Project Nimbus

Smart India Hackathon 2025 Project

Overview

Thrilled to present Project Nimbus, our entry for the Smart India Hackathon internal round at VIT Chennai! From 864 teams in Round-1, only 212 advanced — and we were proud to be one of them. Nimbus is a hybrid VTOL disaster‑relief drone designed to deliver medical supplies and communication devices to remote regions during earthquakes, floods, and other emergencies.

The Problem

Our challenge was to build:

A drone capable of operating in disaster zones
AI-based real-time navigation + obstacle avoidance
Payload capacity ≥ 5 kg
Reliable delivery to remote locations

Traditional drones either lack range (multirotors) or require runways (fixed‑wings).

Our solution??? Nimbus 007.

Nimbus solves this through a hybrid VTOL + fixed‑wing configuration.

Nimbus 007 Highlights

MTOW: 23 kg (Payload: 7 kg + 0.5 kg safety margin)
Range: ~40 km
Cruise Speed: ~68 km/hr
VTOL takeoff + 90° tilt-rotor forward flight transition
Avionics: Custom Pixhawk-class MCU (STM32H743VIHx)
Redundant power distribution + safety logic
CAD Design: FreeCAD for structural modeling + analysis

CAD Model

My Role — Avionics

I worked primarily in the avionics sub‑team, handling:

Designing the schematic of our indigenous flight computer
Power distribution & safety logic
Sensor + subsystem integration planning
KiCAD schematic → PCB preparation

Flight Computer Schematic

App Interface

We developed a monitoring interface concept for mission status, alerts, and telemetry visualization.

Tilt Mechanism Animation

Here is the tilt-rotor transition mechanism visualized in motion. Nimbus 007 takes off like a conventional quadcopter and the forward 2 rotors tilt 90 degree to start working like a fixed-wing aircraft thus improving speed and accuracy.

Structural Analysis

We planned to perform stress analysis and subsystem-level validation in FreeCAD. But due to computational limits, full-scale simulations are being planned to split into modular studies.

Outcome & Reflection

We didn’t make it to the national top 50, but Nimbus 007 gave us real engineering exposure — avionics, CAD, simulation, teamwork, and rapid prototyping. Nimbus 007 doesn't end here. This is just the beginning of aerospace journey.

Disclaimer:

Project Nimbus is an independent student innovation initiative and bears no connection to similarly named programs whatsoever✌