egze
Hi folks. I am thinking to buy a drone and have some fun flying it, and being an engineer, I of course thought about writing code for it. That would be pretty cool to write code for a specific task a drone can do.
It could be things like:
- Algorithm for locating a certain object in the area. Different search patterns, object recognition.
- Drone swarm. Some tasks where drones benefit with acting as a team.
I think Elixir could fit quite well in the task. The question is - are there already some commercial drones that let you code in Elixir? Or maybe it’s possible to build a drone from scratch? Does anyone have experience with writing software for drones?
Where Next?
Trending in Discussions
Other Trending Topics
Latest on Elixir Forum
Sponsor Spotlight
Elixir, Erlang & messaging conferences from Code Sync. Next up: ElixirConf US (10–11 Sep) & Code BEAM Europe (21–22 Oct), Haarlem + online.
Categories:
Sub Categories:
Forums
Popular Tags
- #ecto
- #liveview
- #troubleshooting
- #learning-elixir
- #library
- #deployment
- #erlang
- #testing
- #genserver
- #mix
- #absinthe
- #remote-other
- #otp
- #plug
- #how-to-question
- #macros
- #postgres
- #elixirconf
- #channels
- #exunit
- #discussion
- #code-sync
- #podcasts
- #javascript
- #onsite
- #dialyzer
- #docker
- #authentication
- #umbrella
- #full-time-contract
- #podcasts-by-brainlid
- #ai
- #ecto-query
- #elixirconf-us
- #blog-post
- #elixir-ls
- #phoenix_html
- #iex
- #graphql
- #genstage
- #websockets
- #supervisor
- #advent-of-code
- #distillery
- #processes
- #elixirconf-eu
- #api
- #forms
- #metaprogramming
- #hex
Our Sponsors
Build Elixir applications with speed and confidence.
Supporting innovation across the BEAM ecosystem.
We build reliable cloud platforms for business-critical systems.
Catch errors, track performance, monitor hosts and more.
Elixir, Erlang & BEAM conferences from Code Sync - join us in 2026!
Practical resources that improve the lives of professional developers.
Producing high quality Elixir screencasts since 2017.
**Building the future of software with AI, trust, and human connection.**
The team behind Membrane, Popcorn, LiveDebugger. Available for hire.
Courses that'll move you from confusion to "Aha, now I get it!"
Showing Posts 1 to 9- Show Best Posts
- Show All (oldest first)
- Show All (newest first)
trisolaran
Sounds cool! A perfect fit for Elixir’s “let it crash” philosophy
realcorvus
I have not used GitHub - chrismccord/ex_copter: Elixir client for the Parrot AR 2.0 Quadcopter · GitHub, seems related.
egze
That’s cool. But sadly, the reviews say the Parrot copter is not compatible anymore with new iOS devices.
I’m wondering, what does a drone need to support to be able to talk with Elixir (or any language)? What should I be looking for? Maybe there’s some sort of open standard?
egze
Looking closely at Ryze Tello
It has a Python SDK, and there is a way how to call Python code from Elixir, if I need it.
egze
There’s this talk from ElixirConf EU 2017 how to build your own drone and program it with Elixir, maybe will be interesting to someone.
AstonJ
Sounds like a fun project, keep us posted Aleksandr!
BartOtten
I thought about erlang/elixir hot code reloading! Updating the software while it’s in the air. Just to show off.
Would use Distillery as mix release’s can’t be used for it.
ausimian
It’s already been done!
robinhilliard
My mavlink | Hex library can be used to communicate with Ardupilot. See my presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36RhX2HtfJo for a discussion on drones and an example of Mavlink being used to communicate with a software-in-the-loop Ardupilot connected to X-Plane.