Tello Drone Sim

This is a simple simulation of a Tello drone using Ursina. The drone can be controlled via tcp calls.

In the repo there is the simulation server along with a client class that can be used to interact with the sim server

Setup

Option 1: Dev Container (Recommended)

The easiest way to get started is using the provided dev container which includes all dependencies and GUI support:

1. Setup the dev container for your platform:

   .devcontainer/setup.sh

   This will auto-detect your platform (macOS, Linux, Windows, WSL) and generate the appropriate devcontainer.json.

2. Open in VS Code:

   • Install the "Dev Containers" extension
   • Open Command Palette (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P)
   • Run "Dev Containers: Reopen in Container"

3. Platform-specific requirements:

   • macOS: Install XQuartz (brew install --cask xquartz) and run xhost +localhost
   • Linux: X11 forwarding should work out of the box
   • Windows: Access GUI via VNC at http://localhost:5901 (password: vncpass)

Option 2: Manual Setup

If you prefer to set up the environment manually:

1. Create the virtual environment by running:

   python3.12 -m venv --copies venv

   --copies copies the interpreter into the venv instead of symlinking it. Without it, a Homebrew/pyenv upgrade that removes the Python version you built the venv from leaves the venv silently broken (see Troubleshooting).

2. Activate the virtual environment by running:

   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install the required packages by running:

   pip install --trusted-host pypi.org --trusted-host files.pythonhosted.org -r requirements.txt

4. Export the python path by running:

   export PYTHONPATH=$PWD

Running the simulation

To run the simulation, run the following command:

python tello_sim/run_sim.py

You can try running some of the examples to see how the simulation works. The examples are located in the examples folder.

Or use the client class to interact with the simulation server. The client class is located in the tello_sim folder.

Troubleshooting

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'ursina' even with the venv activated

The venv's interpreter is probably a dangling symlink. Venvs created without --copies symlink venv/bin/python to the Python they were built from (e.g. /opt/homebrew/opt/python@3.12/...); if Homebrew later removes that version (brew upgrade / brew cleanup), the symlink dies. Your prompt still shows (venv), but the shell skips the dead symlink during PATH lookup and falls through to some other Python (e.g. conda base) that doesn't have the packages — so imports fail no matter what you do with PYTHONPATH.

Diagnose it:

venv/bin/python --version   # "no such file or directory" => venv is dead
which python                # points outside venv/ despite (venv) prompt => same problem

Fix: recreate the venv against a Python that exists, using --copies so it can't happen again:

rm -rf venv
python3.12 -m venv --copies venv
source venv/bin/activate
venv/bin/python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Managing python versions

• For a specific python version on macOS, consider using pyenv to manage multiple python versions.

• Another alternative for macOS users is to use Homebrew to install the desired python version:

  brew install python@3.12

• Conda users can create an environment with the desired python version:

  conda create -n tello-sim python=3.12
  conda activate tello-sim
  pip install --trusted-host pypi.org --trusted-host files.pythonhosted.org -r requirements.txt
  export PYTHONPATH=$PWD