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Creating a Drone Control Interface with Flask and DJI

Learn how to build a secure, web-based DJI drone control interface using Flask. This guide covers setup, telemetry, live video streaming, and safety features, enabling you to command and monitor your drone from any browser.

Creating a Drone Control Interface with Flask and DJI
Photo by Jonas / Unsplash

Building a web-based drone control interface allows you to operate and monitor drones from anywhere with a network connection. By combining Flask—a lightweight Python web framework—and DJI’s SDKs, you can create a responsive dashboard for controlling drone movements, viewing telemetry data, and even streaming live video.

This guide walks you through:

  • Setting up your development environment
  • Integrating Flask with DJI’s SDK
  • Creating routes for drone commands
  • Displaying telemetry and live video feed
  • Adding safety features and authentication
  • Deploying your drone control interface

1. Why Use Flask for a Drone Control Interface?

Flask is minimal, fast, and flexible—perfect for a control panel where you don’t need the complexity of a large framework like Django. Its benefits for drone control include:

  • Lightweight footprint → Fast to set up and run on embedded systems or laptops in the field.
  • Extensible → Easy to integrate with DJI’s Mobile SDK or Onboard SDK.
  • Web-based → Control from any device with a browser.
  • RESTful APIs → Perfect for sending structured drone commands.

You’ll combine Flask’s web server capabilities with DJI’s SDKs to issue commands and receive telemetry data.

2. Understanding the DJI SDK Options

DJI offers several SDKs for developers:

  1. DJI Mobile SDK (MSDK) – For mobile apps (iOS/Android) controlling DJI drones via USB or Wi-Fi.
  2. DJI Onboard SDK (OSDK) – For connecting directly to the drone’s onboard computer via UART/USB.
  3. DJI Windows SDK – For desktop-based control on Windows.
  4. DJI Payload SDK – For controlling custom payloads.

For a Flask-based control panel, you have two main options:

  • Use the OSDK → Best for embedded systems or companion computers on the drone.
  • Bridge through Mobile SDK → Run Flask server on the same device as an MSDK-powered app.

For this tutorial, we’ll assume OSDK on a companion computer (e.g., Raspberry Pi, NVIDIA Jetson, Intel NUC) attached to the drone.

3. System Architecture

Here’s a high-level overview:

[User Browser] <-> [Flask Web Server] <-> [DJI SDK API] <-> [Drone]
  • User Browser – Sends HTTP requests via buttons or forms.
  • Flask Web Server – Interprets requests, calls DJI SDK functions.
  • DJI SDK API – Executes drone commands (fly, land, rotate, etc.).
  • Drone – Receives commands and streams telemetry/video.

4. Prerequisites

Before coding, ensure you have:

  • A DJI drone that supports the OSDK (e.g., Matrice series).
  • Companion computer running Linux (Ubuntu recommended).
  • Python 3.8+ installed.
  • DJI OSDK installed and configured.
  • Flask installed:
pip install flask

5. Initial Flask Setup

Let’s start with a minimal Flask app:

# app.py
from flask import Flask, render_template, request, jsonify
import dji_sdk  # Hypothetical wrapper for DJI OSDK Python bindings

app = Flask(__name__)

# Initialize DJI connection
drone = dji_sdk.connect()

@app.route('/')
def index():
    telemetry = drone.get_telemetry()
    return render_template('index.html', telemetry=telemetry)

@app.route('/takeoff', methods=['POST'])
def takeoff():
    success = drone.takeoff()
    return jsonify({"status": "ok" if success else "failed"})

@app.route('/land', methods=['POST'])
def land():
    success = drone.land()
    return jsonify({"status": "ok" if success else "failed"})

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run(host='0.0.0.0', port=5000)

Notes:

  • Replace dji_sdk with your actual DJI OSDK Python binding import.
  • Use render_template to pass telemetry data to the frontend.

6. Creating the Frontend Interface

A simple HTML dashboard (templates/index.html):

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <title>DJI Drone Control</title>
    <style>
        body { font-family: Arial; background: #f8f9fa; padding: 20px; }
        .btn { padding: 10px 20px; margin: 5px; cursor: pointer; }
        .btn-takeoff { background: green; color: white; }
        .btn-land { background: red; color: white; }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>DJI Drone Control Panel</h1>

    <div>
        <button class="btn btn-takeoff" onclick="sendCommand('/takeoff')">Take Off</button>
        <button class="btn btn-land" onclick="sendCommand('/land')">Land</button>
    </div>

    <h2>Telemetry</h2>
    <p>Latitude: {{ telemetry.latitude }}</p>
    <p>Longitude: {{ telemetry.longitude }}</p>
    <p>Altitude: {{ telemetry.altitude }} m</p>
    <p>Battery: {{ telemetry.battery }}%</p>

    <script>
        function sendCommand(endpoint) {
            fetch(endpoint, {method: 'POST'})
                .then(response => response.json())
                .then(data => alert('Command: ' + data.status));
        }
    </script>
</body>
</html>

7. Adding More Control Commands

You can extend the interface with directional and camera commands:

@app.route('/move', methods=['POST'])
def move():
    direction = request.json.get("direction")
    distance = request.json.get("distance", 1)  # meters
    speed = request.json.get("speed", 1)        # m/s
    success = drone.move(direction, distance, speed)
    return jsonify({"status": "ok" if success else "failed"})

@app.route('/rotate', methods=['POST'])
def rotate():
    degrees = request.json.get("degrees")
    success = drone.rotate(degrees)
    return jsonify({"status": "ok" if success else "failed"})

Example JavaScript button trigger:

<button onclick="sendMove('forward')">Forward</button>

<script>
function sendMove(direction) {
    fetch('/move', {
        method: 'POST',
        headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
        body: JSON.stringify({direction: direction, distance: 2, speed: 1})
    })
    .then(res => res.json())
    .then(data => console.log(data));
}
</script>

8. Telemetry Updates in Real-Time

Instead of reloading the page, use AJAX polling or WebSockets.

With AJAX polling (simpler but less efficient):

@app.route('/telemetry')
def telemetry():
    return jsonify(drone.get_telemetry())

setInterval(() => {
    fetch('/telemetry')
        .then(res => res.json())
        .then(data => {
            document.querySelector('#lat').textContent = data.latitude;
            document.querySelector('#lon').textContent = data.longitude;
            document.querySelector('#alt').textContent = data.altitude;
            document.querySelector('#bat').textContent = data.battery;
        });
}, 2000);

9. Adding Live Video Feed

DJI OSDK supports fetching video stream data. One approach:

  1. Use FFmpeg to pipe the drone’s RTSP stream into Flask.
  2. Serve it via an MJPEG endpoint.

Example:

import cv2
from flask import Response

camera = cv2.VideoCapture("rtsp://drone_camera_url")

def gen_frames():
    while True:
        success, frame = camera.read()
        if not success:
            break
        else:
            _, buffer = cv2.imencode('.jpg', frame)
            yield (b'--frame\r\n'
                   b'Content-Type: image/jpeg\r\n\r\n' + buffer.tobytes() + b'\r\n')

@app.route('/video_feed')
def video_feed():
    return Response(gen_frames(),
                    mimetype='multipart/x-mixed-replace; boundary=frame')

Frontend:

<img src="{{ url_for('video_feed') }}" width="640" height="480">

10. Safety Features

Drone safety is crucial—especially when enabling remote web control.

Implement:

  • Authentication: Require login before sending commands.
  • Rate Limiting: Prevent excessive requests.
  • Command Whitelists: Only allow safe commands.
  • Geofencing: Prevent flying outside authorized areas.
  • Emergency Stop: Dedicated route to cut all motors.

Example emergency stop:

@app.route('/emergency_stop', methods=['POST'])
def emergency_stop():
    drone.emergency_stop()
    return jsonify({"status": "stopped"})

11. Authentication Example

Basic authentication middleware:

from functools import wraps
from flask import request, Response

USERNAME = "admin"
PASSWORD = "secret"

def check_auth(username, password):
    return username == USERNAME and password == PASSWORD

def authenticate():
    return Response('Login required', 401, {'WWW-Authenticate': 'Basic realm="Login Required"'})

def requires_auth(f):
    @wraps(f)
    def decorated(*args, **kwargs):
        auth = request.authorization
        if not auth or not check_auth(auth.username, auth.password):
            return authenticate()
        return f(*args, **kwargs)
    return decorated

@app.route('/takeoff', methods=['POST'])
@requires_auth
def takeoff():
    success = drone.takeoff()
    return jsonify({"status": "ok" if success else "failed"})

12. Deployment Considerations

For production use:

  • Run Flask with Gunicorn:
gunicorn -w 4 app:app -b 0.0.0.0:5000
  • Use HTTPS to protect credentials.
  • Host on a secure companion computer physically connected to the drone.
  • Consider local network access only for sensitive operations.

Future Enhancements

You can extend your drone control interface to:

  • Mission Planning – Draw waypoints on a map and send to the drone.
  • Data Logging – Store telemetry for later analysis.
  • Multi-drone Support – Control multiple drones from the same dashboard.
  • AI Integration – Add object detection using OpenCV or TensorFlow.
  • Custom Payload Control – Manage servo motors, cameras, or sensors.

Conclusion

By combining Flask’s lightweight, flexible framework with DJI’s SDK capabilities, you can create a robust, secure, and user-friendly drone control interface. Whether for research, industry applications, or hobbyist projects, this setup allows for:

  • Real-time telemetry monitoring
  • Remote command execution
  • Live video streaming
  • Scalable expansion for complex missions

Always remember to comply with local drone regulations, maintain safe flying practices, and secure your interface from unauthorized access.

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