Drone racing fever grips students

Many colleges encourage the sport and in recent times, several racing competitions have been conducted in the campuses. The racing events have helped raise the academic bar for the students as they are required to work on the drones to improve their control over the unmanned flying objects. 

“Drone racing is very popular among college and university students. We have been encouraging our students to participate in drone racing competitions since 2016,” said Dr S Chandravadhana, Professor and HOD, Mechatronics, at the Anna University-affiliated Agni College of Technology (ACT). 

“It is not just a race. It tests the technical skills of the students on how to control the small machines accurately,” she added.

According to Chandravadhana, drone-racing competitions are not only popular in her college but also in other higher educational institutions in the state. She said her students recently won a drone race competition in Anna Vailankanni College of Engineering in Kanniyakumari district. 

Guru Kailash and A Madhan Raj, pursuing their bachelor studies in Mechatronics, a course that combines electronics and mechanical engineering, at ACT, have won several drone-racing competitions in the last two years. 

“It is more than a hobby. It is thrilling when we compete with other colleges,” Kailash said. Similarly, Madhan Raj said the drone, which is used for racing, is specially made to counter obstacles, weight lifting and fast movement during the competition. 

“Unlike regular drones, our flying device has powerful motors to generate more power,” he added. “It consists of four brushless DC motors integrated with Electronic Speed Controllers (ESC).  The brain of the drone is the flight controller which is powered by lithium polymer batteries,” Madhan said. He said the frame is made of carbon fibre with a maximum manoeuvrability of about 50-60 km per hour which has been achieved with a weight of 2 kg. “We can increase the speed,” he added. 

The duo has won seven drone-racing competitions in two years. 

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) and Anna University have also organised drone races in the past.