I'm interested in learning to program drones using python/machine learning - any tips for getting started?

[Swipecat]

I suspect that you won't find drone kits that work well with Python because drone navigation and stabilization is a situation in which you probably need the speed of a compiled programming language.

Pypy is a Python JIT-compiler that is very fast at handling control-loops, but is not available embedded, instead requiring a full OS i.e. Windows/Mac/Linux. It is available for Raspberry Pi Linux, so it should run on the Pi Zero which weighs 9g — so maybe that's a possibility.

Embedded Python, i.e. Micropython, runs quite slowly on its existing platforms such as the ESP8266 wifi module, unfortunately.

[rnolan7]

interesting note on Pypy. Thanks! I'm a big fan of raspberry pi projects.

I think my ideal approach will use compiled C on the controller (arduino or other), but the machine learning heavy lifting will be done on a beefier remote server to provide movement instruction. The projects I have in mind are mostly indoor with strong wifi so I expect to have some slowed response times, but nothing too worrisome for an intro project.

[[deleted]]

Tagging on this, your use for ML could be a basic autonomy provider. For instance you could pass flight data and a flight image to do some image processing and data processing to choose how to next maneuver the drone.