What is the best way to start drone software development? Here’s a complete guide

Drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are a hot topic in the tech world because of the new applications that drone technology can unlock. This makes drone software development the latest trend sweeping the tech industry. Investors and entrepreneurs around the globe are investing in the development of this high-demand technology. 

Grand view research states that the global commercial market for drones will grow at a CAGR of 57.5% between 2021-2028. Also, Marketsandmarkets states that the drone market size will increase from $13.9 billion in 2021 to $40.7 billion by 2026. 

All these numbers indicate how profitable it is to invest in drone industries. Also, many businesses have started using drones in delivery businesses.  

The drone controlling app offers multiple features that help users enhance the drone controlling experience, such as maps, camera control, drone flight data, media download, sharing, etc. 

If you want to publish your drone controlling app, let’s check all the features and requirements for drone software development in detail.

Let’s first understand drone controlling apps.

What are drone controlling apps?

The apps convert smartphones into drone controllers by adding multiple smartphone functionalities. The drone controlling apps send radio signals to control the drone by giving them commands.

There are many drone controlling apps available in the market. However, you can check the top best drone controlling apps to get a better idea about the features and the working of the drone controlling apps.

The best example of drone apps

Looking at these apps helps you understand the common features of drone controlling apps.

Check the following drone control software for taking great app development and design ideas:

1. B4UFLY

The US app “B4UFLY”  is offered by the Federal Aviation Administration(FAA) for drone control. B4UFLY is available on both iOS and Android devices. Their easy-to-use interface enables users to inform about restrictions and location-specific requirements for flying their drones.

Started in	2016
Founder	Federal Aviation Administration
Available on	Android & iOS
Downloads	100K
App rating	3.9
USP	The app helps users to know the restrictions and requirements for flying their drones in specific regions.

2. UAV forecast

UAV forecasting is available on Android and iOS devices.

The app is free and easy to use. UAV forecasts provide detailed weather conditions around the region of their app users. The app provides visibility, cloud cover, precipitation, wind, etc. From a UAV forecast, the users can decide whether to fly their drones or not, depending on the current weather conditions.

Started in	2015
Founder	Good to forecast
Available on	Android & iOS
Downloads	1M
App rating	4.7
USP	Guide users about the perfect time for flying their drones based on the weather conditions.

3. DJI Go

This free app allows users to control their drones both from Android & iOS devices. DJI Go offers live HD views from the drones. The app also tracks flight data and offers many automated intelligent flight modes. Also, the users can record and share videos with the DJI Go app. 

Their easy-to-use buttons allow users to take off and land their drones. The app also provides a map to help users know their drones’ location. The app offers valuable features, good tutorials, and manuals to reduce the learning curve.   

Started in	2016
Founder	DJI
Available on	iOS
Downloads	N/A
App rating	2.3
USP	It offers live HD views from the drone’s camera and provides video recording and sharing.

Know why entering the drone business is profitable.

Why entering drone software development can be your best decision?

The following market stats will help you understand why building drone controlling software is profitable at this time:

A Grand View Research market report states that the commercial drone market on a global level will increase at a CAGR of 57.5% during the 2021-2028 period.

According to Markets and Markets research, the global drone service market will go up from $13.9 billion to $40.7 billion between 2021 to 2026.

Best strategies to develop your drone control software

Now that you know how fruitful it can be to enter this industry let’s learn the best strategies to build your drone-controlling software.

1. Prioritize native mobile development over cross-platform development

Native mobile development includes a separate development process for Android, iOS, and web platforms. Also, there come device-specific features in native mobile app development over cross-platform development.

The native app development involves technology such as Java for Android and Swift for iOS. 

Even if cross-platform app development can help you minimize your development budget, your cross-platform apps will not be able to match the native User experience, performance, and security of your drone apps.

2. Perform extensive research in the drone industry

Researching and developing different areas of the drone industry will help you select the best features for your drone app. We suggest you explore a new algorithm that helps drones to identify obstacles in their path for including advanced features in your app.

Another new algorithm helps drones to fly faster, whereas external cameras help drones get real-time position information. There are many other best-advanced drone algorithms available that you can add to your drone app. 

3. Try to offer simple and engaging app UI

You can follow platform-specific design and UI guidelines for your mobile application development to provide a great user interface to your drone app users.

For iOS development, you can check “Human Interface Guideline” while for Android, you can look at “Material design” guidelines.

4. Check your mobile apps on a wide range of devices

Ensure your mobile drone control app works on popular and most used mobile devices. You can visit Digital.ai web and mobile cloud testing lab to ensure this. Digital.ai is a cloud-based platform that helps you to access hundreds of real devices online. 

5. Check the nonfunctional requirements for your app

Giving equal priority to the nonfunctional requirements is essential for developing the best drone control apps. Nonfunctional requirements define how well your app should function, and NFR helps app developers provide a good user experience.

Include the following components to your app while developing your drone control apps.

• Scalability 
• Interoperability 
• Accessibility 
• Portability 
• Performance requirements 
• Security requirements 
• Data integrity 
• Compatibility 
• Manageability 
• Usability 
• Regulatory requirements 
• Recoverability 
• Serviceability 
• Testability

6. Familiarize yourself with different drone technology offerings and solutions

There are many best drone control app development solutions/documentations available that you can check for more ideas in app development.

Check from the following given examples:

I. Dronecode foundation

The Dronecode foundation supports numerous projects for the drone industry growth. Also, the platform is open source and a part of the Linux Foundation.

You can review multiple projects, such as QGroundControl, which offers customizable stations for MAVLink-based drones. The project provides cross-platform mobile support for iOS and Android and desktop support for Linux, Windows, and macOS.

II. DroneMapper

DroneMapper is an image processing software solution for your drone controlling application. The platform offers full-service support such as

• Photogrammetry Software
• Custom Development
• Enterprise Solution
• Land Survey and Ground Control
• GIS, and Geospatial service

III. AirSlim

If you think you must include a drone simulator in your drone control application, you can check AirSlim. The developer team of AirSlim has utilized multiple technologies such as AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Computer Vision, embedded software technologies, Reinforced Learning, etc.

Also, the AirSim supports Lidar sensors to collect high-quality data when used in drones.

List of SDK and APIs you can choose for drone app development.

Check out the list of most used drones controlling SDK and API.

1. Flytbase SDK and API

FlyBase is the popular internet of drones (IoD) platform that offers its SDKs and APIs for developing drone control software. The platform offers many advantages, such as a drone simulator, enterprise-level scaling, and APIs.

You need to register with Flytbase. Moreover, you can also access their few core products, such as:

• FlytOS:

You can use this product for 3D modeling. The product also offers plugins for collision avoidance, video streaming, etc. 

• FlytCloud:

The platform’s cloud infrastructure offers telemetry, control, and seamless connectivity with FlytOS.

• FlytPi starter kit:

 This companion is preloaded with the features of FlytOS and FlytCloud.

2. DroneKit SDK and API

DroneKit is another best platform for creating drone control  software, and the SDK is available for developing apps on the Android platform. The SDK and API offered by DroneKit are free, and the API is easy to use and can be extended to support additional sensors and actuators.

The features offered by DroneKit are as follows:

• Live Telemetry
• Autonomous flight
• Intelligent path planning

3. DJI SDK and API

DJ offers both SDK and API for developing drone control software. The SDK can be used to develop Android and iOS apps. DJI offers additional SDK for supporting popular development models like Spark, Mavik, and Phantom. 

SDK offers the following features that you can include in your app:

• Control of high- and low-level flight
• Telemetry and sensor data can be used to determine the aircraft’s state
• Avoid obstacles
• You can control the camera to take photos according to your needs.
• Live video feed
• Remote access to media on a camera
• Mission control
• Remote controller for battery control

4. Parrot SDK and API

The platform offers both SDK and API to create drone control apps where the SDK is free to use. You can also find sample code repositories to start your drone software development. 

The SDK will offer the following features to connect to your drone:

• Connect to your drone
• Control your drone
• Get streaming data
• Download images or videos of the drone’s camera.
• Send flight plans to autopilot
• Update your drone

Best features to include in drone apps

Here is the list of features you can include in your app. These features will help users easily and effectively control their drones through your apps. 

You can check the following features:

• To start with, having an easy-to-navigate and user -friendly interface is a highly imperative feature. The users should be able to access your drone app’s features easily. 

• The app must have easy functionality to help users to learn about flying their drones.

• You can offer assist and location guidance features to help users to find a good place to fly their drones. 

• Along with offering good flying zones, you can also offer no-fly zones to help users to stay away from those places for flying drones.

• The app must include weather forecasts for different regions to help users to decide whether they have to fly their drones or not in specific weather conditions.

• You can also offer a flight log to help all the users to access the records of their drone’s flying history.

• Users can also benefit from the drone training simulator. The simulator will help users experience your app’s functionality even without flying their drones and controlling them through your app.

• The app must track all the necessary flight data to help users to analyze their drone flying skills with the drone’s flight data provided by your app. 

• You can offer movement control of the drone’s camera from your app for camera-enabled drones.

• The app must be able to recommend flight routes for the users’ drones.

• You can also provide complete users’ optimization features to help them optimize their app and drone settings.

Want to own a drone app? Connect with Idea Usher

You don’t have any programming experience and want to develop your drone control app? It would be great to outsource your app development project to an experienced development company.

You can learn programming to develop a drone controlling app by yourself. But along with programming, there come many requirements such as following proper app development and designing guidelines and years of experience to develop your app without any technical bugs and issues.

In case, you are looking for the best app development company; then you can go for Idea Usher.  The company is a team of experienced developers and project managers that have already worked on many projects related to drone controlling apps.

You can contact our team for a free project consultation if you have doubts about your drone-controlling app development.

Contact us from the details given below.

Email:

[email protected]

Phone:

(+1)732 962 4560

(+91)859 140 7140

FAQ

1. Which tools are used to program drones?

The software used for drone programming is given as follows:

1. SDK and APIs

• Flytbase SDK and API
• DroneKit SDK and API 
• DJI SDK and API 
• Parrot SDK and API 

2. Mobile development software

• Android Studio (for android devices)
• Xcode (for iOS devices)

2. How does ClubHouse generate revenue?

The Clubhouse is currently free. The app is, however, reportedly in the midst of integrating monetization for authors via tickets, subscriptions, and other similar means. Users will be able to profit from Clubhouse through this, and Clubhouse might profit as well.

• By deducting a tiny fee from each transaction made within the app.
• By creating premium accounts that can be monetized