Module 3: Drone Coding Cadets

WOVEN
Drone Coding Cadets
Module 3  ·  Apex Navigator Challenge
UC Merced Drone Workshop  ·  Echo Edition

Welcome, pilots and coders! Up to now you have flown by hand. Today you become a programmer — using block coding to make your Apex drone fly a pattern on its own. Start with a simple square, then level up with loops and your own designs.

1
🎯 Fly a Pattern

Open the block coding tool at echo.pitsco.com and program your drone to fly these shapes, in order:

Echo block coding environment
Part 1 — Code these flights
  1. Square pattern
  2. L-shape pattern
  3. Square using loops in your code
  4. Stretch: invent a harder one — how about a zigzag?
💡 Debug tip

If your drone doesn't spin exactly 90 degrees, adjust the time or speed on the spin block until the corner is clean.

🧰 What you need
  • Fully charged Apex drone
  • Laptop or tablet with echo.pitsco.com open
  • An open flying area
  • A curious mind and a willingness to experiment
2
📏 The Distance Challenge
Part 2 — Grow the flight

Write a program that commands your drone to take off, fly forward, and return — three times. Each trip, the drone must fly 12 inches farther than the last. Think about how a loop with a changing value could do this for you.

Example flight code
3
🏗️ Be the Architect
Part 3 — Design your own flight

Now you are the architect. Using your drone and the Echo programming environment, design and code a unique flight path that achieves a specific goal you choose. Think creatively and apply everything you have learned about drone commands to solve a real-world-inspired problem. Set the goal, plan the path, then make the code fly it.

★
📺 Share Your Code

Part 4 — Share! Take a picture of your code or a video of your drone flying its programmed path, and post it to The Wall below. Put your name or team name in the Subject line.

Padlet QR code

Career Connection

Loops, functions, and testing until the corners are clean — that is real programming. Software developers write the code behind drones, video games, and apps. Robotics and automation engineers program machines to run flight paths and factory lines. Computer-science and engineering programs at community colleges and at UC Merced turn the skills you built today into careers, and you do not need to arrive already knowing how to code.

You Wrote Code That Flew

You programmed a drone to fly shapes, grow a pattern with a loop, and design a path of your own. That is engineering. Next up: Module 4 — Illuminated Landings.

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