You know how in every zombie movie, it all begins with that one person who gets infected? Well, my story starts with a single drone that I needed to turn into an obedient zombie. Not the brain-eating kind – more like the "please-follow-my-commands-and-don't-crash-into-the-ceiling" kind.When I first began developing FireAIDSS, my wildfire-fighting drone swarm system, I faced a fundamental question: How do you make an off-the-shelf drone do exactly what you want? It's like trying to teach a cat to fetch, except this cat has four propellers and a tendency to drift into walls.
The journey began with a package arrivingat my lab – an open-source drone that would become my first test subject. Inside the box lay a collection of parts that would either become my greatest
ally or my most spectacular failure. As I assembled the frame, connected the flight controller, and plugged in what felt like a million tiny wires, I couldn't help but wonder if this was how Dr. Frankenstein felt. Except instead of lightning bolts, I had a laptop and a burning desire to make this thing bend to my will.
The first breakthrough came when Idiscovered the drone's secret language – a module called Remote.c. Think of it as the drone's basic instincts: up, down, left, right. But here's where it got
interesting. Hidden in the code were four pre-defined variables: Remote.thr, Remote.yaw, Remote.x, and Remote.y. These were were the puppet strings I needed to control my mechanical zombie.
But making a drone follow commands isn't just about pulling strings. It needed a brain – or in engineering terms, a state machine. Imagine teaching a robot to dance. You can't just shout
"dance!" and expect it to work. You need to break it down: stand up, move right foot, move left foot, don't fall over. Similarly, I had to create a series of states for my drone: unlocked, takeoff, hovering, tracking, landing, and locked. Each state had its own rules and transitions, like a complicated
dance choreography.
The real "eureka" moment camewhen I found a second control port in the flight system – USART.c. This little gem could read string commands from a serial port and decode them in real-time. Suddenly, I wasn't just pulling strings anymore; I was installing a proper control system. It was like upgrading from puppet strings to a remote control.
But what good is a zombie that only responds to direct neural signals? I needed my drone to receive wireless commands. Enter the ESP32 – a tiny but powerful board that would become the
drone's new nervous system. By connecting it to the drone's serial port, I could now send commands wirelessly, like a proper puppet master.
Testing day arrived with all the drama of a science fiction movie. The drone sat on the lab floor, its LEDs blinking expectantly. I had written a program that would make it take off, hover, and respond to tracking commands. My hands were sweaty on the remote controller – this was the moment of truth.
The first test was... well, let's just say the drone had different ideas about the meaning of "hover." It shot up toward the ceiling like a startled cat, forcing an emergency shutdown. Back to the drawing board. After several iterations and a few heart-stopping moments, we finally found the right balance. The drone rose smoothly, held its position, and actually followed commands. My zombie was alive!
Looking back, creating this control systemwas like conducting a delicate orchestra of hardware and software. The state machine ensured every transition was smooth, the ESP32 provided reliable communication, and the original drone firmware still maintained its basic stability. It wasn't just about making a drone follow commands – it was about creating a foundation for something bigger.
Because here's the thing about zombie outbreaks: they never stop with just one. This single drone would later become the blueprint for an entire swarm, each one ready to help fight wildfires with
precision and coordination. But that's another story, involving more zombies, more challenges, and definitely more ceiling-related incidents.
For now, I had successfully created myfirst drone zombie. It didn't crave brains – just good, clean command signals. And unlike movie zombies, this one actually might help to make the world a better place.