dronstein

Lucky Robots: a drone with a robotic arm.

A Skydio X2 drone carries an SO-100 arm in Lucky Engine. The goal is to pick up golf balls: the drone flies over to a ball and holds still, like a moving table, then the arm reaches down and grabs it.

How to run

1. Open the LuckyEngine project in Lucky Engine.
2. Press Play.
3. Fly with an Xbox controller. A few extra keys are on the keyboard.
4. To send the drone to a ball, use the Tuning panel (see below).

Controller

Button	What it does
Left stick	Fly forward/back and left/right
Right trigger / left trigger	Up / down
LB / RB	Turn left / right
Menu	Slow, precise mode on/off
View	Unfold / fold the arm
Right stick left/right	Turn the arm (or roll the wrist after pressing A)
Right stick up/down	Move the chosen joint
X / Y / B	Choose the shoulder / elbow / wrist joint
A	Switch the right stick between turning the arm and rolling the wrist
D-pad up / down	Open / close the gripper

To change buttons, edit LuckyEngine/ControllerBindings.txt, save it, and press Play again.

Keyboard

Key	What it does
F	Camera follows the drone, the gripper or the selected ball
W / S	Zoom in / out
Right mouse drag	Rotate the camera
R	Show / hide the arm's reach (the blue half-sphere)
G	Unfold / fold the arm (same as View on the controller)
Y	Fly to the next corner of the test square (blue dots on the ground)

Tuning panel

Select the Tuning entity in the scene. Its Properties panel has live knobs you can change while playing:

Knob	What it does
Show Reach	Show / hide the arm's reach (same as R)
Max Speed	Top speed of the drone
Speed	The drone's current speed (read only)
Ball	Pick a golf ball, 1 to 25. It glows purple. 0 = none
Set	Fly to the chosen ball. The drone stops right above it, at the height where the bottom of the reach half-sphere touches the ground

On screen

Top right: what the camera follows (purple when it's a ball) and the mode: Manual, or Calibration (yellow) while flying the test square.

On the ground

• Green dot: the point right under the drone's center.
• Red dot: the point right under the gripper.
• Checkered ground: each tile is 1 m.
• Golf balls and a trash can: the things to pick up and where they go.

Latest changes

• G key: unfolds / folds the arm. Unfolded, the upper arm leans slightly back and the forearm reaches forward almost level (about 12° below) instead of hanging straight down.
• Fly to a ball: pick a ball in Tuning and press Set. The drone flies over it and lowers until its reach just touches the ground.
• Ball selection: the chosen ball glows purple, and F can point the camera at it.
• Tuning panel: live knobs for reach, speed and ball while playing.
• Screen labels: camera and mode shown at the top right.
• New look: checkered 1 m ground tiles and higher sunlight.
• Controller: reconnects on its own if unplugged.