This device makes controlling a drone as easy as playing a videogame

Owning a drone is generally accompanied by a definitive set of emotions: expectation, elation, confusion and resignation. After the expected wait comes the sheer joy of unboxing it, followed by a spell of confusion associated with learning how to control the damned thing, and finally resigning oneself to simply flying it back and forth or just sending it around the room with the not-so-occasional crashes.

That’s right--controlling a drone, using either a smartphone or a conventional two-stick controller, has always been a challenge. It’s simply not easy for regular folks to wrap their head around how handheld controls affect its flight.

A startup called UNMND based on Bath, England, may have just changed this. The team of researchers have been working on various prototypes of controllers to help users better take charge of drones in flight, to make the process of flying them more intuitive to end users. They have most recently managed to create a device that is based on the principles of a joystick, which enables users to control drone flight like they would if they were actually holding it in their hands.

This is a six-axis joystick that simply moves the drone in the direction and rotation corresponding to the interaction with the joystick. In an interview with T3.com, the co-founder of the startup Ed Elias said, "Our six-axis joystick (XYZ plus rotation around each axis) is so easy to use that even someone with no flight experience or gaming background can now control and fly a drone easily." He added, "Performing complex actions [can be done] with a single hand. Imagine the ring of the joystick is your craft and simply move it as if you were holding the drone itself."

The team’s aim is to crowdfund an open source project that enables anyone to hack the joystick to be able to control their own drone, irrespective of brand.