[OT] suggestions for a programmable drone on a budget?

[Adam D. Ruppe via Digitalmars-d]

I've been kinda wanting to build some kind of programmable 
aircraft ever since watching DConf this year and now I'm thinking 
about actually doing it.

What I'm envisioning is something like a quadcopter that we can 
program to follow a pre-set course. Or something. A fun demo 
might be to set it down in the school's gymnasium and set up a 
number of waypoints it should hit autonomously. So nothing 
extraordinarily complex, but cool to do yourself. (My motivation 
here is mostly just cuz I think it would be cool, but the local 
school is considering doing some kind of programming robotics 
thing too and I know a guy with influence on that so I might 
pitch an idea to them as a student competition too)

A ground robot would be nice too, heck that's the kind of thing I 
might be able to build entirely myself with a few motors and an 
arduino or something. But a flying drone just takes the coolness 
factor to the next level.


Have any off you ever thought about this kind of thing before? 
Any suggestions on hardware or other tips to get started? Also, I 
don't want to spend an enormous sum of money so keep budget in 
mind too.