Python 3 version of https://github.com/dji-sdk/Tello-Python

Summary

• Tello will fly autonomously
• You can see the streaming video from on-drone camera.
• The project is written in Python3 with minimum package dependency.
• Flight data is logged for analysis.

Usage

• If you want keep your system python clean, try the virtual environment.

sudo apt install python3-venv
python3 -m venv testTello
source testTello/bin/activate

1. Connect your machine to the Tello via WIFI
2. Run the code and fly Tello autonomously (it would take off, fly around and land by its own)

python3 fly_tello.py

• Install necessary libraries if you need image from Tello (opencv) and show it in your web browser (flask).

pip install opencv-python Flask # That is it. No other dependent libraries

3. Run the code and visit http://127.0.0.1:9999/stream.mjpg by using your browser (keep refresh the page if you have problem)

python3 see_from_tello.py

Something might be interesting

• Tello --[h264-encoded chunks of frame]--> UDP server on my PC --[h264-encoded frame]--> TCP server on my PC --[h264-encoded stream]--> OpenCV --[image]--> Flask
• We cannot get a video stream from Tello so we cannot use OpenCV directly.
  • When I worked with raspberry pi, its camera utility can set up a tcp server then OpenCV can capture the h264 stream from it directly. But Tello is different because tello is not going to setup a streaming server (and it is not programmable to do that).
• I was searching for a full-proof solution to decode locally buffered h264/H264/H.264 stream and get the image frame by frame.
  • Tello is a client who sends out chunks of h264-encoded video stream to a udp server set up on my PC. It is up to me to collect those chunks and deal with it.
  • I am familar with OpenCV but I don't know how to work with a locally buffered stream.
  • In Tello_Video.ipynb, I demonstrated a solution by setting up a tcp server to rebroadcast the buffered stream. Yes, however we get the raw stream, we can feed it to a tcp server. OpenCV will capture the tcp stream and do the real-time decoding frame by frame.