“CloudStation:” A Cloud-Based Ground Control Station for Drones

This article demonstrates an open source cloud-based ground control station that allows remote piloting of drones (aerial-, land-, or sea-based vehicle) from anywhere in the world with just a Web browser. A standard client-server architecture is used for pilot-server and drone-server communication and it is designed to be scalable for the control of millions of drones simultaneously. CloudStation, a proof of concept Web app, is built with Django and hosted on a cloud-based service provider with global availability and scalability. A demonstration from two antipode points (separated around the world) shows the cloud-based command and control of a remote rover.