A few months ago, I watched a TED Talk where they setup an indoor arena and did some amazing things with drones. It got me thinking, and it inspired me to build something like that for myself – but on a much smaller and cheaper scale. In the TED Talk video they use an expensive real-time infrared motion tracking system made by companies like Vicon or Optitrack to measure the position of the drones, and then used a computer to calculate and send control signals to coordinate the drones.

At a high level, my setup works in a similar way, using a USB camera to track the position of a $15 toy drone, and then using the computer to send radio control signals through an Arduino and a wireless card. Excluding the computer, all the equipment cost about $85.

Watch the video above to see my computer flying the drone! The photo above shows my first setup. Read this Instructable to learn how to do it yourself!

Also check out MakeHardware.com for more details and links.