Building a Glove-Controlled Drone

High-schooler Emre shows how he created a drone that flies based on his hand movements.

Jeremy Cook
12 months agoDrones

Drones can be a lot of fun to fly, but what could be better than controlling one not with joysticks, but with the actual movement of your hand? In the video below, YouTuber (and high schooler) Emre, AKA StrikeWave, shows off the process of creating his own custom glove controller/drone setup.

The build started off some years ago with Emre’s fascination with flight, or the idea of flying yourself like a super hero. While this still isn’t a thing as of this writing in late 2024, after a conversation with an FPV drone pilot, this sort of unmanned vehicle seemed a good substitute. Per a bit more inspiration from his technology teacher Mr. Dec, he decided to make his drone controllable via the movement of a glove.

Although you won’t find a step-by-step glove/drone tutorial in the video (though there is a bit more info in the description), this could be great inspiration for other similar projects.

Perhaps the most important lessons presented are: find a project that inspires you, break complicated problems down into smaller steps, and when something doesn't work make sure that you’re not doing something wrong before blaming the hardware. Also, be really careful with LiPo batteries–as illustrated around the 13:00 mark.

After many trials and tribulations – and a trick for emulating the transmitter joysticks via microcontroller voltage outputs – Emre was able to produce a drone/glove combo that allows him to move the vehicle using hand movements. He describes it as being “incredibly cool,” akin to how Darth Vader might control a drone using The Force.

Jeremy Cook
Engineer, maker of random contraptions, love learning about tech. Write for various publications, including Hackster!
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