How to install DroneKit Python?

The DroneKit-Python is an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows developers to create Python apps that communicate with vehicles over MAVLink protocol.¹ According to Pepy, DroneKit-python was downloaded more than 463,900+ times.²

Image Credits: Illustrations by Storyset

The DroneKit API provides classes and methods to:

• Connect to a drone from a script.
• Get and set drone state/telemetry and parameter information.
• Receive asynchronous notification of state changes.
• Guide a drone to a specified position.
• Send arbitrary custom messages to control drone movement and other hardware.
• Create and manage waypoint missions.
• Override RC channel settings.

Installing DroneKit-Python

You can able to install dronekit-python on your device if your device is running any one of the following operating systems:

1. Linux
2. Windows
3. Mac OS

The main dependency for DroneKit is the python programming language. If your device supports running python, then you can able to run DroneKit-Python on your device.

For installing DroneKit-Python, you need to have pip installed on your device, which is the package manager for python. If pip is not already installed on your device, execute the following commands on the terminal of your device.

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$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install python3-pip

When the installation is complete, verify the installation by checking the pip version:

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$ pip --version

After installing pip, install the DroneKit-python by executing the following command on your terminal:

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$ sudo pip install dronekit

Verifying Installation

After the installation is complete, verify the installation by checking the details of dronekit using pip:

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$ pip show dronekit

The output will look something like this:

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Name: dronekit
Version: 2.9.2
Summary: Developer Tools for Drones.
Home-page: https://github.com/dronekit/dronekit-python
Author: 3D Robotics
Author-email: tim@3drobotics.com, kevinh@geeksville.com
License: apache
Location: /home/user/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages
Requires: monotonic, pymavlink
Required-by: 

Verification of DroneKit-Python Installation

By following the above-mentioned steps, you can able to install the Dronekit-Python on your device successfully. Now, you can able to import the dronekit package on your python scripts.

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import dronekit

Note

After installing DroneKit-Python, if you’re getting the below error while importing the dronekit:

1	AttributeError: module 'collections' has no attribute 'MutableMapping'

Kindly have a look at the following article to resolve the issue:

[SOLVED] - AttributeError: module 'collections' has no attribute 'MutableMapping'

Conclusion

I’ve tried to explain how to install DroneKit-Python with the acquired information from various sources. I’m expectantly waiting for your valuable feedback and suggestions regarding this topic.

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References