At the Embedded Linux Conference Europe held in Dusseldorf in Germany the Linux Foundation have announced an initiative called Dronecode which will bring together existing open source drone projects and assets under a nonprofit structure governed by the Linux Foundation. The result will be a common, shared open source platform for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

No longer just a novelty toy, investment in drone technology has drastically increased over the last couple of years mainly due to the vibrant maker community and the increasing number of applications found for the technology. The Teal Group, an aerospace market research firm, recently estimated that within a decade the total amount spent worldwide on research, development, testing and evaluation of drone technology will reach $91 billion.

 From environmental research to wildlife conservation and search and rescue, drones are becoming recognized for a wide variety of uses beyond commercial and defense applications. Furthermore, the opportunities drones provide for data analysis, storage and display open up a world of possibilities for application in business. Hundreds of thousands of developers and makers around the world today are contributing to the future of drone technology. The Dronecode Project will help advance these technologies and accelerate adoption of better, more affordable and more reliable open source software for UAVs.

Founding members include 3D Robotics, Baidu, Box, DroneDeploy, Intel, jDrones, Laser Navigation, Qualcomm, SkyWard, Squadrone System, Walkera and Yuneec. Dronecode includes the APM/ArduPilot UAV software platform and associated code, which until now has been hosted by 3D Robotics.