The Linux Foundation Presents the Dronecode Project

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 14 Oct 2014

Advance the development of unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones – that is the goal of the Dronecode Project, a new Linux Foundation Collaborative Project. As part of this project, existing open source drone projects and assets are brought together under a nonprofit structure that is governed by The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux and collaborative development.

“Open source software and collaborative development are advancing technologies in the hottest, most cutting-edge areas. The Dronecode Project is a perfect example of this,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. “By becoming a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project, the Dronecode community will receive the support required of a massive project right at its moment of breakthrough. The result will be even greater innovation and a common platform for drone and robotics open source projects.”

The Linux Foundation recently announced the founding of the Dronecode Project, a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project that aims to advance the development of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The goal is to create a common, shared open source platform for UAVs.



3D Robotics, Baidu, Box, DroneDeploy, Intel, jDrones, Laser Navigation, Qualcomm Technologies, SkyWard, Squadrone System, Walkera and Yuneec are among the founding members of the Dronecode Project. As part of this project, existing open source drone projects and assets are brought together under a nonprofit structure that is governed by The Linux Foundation.

Andrew "Tridge" Tridgell, programmer that is best known for authoring the Samba file server and co-inventing the rsync algorithm, will be the chair of the Dronecode Project’s Technical Steering Committee (TSC) and will have a seat on the board.

“The Dronecode Project will help meet the needs of the growing community with a neutral governance structure and coordination of funding for resources and tools the community needs,” said The Linux Foundation in a press release. “The governance structure will allow other parties and developers to influence and participate in the development and direction of the software. The Dronecode board will be comprised of members and technical community members. The Technical Steering committee will be composed of project leads and maintainers from top-level projects. Committers can be elected to participate on the TSC.”

The aforementioned 3D Robotics is a world leader in advanced UAV autopilot and autonomous vehicle control. 3D Robotics hosted the APM/ArduPilot UAV software platform and associated code; said software platform and associated code is now a part of the Dronecode Project.

“The Linux Foundation is well-recognized for its ability to rally support and advance the work of important open source projects,” said Chris Anderson, CEO and founder, 3D Robotics. “The Dronecode Project will benefit from this expertise and bring to bear important resources for developers working on drone technology.”

As The Linux Foundation explained, “more than 1,200 developers are working on Dronecode with more than 150 code commits a day on some projects.” The aforementioned APM/ArduPilot is one of these projects. Here are some more: Mission Planner, MAVLink and DroidPlanner.

Amanda McPherson, vice president of marketing and developer services at The Linux Foundation, shared this photo alongside her Dronecode Project announcement, announcement that shares the inside story on how Dronecode Project came about.



Learn more about the Dronecode Project by visiting dronecode.org.



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