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Of course you want to contribute to our projects!

  2026-05-11  |     |    Leave a comment

We are constantly amazed about what awesome things you, our users, do with our products, and how well you do it. Time and time again you push the limits of what the Crazyflie can do, and what is possible within the field of robotics. We do what we can to provide the best possible foundation for all your visions, both in terms of improvements to existing features and also adding new, awesome features. Once in a while, though, you find something that you think can be improved, that we have not thought about, and you know how it can be solved. This is what this blog post is about – how to take an idea that you have and make it available to all of our users…

First, let’s just clarify that we are talking about software today. There is hardware and mechanics as well, but let’s save that for another time. Our software is open source. Being open source is one of the foundational pillars that we at Bitcraze build upon. We believe that this a great way for you to understand our products; everyone has the possibility to understand and troubleshoot the Bitcraze products. It also makes it easier for us to collaborate with all of you and in the end makes for better products for all of you. A positive spiral of enabling awesomeness.

Three is a swarm.

Benefits of contributing – doing things together

Now why would you contribute? You have made an improvement, and maybe you think: Well, I have what I need, there is no direct value for me to make this change available to everyone. Or maybe you think it is an issue that only you have encountered, or that the change is not big enough to merge to the main repository. Or too much work to do it… Here is the good thing: as soon as you let us know what you are working on, we can help you understand the value and the effort of that change request – we know the community, what it is doing and what it needs. We also know how to take an idea and turn it into a product. Once you have said “I have an idea”, we will take the torch that you lit and push the idea forward. You will be accredited for the contribution (e.g. your name will show in our repository), but we will take the responsibility for it: We will test it, support it and maintain it, so that you don’t have to. We will make sure it follows the evolution of the software.

Another benefit of contributing is that when you contribute, another person somewhere else, working on similar things, is also contributing. We truly believe that the more our users contribute, the more our users contribute – the positive spiral mentioned earlier. There is a community out there, and it is filled with talented and knowledgeable people; it is welcoming and it is simply great to be a part of. This seems like a fitting place to say: Thank you for being awesome, community! We are so happy to have you.

Lending each other a helping hand when needed.

Some recent examples

Over the years a number of external contributions have been made, all of which have been appreciated around the globe. Here are a few recent ones:

Solution of buffer overflow in syslink

A change doesn’t have to be big to be valuable. This is a great example of finding a bug, and fixing it. Deep in the firmware things become quite niche, and therefore difficult to understand if you don’t have that specific competence.

https://github.com/bitcraze/crazyflie-firmware/issues/1585

Mellinger controller angle limitation fix

This was contributed by a user who found that there was a limitation to what angle could be commanded when flying the Crazyflie in manual mode using the Mellinger controller.

https://github.com/bitcraze/crazyflie-firmware/pull/1596

Thrust battery compensation documentation

Thrust battery compensation is an external contribution to begin with. Here is a pull request to improve the documentation of it, in order to increase usability. Good for everyone!

https://github.com/bitcraze/crazyflie-firmware/pull/1606

Building Out Of Tree controllers on macOS

We do our best to make all our software work on as many operating systems as possible. This can be difficult though, and yet very appreciated by a lot of people when it works. Here is an example of a change that makes it easier to build Out Of Tree controller on macOS.

https://github.com/bitcraze/crazyflie-firmware/pull/1595

Account for drag in EKF for flapper

The Flapper Nimble has completely different aerodynamic properties than a Crazyflie. This work adds the possibility to account for that in the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) of the onboard firmware.

https://github.com/bitcraze/crazyflie-firmware/pull/1584

How to become a contributor

For software contributions, the current procedure is to fork the repository for which you want to do a change, and then create a pull request to the original repository from your fork. If you feel that you are not ready to do that, or have questions, then please reach out via email or Github discussions in the corresponding repository. We are happy to discuss ideas before turning them into pull requests. During the process of merging the change into the main branch, we might ask you to provide additional information. This is because we want to make sure we fully understand what problem you are trying to solve and how. Doing so, we can take over the responsibility, and you can let go of it (if you want to). Smaller changes usually means less effort, and vice versa. However, you can contribute with as much time and effort as you see fit.

Ready for takeoff.

Worth noting also is that not all ideas or pull requests will end up in changes in the software. There could be a number of reasons for an idea being discarded, where effort compared to value is the main justification. Whatever happens we promise to have an open dialogue about your idea, and that we are transparent with the decisions that we make, so that future contributions will be even better! Just remember, no idea is too big or too small to pitch.

Pushing forward, together

Making it easier to do contributions, and increase the quality of the contributions, is something that we are dedicated to and prepared to make efforts for. So if you have any thoughts on how we can improve, or think about reasons that keep you from contributing that we can solve, we would very much like to hear it!

We are looking forward to collaborating on all amazing, crazy, improving and mind-blowing ideas out there!

Bitcraze’s Infinite Flight: Recent Progress in Persistent Autonomous Drone Operations

  2025-05-12  |     |    Leave a comment

Imagine a drone that can fly indefinitely, autonomously recharging and navigating its environment with minimal human intervention. For corporate innovators designing proof of concept solutions or researchers seeking to push the boundaries of autonomous systems, Bitcraze’s Infinite Flight project represents a novel opportunity.

Since Bitcraze first introduced the “Infinite Flight” concept in 2023, the idea of a Crazyflie drone that can operate for days, autonomously recharging and executing missions, has steadily moved from experiment to practical tool. For those working in robotics, automation, or research, this is a quick update on what’s changed and why it matters.

What’s Changed Since the last Infinite Flight?

Hardware and Firmware Improvements

  • Crazyflie 2.1 Brushless now features improved power efficiency and longer flight times, which is essential for multi-day operation.
  • Charging Dock Upgrades: The move from Qi wireless to contact-based charging has made energy transfer more reliable and reduced cycle downtime.
  • Firmware Stability: The latest firmware (2025.02) brings fixes for brushless ESC flashing, improved default parameters, and more robust long-duration performance.
  • Host Software: The cfclient now uses PyQt6 for better graphical performance, and cflib’s new full-state setpoints offer more precise control.

Navigation and Autonomy

  • Recent work on visual route following enables Crazyflie to retrace long paths using snapshot-based visual homing, reducing drift even on resource-constrained hardware.
  • The autopilot’s app layer now makes it easier to implement custom, persistent behaviors without deep firmware changes.

Real-World Applications of Infinite Flight

Research and Industry Applications

  • Environmental Monitoring: Continuous data collection for air quality or wildlife studies, where drones need to operate for days at a time.
  • Industrial Inspections: Persistent monitoring of infrastructure like wind farms or power grids, reducing the need for human intervention.
  • Swarm and Formation Flight Research: Some labs are using Crazyflie to simulate spacecraft formation flying or to test swarm coordination algorithms over long durations.
  • Route Following: The new visual homing approach allows for reliable, repeatable long-range missions, which is especially valuable for mapping or inspection tasks.

Why Infinite Flight Matters

Long-duration, autonomous operation is a key enabler for real-world robotics. The recent hardware and software updates make Crazyflie a more practical platform for those kinds of experiments-whether you’re working on persistent autonomy, adaptive navigation, or multi-agent systems.

If you’re experimenting with similar ideas or have a use case that could benefit from multi-day drone operation, it might be worth a look at the latest Infinite Flight developments. As always, feedback and collaboration from the community are welcome.

Start your Infinite Flight Now

Ready to experience the power of uninterrupted autonomous flight? The Infinite Flight Bundle equips you with all the essential tools to keep your Crazyflie 2.1 Brushless airborne around the clock.

The package leverages the Lighthouse positioning system, providing precise on-board tracking across a 5x5x2 meter area. With accuracy reaching below 10 cm and minimal jitter, your drone can safely navigate its flight path while autonomously docking on a charging pad. Once recharged, it’s ready to lift off again—enabling continuous flight operations without manual intervention.

New research video compilation

  2024-10-07  |     |    Leave a comment

It’s now become a tradition to create a video compilation showcasing the most visually stunning research projects that feature the Crazyflie. Since our last update, so many incredible things have happened that we felt it was high time to share a fresh collection.

As always, the toughest part of creating these videos is selecting which projects to highlight. There are so many fantastic Crazyflie videos out there that if we included them all, the final compilation would last for hours! If you’re interested, you can find a more extensive list of our products used in research here.

The video covers 2023 and 2024 so far. We were once again amazed by the incredible things the community has accomplished with the Crazyflie. In the selection, you can see the broad range of research subjects the Crazyflie can be a part of. It has been used in mapping, or swarms – even in heterogeneous swarms! With its small size, it has also been picked for human-robot interaction projects (including our very own Joseph La Delfa showcasing his work). And it’s even been turned into a hopping quadcopter!

Here is a list of all the research that has been included in the video:

But enough talking, the best way to show you everything is to actually watch the video:

A huge thank you to all the researchers we reached out to and who agreed to showcase their work! We’re especially grateful for the incredible footage you shared with us—some of it was new to us, and it truly adds to the richness of the compilation. Your contributions help highlight the fantastic innovations happening within the Crazyflie community. Let’s hope the next compilation also shows projects with the Brushless!

We’re in Japan !

  2022-10-24  |     |    Leave a comment

I already talked about it here and there, but this day finally came: the whole company is in Japan !
Kimberly travelled first, to account for jetlag, meet with some people, and attend ROScon.

It was last week, and she got the opportunity to learn a lot, meet people from the ROS community, and give an exciting talk.

Kimberly’s talk at RosCon (made by Ramón Roche)
Happy to be in Japan (Made by Ramón Roche)

The rest of the company travelled last week with all the equipment needed divided into our suitcases.

Our suitcases at the office, to gather the materials before going

We chose to rent a traditional machiya while there, where we can all stay together and enjoy the life in the center of Kyoto.

Us chilling out in the Bitcraze mansion

Our first day here was to account for jetlag, but we managed to sightsee the amazing sites of Kyoto – and enjoy the most praised Japanese food, much appreciated after a long walk among the Tori gates of the Fushimi Inari shrine.

Us after climbing on top of Mt Inari – with the beautiful path of Tori gates

But it was soon time to start working, and yesterday we worked really hard on setting up everything to have a nice demo at IROS.

After some head scratching, emergency taping and hacking we managed to get the autonomous demo that Marios implemented last summer flying – just before the event hall We got time to explore the Kyoto International Conference Center, a beautiful venue with a Japanese garden and a futuristic look – as imagined in the 70′.

Some views from the Kyoto Conference Center

We invited those of you that are attending IROS to come and see us for a tech meet-up. It’s today and it would be a real nice opportunity for us to finally chat in person with our users ! Since there are a lot of aerial systems talks, we realize it may be difficult to come during the sessions, so the tech meet-up can begin during the break, at 15.40

Next up this week is the safe nanocopter competition. Kimberly will actually deliver the prize for that, we can’t wait to see what this competition will show – and how fun it is to remote-control the Crazyflies that are in the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies!

Of course, we will share some news on social media – and we will have a blogpost in a few weeks to debrief on the whole trip.

As you’ll understand, maintaining the day-to-day of the company is a little trickier this week, but we still monitor email, github discussions, and are shipping orders. You should just expect a longer time to process those, as we’re too busy – either at the booth or… at karaoke ! (no, there will be no videos of us singing).

See you at BAM days!

  2021-10-11  |     |    Leave a comment

The BAM days are coming up !


Only 8 days left before the first Bitcraze-organized conference ever. We are really excited about it, and this coming week is pretty much dedicated to organize the conference. We’re working hard on getting the best experience possible for there 3 days, both for us and for you. That means collaborating with great speakers, creating awesome workshops, but also think about the best way to come together – one of the main purpose behind the BAM days.

It’s been a couple of months since we decided that we wanted to organize our own conference. The main idea behind it was that we missed going to conferences, meeting people and talking with a lot of interesting persons.

Expression of the BAMdays

Bitcraze turning 10 felt like a big occasion that we wanted to celebrate. And indeed we did, internally, but we wanted to share this accomplishment with you too. An online conference seemed like the best idea. So when time came to choose a platform for it, we looked for something which put emphasis on social experience. We finally went with the Welkom platform, from the Netherlands. It’s easy and natural to use, with a simple interface, and lots of options for us to organize different activities.

The event platform

The Welkom platform we’ll use hosts two different Mibo rooms. It’s a spatial chat, where your avatar can run around a 3D world, discovering different environments. Your camera is your head, so you’ll need a webcam to join. There are some fun activities around, plenty interactive stuff, from chairs to basketballs. We have used it to for our coffee breaks when we were working from home, and had fun using this world: we’ll be happy to meet you there and hope you’ll find it fun too.

Bitcraze goofing around in Mibo

The plan is to have between each talk or workshop at least 30 minutes in Mibo to talk to the speakers, take a coffee break, discuss the exciting things that’s been happening, and generally catch up in ways we haven’t be able to the past year.

At the end of each day, we’ve programmed social events to gather together. On Tuesday, we’ll host a special quizz. Telling you its content may be a bit cheating, but if we’ve read our blogposts regularly, the questions should not seem hard to you. For the winner, a once-in-a-lifetime reward: a GoldenFlie ! You will be able to put it in your chimney mantle with your others awards, or actually use it – because, yes, it flies!

The GoldenFlie!

The second day, Wednesday, we’ll have a roundtable with Q&A. A perfect occasion for us to get feedback from you, and for you to ask us all the questions you have been burning to ask us.

The last day (Thursday), we’ll talk a little about Bitcraze and its future: where it is headed. We’ll then have a last party – in Mibo of course.

All the program and other useful information is in our event page. We really hope you’ll take some time to come by and say hello !