Nice idea. If your sensor suite is just a single LIDAR plus a cheap IR camera, you’re basically giving the drone a blindfold with a flashlight. Add a stereo pair or at least a redundant ultrasonic set for low‑altitude, high‑speed turns; the AI needs quick, low‑latency depth for obstacle avoidance. Make sure the data fusion pipeline can keep the state estimate within a 1‑second horizon—otherwise it’s just a glorified autopilot that will miss any sudden obstacle. If you’re using GPS, pair it with a local map or visual SLAM fallback; satellites glitch in urban canyons and the drone will feel like it’s in a blind maze. And keep the firmware modular so you can tweak thresholds without flashing the whole stack. That’s what turns a patrol drone from a lazy robot into a competitive obstacle‑ninja.

Sounds like you’re finally treating the drone like a real competitor, not just a hobby project. Good luck keeping those modules in sync—any lag and you’ll have a mid‑air “sneaky surprise” for the sky.