Why this project
Agents are leaving the screen
Almost everything I build with agents lives on a screen. When an agent's decision moves something physical, you find out fast which parts of your setup you actually trust, and I wanted to learn that on a small drone with my son building next to me.
Hardware, software and AI, learned together, because the drone doesn't care which one broke.
Everything is proven on a virtual drone for $0 before a single propeller spins.
When the box arrives, my 5-year-old sorts parts and plugs in connectors with me.
How it works
From a sentence to a propeller
Claude talks to the drone over one radio. I hold a second, completely separate remote with a kill switch, so a human can always end the flight.
- Claude agentDecides: take off, fly to a point, land
- MCP tools
- MAVLinkMCPTurns each decision into a drone command
- local network port
- MAVProxy on a Mac miniBridges the agent to the radio
- USB
- Ground radio (SiK)Sends the commands out
- 915 MHz wireless
- Air radio (SiK)Receives them on the drone
- cable
- Pixhawk 6C running PX4Keeps the drone level, flies the command, enforces the geofence
This is not the agent's link. It exists so a human can always take over.
The agent sets goals; PX4 flies the loop. A model that thinks for five seconds can't hold a drone steady, and it never has to: it says "go there", and the flight computer does the rest inside limits the agent can't change.
Progress
Where the build really is
This tracker only moves when something real happens, and every finished step links to its proof: a video, a photo, or a log. The drone kit ships from the US, so assembly starts first. The remote ships from overseas, and the first flight waits on it, a few weeks out.
Parts list
Everything we bought, with links
Everything we ordered on September 15, 2026, with the store we bought it from and that day's list price. About $1,230 in total before shipping and tax.
Do it yourself
The build, step by step
These are the build steps in the order we are doing them, plus the snags we found before the box even arrived. Read the safety and legal notes before anything leaves the ground.
⚠️ Gotchas we hit on paper, so you don't hit them in the air
Make it legal (US)
- This drone weighs well over 250 g, so register it with the FAA on DroneZone.
- Flying for fun: pass the free TRUST test and carry proof.
- Flying for a business, including filmed product demos: you need a Part 107 certificate.
- Always keep the drone in visual line of sight.
Building with a kid
What a 5-year-old can really do
When the box arrives, my son's jobs are sorting parts, counting screws, plugging in color-coded connectors with me, and pressing take-off in the app standing next to me. Propellers stay off on the bench, and the batteries and spinning props are adults only.
✅ Kid jobs
- Sort the parts and count the screws
- Match color-coded connectors, with a grown-up
- Watch the simulator and call out what the drone should do next
- Press "take off" in the app, props off, on the bench
🛑 Grown-ups only
- Charging and handling LiPo batteries
- Anything with propellers attached
- Flying, and holding the kill switch
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