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While testing our high-power drone propulsion system in the lab, we encountered a critical failure:we went beyond the current (A) Capacity of the PCB leading to a fire within the whole lab. Within seconds, smoke started to fill the room. Without panicking, our team acted fast, shutting off power and using the fire extinguishers we had kept nearby (thankfully) and also removing the LiPo Batteries safely. That moment was a wake-up call — from that day on, we implemented rigorous power testing protocols, added fuses, improved board insulation, and always double-checked current paths before flight. It taught me that safety engineering isn't an afterthought; it's part of the core design.
Sleep-deprived but determined, we headed out at dawn to collect aerial imagery for our dataset. Five minutes into the flight, our drone lost connection — our transmitter’s battery voltage had dipped too low, reducing its effective range. The drone kicked into Return-to-Launch (RTL) mode, but just as we sighed in relief, we saw one of the landing gear legs detach mid-air. With the drone limping home, two of our teammates made a split-second decision to grab it manually mid-landing to avoid a crash. Amazingly, we saved both the drone and the dataset — which now includes a series of comically perfect images capturing the moment the gear fell off. A disaster? Maybe. But a memorable one that taught us to always check every battery before flight.
The night before an international drone competition and having flights a day after, our drone suffered a devastating crash during a test flight - a payload drop issue catching fire in the air. We were shattered. The frame cracked, two arms bent, and the gimbal dislodged. But we didn’t quit. Our entire team stayed up all night: re-soldering connectors, re-calibrating sensors, replacing ESCs, and re-tuning the flight controller. We were unable to test the drone, so we tested the drone once we reached Maryland, USA. By competition time, the drone was airborne again - not flawless, but functional and ready leading to overall rank of 14 - Although we improved from our past overall rank of 35 in 2019, but we were still unhappy. That experience taught me more about teamwork, triage, and real-time debugging than any classroom ever could.
At SAE Aero THON, our drone was designed to carry and drop a payload with high precision. On Day 1, our mechanism failed - the pully drop was successful until and unless one propeller came out and our drone dropped with the payload. Disappointed but not defeated, we retrieved the drone, took it apart, and bought replacement items from the local store as soon as possible. On Day 2, we flew again. This time, the payload released perfectly, landing within the target zone. That moment wasn’t just about scoring points - it was about iterating fast, thinking under pressure, and pushing until something worked. We didn’t just compete - we won the Best Manual Flight Mission Award in 2022. The due to unjust disqualification in 2023, Our Upcoming team clinched the first prize in 2024.
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