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Drone Adapter Interface

Overview

The DroneAdapter abstract base class defines the standard interface for all drone control implementations.

It acts as a core abstraction layer, allowing uniform interaction between all drone implementations, specifically our real drone and simulators. To implement support for a new drone, one simply needs to create a new DroneAdapter and implement all the required methods.

All drone interaction must go through execute(command) on a concrete implementation.

TelemetryData

Purpose

TelemetryData is the standard return structure for get_telemetry() across all adapters.

It provides a minimal, consistent snapshot of drone state. All drone adapters return data of this shape

Fields

altitude_m: float

Current altitude in meters.

Default: 0.0

speed_ms: float

Current speed in meters per second.

Default: 0.0

battery_pct: float

Battery percentage estimate.

Default: 100.0 (used as sentinel for systems without battery modelling)

heading_deg: float

Drone heading in degrees.

Default: 0.0

is_flying: bool

Indicates whether the drone is currently airborne.

Default: False

source: str

Identifier for the adapter that produced the telemetry data.

Default: "unknown"

extra: dict

An escape hatch for adapter-specific telemetry values.

  • Must not be relied upon by consumers
  • Used only when adapter-specific data cannot fit standard fields

Default: empty dict

DroneAdapter (Abstract Base Class)

Purpose

Defines the required interface for all drone adapters.

Each implementation wraps a specific SDK or simulator and exposes a uniform control API.

The main point of interation is execute(command). Makes use of the Adapter design pattern used so that callers do not need to know the gory details of whatever drone sim or drone sdk they are interacting with.

Lifecycle Flow

1) create the adapter with connection parameterss (localhost, drone ip, etc.) 2) await adapter.connect() for a True 3) Pass commands via await adapter.execute(command) 4) Optionally in another thread, poll telemetry via await adapter.get_telemetry() 5) await adapter.disconnect() at shutdown. This should safely land the drone

Abstract Methods

All subclasses MUST implement the following methods.

connect() -> bool

Establish connection to drone or simulator.

Returns: - True if successful - False if connection fails

disconnect() -> None

Releases connection and safely shuts down drone interaction.

Should ensure safe landing if applicable.

takeoff() -> None

Arms drone and ascends to a safe hover altitude.

land() -> None

Safely descends and disarms drone.

Should block further operations until landing completes.

move(direction: CommandType, **kwargs) -> None

Executes a directional movement or rotation.

Parameters: - direction: CommandType specifying movement type - kwargs: optional movement modifiers extracted from Command.payload, for fine grained movement.

Planned kwargs: - distance_m - speed_ms - duration_s - degrees

  • currently supports all basic commands from the Command class.

hover() -> None

Cancels active movement and maintains position.

Should take priority over normal commands except emergency stop.

emergency_stop() -> None

Immediately overrides all other pending commands and holds current position.

May optionally trigger landing depending on implementation.

get_telemetry() -> TelemetryData

Returns current drone state snapshot.

Should be called frequently for live monitoring.

execute(command: Command)

Purpose

The only concrete method in this class, a single entry point for all command execution.

Routes a Command to the correct adapter method.

Routing Logic

  • EMERGENCY_STOP -> emergency_stop()
  • TAKEOFF -> takeoff()
  • LAND -> land()
  • HOVER -> hover()
  • Movement and rotation commands -> move()

Supported movement commands (all basic commands defined in Command): - MOVE_UP - MOVE_DOWN - MOVE_FORWARD - MOVE_BACKWARD - MOVE_LEFT - MOVE_RIGHT - ROTATE_CW - ROTATE_CCW

Notes

  • Routing must stay aligned with CommandType
  • Any new command must be added here
  • Current implementation does not yet pass payload into move()

Unknown Commands

If a command is not handled:

A warning is logged indicating missing routing configuration in drone_adapter.py.