Canopy

Autonomous aerial surveillance drone with object detection and tracking. Part of the AcreWatch project family.

What is this?

Canopy is a custom-built drone platform that uses computer vision (YOLOv8) running on a Raspberry Pi 5 companion computer to detect and autonomously follow targets. Built on the ArduPilot flight stack with a Holybro X500 V2 frame.

AcreWatch Family

BarkBlaster - Automated deterrent (sound + water turret)
Wi-Spy - ESP32 CSI passive perimeter detection
Canopy - Aerial surveillance and tracking (this project)

Hardware

Holybro X500 V2 ARF Kit (CF frame, motors, ESCs)
Pixhawk 6C flight controller (ArduPilot)
Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB) companion computer
Pi Camera Module 3 Wide (120 deg FOV)
Matek 3901-L0X optical flow + rangefinder
Holybro M10 GPS
ExpressLRS 900MHz radio control
SiK 915MHz telemetry radio

Software Stack

ArduPilot Copter
YOLOv8n (ultralytics)
OpenCV + Picamera2
pymavlink (MAVLink control)
QGroundControl (ground station)

Project Status

Phase 1: Prototype - Planning/BOM complete, awaiting parts.

Docs

Wiki: https://wiki.jfamily.io (AcreWatch collection)
BOM: See wiki or drone_prototype_bom.xlsx

License

Private - A&E Ventures LLC

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