Most parents opt for a low-tech way to walk their children to the bus stop every morning, but Paul Wallich instead dreamed of building a drone that would follow his son on the 400 meter journey. Using a quadcopter, Wallich quickly hacked on the necessary components to make his wish come true, including sensors, radios, and batteries. The original idea made use of RFID tags to track his son, but the power requirements proved to be too high. Instead, a GPS beacon was set up that allowed the quadcopter to maintain a fixed distance from the source.

After placing the GPS chip in his son’s backpack and attaching a smartphone to the quadcopter for video duties, Wallich was up and running. The creator say there's still room for improvement in the design: the small and light drone has difficulty flying in windy conditions, and can only carry enough battery power for a return trip. Wallich is confident that further improvements can be made to the quadcopter, but he's already raised the bar in the world of parental supervision.