The sim takes an optional video source. Nothing flows until ardrone3.MediaStreaming.VideoEnable arrives with 1; RTP then goes from the sim's own 5004 to whatever arstream2_client_stream_port the controller named in its handshake, and stops on a 0, on a link loss, or at shutdown. The MediaStreamingState.VideoEnableChanged reply goes out either way, because that reports the aircraft's state and not its bitrate, so a client waiting on the confirmation must not hang for want of a file to stream. Video stays optional: a FakeBebop() with no source gains no thread and sends no packets. One source object for the life of the sim, so sequence numbers and timestamps keep advancing across both the loop point in the file and a disable/enable cycle. A decoder handed a timestamp that went backwards treats the stream as corrupt and stays that way. The test that proves any of this works is the ffmpeg decode: frames come out at 856x480, including when ffmpeg joins a stream that has already been running for two seconds, which is the case a goggle viewer actually faces. The clip is generated at setup and never committed. Also fixed stop() on a sim that was never started: the sockets bind in __post_init__, so it had ports to release, and joining an unstarted thread raised and left them held.
3.5 KiB
mcbebop
An MCP server for the Parrot Bebop 2, so an agent can talk to the drone without anyone writing code for each question.
Parrot abandoned the Bebop line, but the aircraft is still a capable, cheap platform and its protocol is fully described by Parrot's own XML, which this package vendors. Every one of the 264 commands is reachable; nothing is hand-wrapped.
Status: in development. Not flight-tested. See the safety section.
What it talks to
| Interface | Notes |
|---|---|
| ARSDK3 over UDP | commands and telemetry; this package implements the protocol directly |
| ARStream2 | live H.264 video. The Bebop 2 serves no RTSP, despite what older libraries assume |
| FTP | media, flight plans, blackbox logs |
| Telnet | read-only shell, only after the drone's debug mode is enabled |
Safety
Commands are classified by consequence. Observing and configuring are open;
anything that can spin a motor or change the flight envelope refuses until
arm() is called with a reason, and re-locks on a timer and on disconnect.
Landing and Emergency are deliberately never locked, because refusing to
land an airborne aircraft is the more dangerous answer.
connect(target="sim") runs everything against a protocol-accurate simulator,
which is where anything involving motion should be rehearsed.
The simulator streams video
The simulator can push RTP/H.264 exactly as the aircraft does, so a viewer's
whole video path can be developed and measured without a drone. It answers the
handshake with arstream2_server_stream_port: 5004, sends nothing until
ardrone3.MediaStreaming.VideoEnable arrives with 1, then streams from its own
5004 to whatever arstream2_client_stream_port the client named, and stops on a
0, on a link loss, or at shutdown.
python -m mcbebop.sim --video clip.h264 # steady 30 fps
python -m mcbebop.sim --video clip.h264 --start-offset random --seed 7
python -m mcbebop.sim --video flight.rtpcap # a real capture, replayed
MCBEBOP_SIM_VIDEO_SOURCE=clip.h264 does the same for connect(target="sim").
Two kinds of source, and they are different instruments:
| Source | Pacing | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
.h264 Annex-B elementary stream |
packetised here, steady frame rate | does the decoder work, does the renderer work |
.rtpcap capture off the aircraft |
the recorded inter-packet gaps, packet for packet | latency and jitter, bursts, loss behaviour |
Make the first from any video, at the resolution the aircraft streams:
ffmpeg -i anything.mp4 -t 10 -vf scale=856:480 -r 30 \
-c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -pix_fmt yuv420p -g 30 -f h264 clip.h264
-f h264 already writes Annex-B, so no bitstream filter is wanted;
h264_mp4toannexb converts the other direction and ffmpeg rejects it here.
Make the second from a real drone. Start the recorder first, because RTP is connectionless and anything sent before the bind is gone, then enable video from a session that holds the ARSDK link:
python -m mcbebop.media.capture flight.rtpcap --seconds 30 # binds 55004
--start-offset random is worth knowing about. It begins mid-GOP, which is
what a viewer switched on while the drone is already flying is handed, and
--seed makes a failure repeatable. Parameter sets repeat about once a second
on the packetised path, which is what lets a late joiner recover at all.
Install
uvx mcbebop
claude mcp add mcbebop -- uvx mcbebop
Credits
arsdk-xml/ is Parrot SA's own protocol definition, BSD-3-Clause. See
arsdk-xml/PROVENANCE.md.