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Installation

Requirements

The simulator is extensively tested on Ubuntu 24.04. However, other platforms should also work out of the box with the PyPI install. Further, you need an environment with:

  • Python >= 3.11, < 3.14
  • MuJoCo (follow the mujoco installation instructions for your platform)
  • (Optional) pixi >= 0.6.1 (required for the provided developer environment)

Quick install (PyPI)

Recommended for users who only want to use Crazyflow:

pip install crazyflow

Use pixi to create a reproducible development environment that also installs submodules in editable mode. This requires some 64 bit linux distribution to work.

  1. Clone the repo (with submodules) 

    git clone --recurse-submodules git@github.com:utiasDSL/crazyflow.git
cd crazyflow

  2. Enter the pixi shell (pixi >= 0.6.1 required) 

    pixi shell

Inside the pixi shell you will have crazyflow, drone-models and drone-controllers installed in editable mode.

Install from source (manual / without pixi)

If you prefer not to use pixi, install the packages manually in editable mode:

pip install -e .  # Install crazyflow
pip install -e ./submodules/drone-models
pip install -e ./submodules/drone-controllers

Optional extras (GPU / benchmarking)

  • GPU (JAX with CUDA): three ways to enable the gpu extras
  • Start the pixi gpu environment: 
    pixi shell -e gpu
  • Install local editable package with gpu extras: 
    pip install -e ".[gpu]"

  • Install from PyPI with gpu extras: 

    pip install "crazyflow[gpu]"

  • Benchmarking / plotting:

  • Use the dedicated pixi benchmarking environment: 
    pixi shell -e benchmark
  • Or install the benchmark extras locally: 
    pip install -e ".[benchmark]"
  • Or install from PyPI with extras: 
    pip install "crazyflow[benchmark]"

Verify installation

A quick smoke test — run one of the examples (offscreen or with rendering enabled depending on your platform): 

python examples/cameras.py

Run the test suite (recommended via pixi): 

pixi run tests
Or activate the test environment and run pytest directly: 
pixi shell -e tests
pytest -v tests

See the Examples page for more runnable scripts.

Building and serving the docs locally

Recommended: use pixi to run the configured docs tasks:

pixi run docs-build  # build the static site
pixi run docs-serve  # serve with live reload