides students in building and experimenting with a popsicle stick drone. From a beginner build to adding advanced Arduino controls, follow along to build and test your own mini drone! Drones can be fun (and challenging!) to fly. A drone's hovering flight may look effortless, but whether you've experimented with a drone indoors or outside, you know that a lot goes into expertly navigating a drone to keep it in the air and out… Read more