(Via Timebomb 2000)
Now, all us little guys can have our very own drone. Yes, you too can hover about, peeking into places with a camera, dropping ping pong balls and generally irritating the neighbors.
Of course, as with hobby rocketry, just wait until they decide to start passing more laws, or likely rules, against them. They’ll probably take out R/C controlled planes and cars as well, because you just can’t be too careful.
In addition to ArduPlane and ArduCopter, there is an arduino-based autopilot for ground vehicles.
And somewhere I saw a link to using Zigbee to form a bunch of them into a mesh network.
And one of the robotics labs is doing interesting things with a few copters to see what is going on, directing bots on the ground.
An Arduino micro-controller assembled and tested and ready to fly is about 50 bucks today, the software is free – I think. So for the cost of the model plane or car and the radio contols, plus a minor amount you are in business. (FCC or FAA rules state you have to be ready to assume manual control.)