I’ve been working on Parrot Lab quite a bit lately and V1.5 now adds experimental Jumping Sumo support alongside the existing Bebop/Bebop 2 work.
The new Ground Mode adds native Sumo discovery, ARSDK control, MJPEG video, remappable keyboard/gamepad controls and a separate ground-oriented UI. It can connect directly over Wi-Fi, and I’ve also managed to get a patched SkyController 2 to genuinely connect to a Jumping Sumo, including telemetry, video and controller routing.
The other fun development is the camera. The stock Sumo software normally runs the VGA camera at about 15 FPS, but I’ve patched the Sumo Dragon firmware and now have it running 640×480 at a stable ~30 FPS. Through the SC2 path Parrot Lab is receiving that at essentially the full rate with no incomplete frames in current testing.
V1.5 also adds a dedicated Sumo video processing mode which can take that 640×480/30 source and use bidirectional optical flow, confidence/occlusion rejection and 30→45 FPS frame interpolation, followed by aspect-correct 720p output. The goal is to get considerably better live video out of the original hardware without replacing the camera.
There has also been a major UI refresh in V1.5, with separate Air/Ground themes, a cleaner cockpit layout, Focus/Inspector views, better telemetry presentation and a more compact activity/debug interface.
A few warnings: Sumo support is still very experimental, especially through the SkyController 2. The SC2 route currently requires manual patches/configuration, and physical SC2 control should not be used at the same time as Parrot Lab keyboard/gamepad control because the two PCMD streams will fight each other.
The project is here:
GitHub - GiannisTDM/parrot-lab: Beta macOS ground station and diagnostics suite for Parrot Bebop 2 and SkyController 2
Still a development workbench rather than a finished FreeFlight replacement, but the Sumo side has gone much further than I initially expected.
The new Ground Mode adds native Sumo discovery, ARSDK control, MJPEG video, remappable keyboard/gamepad controls and a separate ground-oriented UI. It can connect directly over Wi-Fi, and I’ve also managed to get a patched SkyController 2 to genuinely connect to a Jumping Sumo, including telemetry, video and controller routing.
The other fun development is the camera. The stock Sumo software normally runs the VGA camera at about 15 FPS, but I’ve patched the Sumo Dragon firmware and now have it running 640×480 at a stable ~30 FPS. Through the SC2 path Parrot Lab is receiving that at essentially the full rate with no incomplete frames in current testing.
V1.5 also adds a dedicated Sumo video processing mode which can take that 640×480/30 source and use bidirectional optical flow, confidence/occlusion rejection and 30→45 FPS frame interpolation, followed by aspect-correct 720p output. The goal is to get considerably better live video out of the original hardware without replacing the camera.
There has also been a major UI refresh in V1.5, with separate Air/Ground themes, a cleaner cockpit layout, Focus/Inspector views, better telemetry presentation and a more compact activity/debug interface.
A few warnings: Sumo support is still very experimental, especially through the SkyController 2. The SC2 route currently requires manual patches/configuration, and physical SC2 control should not be used at the same time as Parrot Lab keyboard/gamepad control because the two PCMD streams will fight each other.
The project is here:
GitHub - GiannisTDM/parrot-lab: Beta macOS ground station and diagnostics suite for Parrot Bebop 2 and SkyController 2
Still a development workbench rather than a finished FreeFlight replacement, but the Sumo side has gone much further than I initially expected.
