Parrot Releases Major Round of Updates for the ANAFI Ai, Opening Up Even More Possibilities for Developers

Parrot recently released the fourth update for its ANAFI Ai drone and the FreeFlight 7 app that accompanies it.

The Ai is Parrot’s 4G-enabled drone. According to Parrot, 4G gives the Ai enhanced transmission capabilities, allowing for reliable connectivity even when flying BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) behind obstacles or at a significant distance between the controller and the drone.

[Get the ANAFI Ai 7.4.0 and FreeFlight 7.4.0 updates now.]

The updates contain some major improvements for the drone and app’s performance. But one of the biggest aspects of the updates is that they provide a lot more tools for developers who want to customize the drone for their specific needs.

The ANAFI Ai

Both Olympe, the controller programming interface for the ANAFI Ai, and Sphinx, the simulation environment for the Ai, have received updates for developers, which allow them to set commands and events.

Olympe runs on the coding language Python. By opening up the Olympe interface further to developers, Parrot is empowering companies to make the Ai drone do what they need.

Developer Updates

Here are the updates that have implications for developers.

Olympe Updates

• New feature—support developer settings commands and events (arsdk/developer.proto)*
• Deprecation notice—Python 3.6 and Python 3.7 usage is now deprecated. This is the  last release supporting Python 3.6 and Python 3.7.
• Bug fix—media API update: add missing “title”, “boot_date” and “flight_date” MediaInfo fields, “path” and “preview ResourceInfo fields
• Bug fix—mission: rename ‘allow_overwrite’ Mission.install parameter to ‘allow_downgrade’

*This first item is one of the biggest aspects of the entire update, since it allows developers greater access to tools for customizing the ANAFI Ai than they’ve had in the past.

GroundSDK Updates

• New alarms—these alarms describe why an auto-landing was triggered by the drone due to: propeller icing, low battery, hot/cold battery
• New information on BatteryInfo instrument—hardware revision, firmware revision, gauge version, USB version
• New Cellular Session instrument both on SkyController and on drone—allows to be informed of the current cellular session statuses aggregating information from the SkyController, the ground station and the drone
• Added a new pitch mode—this mode allows you to choose between absolute and continuous modes.
• New developer mode settings—debugShell peripheral which allows you to use an ADB public key to enable ADB shell access to the drone; AirSDK mission logs, which can be enabled using the LogControl peripheral.

Learn more about developer updates for AirSDK.

In addition to the tools for developers, this fourth round of updates also brings some big enhancements for the app used to fly the drone, the drone’s controller, and the drone itself.

Keep reading to see what they are.

Credit: Parrot

ANAFI Ai Drone Updates

Here are all the updates that impact the ANAFI Ai’s performance, behavior, and types of media it can collect..

Flight behavior

• Flight—vertical stability enhancement
• Flight—altitude estimation accuracy enhancement
• Obstacle avoidance—sensing algorithm enhancement to avoid fake obstacles detection
• Return to Home—added alert message and RTH launch in case of battery communication loss

Media

• Video—4K 48/50/60 fps & 1080p 96/100/120 fps mode disabled
• Video/photo—updates on Panorama behavior: number of photos is reduced from 42 to 38 to speed up acquisition time
• Video—improved Auto-Exposure in HDR modes

Connectivity

• 4G—enhanced connection status message and link to Parrot for support
• Debug—updates on WiFi regulations per countries

Mission

• Ophtalmo—added support for handlaunch and handland in Ophtalmo mission
• Vehicle—new UX during landing when vehicle is stopped
• Vehicle—link displayed between vehicle & drone when tracking is on
• Vehicle—landing behavior enhancement

Credit: Parrot

Controller and FreeFlight App Updates

Here are the updates for the controller and the flight app that operates the ANAFI Ai.

SkyController

• GPS Ublox 9—now supported
• Dongle—drone can be used as a dongle with Parrot Sphinx tool

FreeFlight 7 App

• Database—dew project database format. Database will be migrated at first launch of FF7 v7.4.
• Photogrammetry—1-click missions are now generated in absolute (AMSL) altitude
• Touch & Fly—WP and POI are now displayed in the streaming view in both video and photo modes
• RTH—RTH Trajectory is now displayed in the map view
• Settings—new settings for developers in order to access debug tools
• FP/PGY—added custom RTH settings for FP/PGY projects

Get the ANAFI Ai updates now.