Student Unmanned Aerial Systems - IIT Madras

RoboNation is an independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide a pathway of hands-on educational experiences that empower students to find innovative solutions to global challenges. Working together with the industry, research and educators it includes over nine student competitions and programs that engage more than 250,000 students per year. One of these 9 competitions is SUAS.

SUAS is an international student program hosted in collaboration with US Naval Forces established to generate, cultivate, and enhance a community of innovators capable of making substantive contributions to the Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) domain.

The SUAS program is designed to foster interest in UAS, stimulate innovation in UAS technologies and careers, and to engage students in a challenging mission. The competition requires students to design, integrate, report on, and demonstrate a UAS capable of autonomous flight and navigation, remote sensing via onboard payload sensors, and execution of a specific set of tasks. The competition has been held annually since 2002.

SUAS2025 Environmental Monitoring: SkyWatch
Teams of student-built autonomous drones compete to map uncertain landscapes, detect changes in real time, and deliver support to fragile ecosystems. Guarding the Earth's ecosystems, from a drone’s eye view

The desire to work hands-on in the domain of Unmanned Aerial Systems, especially for a global platform lingered in the minds of initial members during an exhaustive end-semester examination week of November 2023. By January the team was conceptualized and brought into existence with its core principles to learn, explore, and innovate. With the first set of expansions in April, this initial team of 7 members formed the structure of what stands today as the SUAS - IITM with 13 members, 2 student mentors and 1 faculty advisor.

Since the beginning curiosity has played a central role in every kind of decision/outcome of the team and will continue to do so, thus we call ourselves The Curious Minds

Our motives for choosing the SUAS competition are three-fold

• SUAS’s problem statement is open-ended enough for us to explore the unmanned systems on our terms and at the same time provide us with an industry and application-oriented end goal.
• Working in a competition structure placed us with a timeline from an external entity which keeps our pace in check.
• It is a new and unique initiative within IITM which thus guarantees our identity at the same time SUAS platform is globally at a scale that assures/tests our product with international tech and research standards

SUAS - IITM is housed under the GNC (Guidance, Navigation & Control) Laboratory under the guidance of Dr. Satadal Ghosh, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IITM. Insight & inputs from the research group within GNC Lab have played a key role in our progress since the beginning.

We are closely linked with the UAV Lab as well as the RAFT Lab through our student advisors who excel in the domains of UAV design and certain object detection, classification, localization and computational domains. Our advisors have been participants of the SUAS competition themselves in the past with one of them being a judge of the competition for the last few years.

Mission (Who we are, What we value) We are a student-driven community dedicated to hands-on work in aerospace, robotics, and unmanned systems. Our mission is to bridge the gap between theoretical classroom knowledge and practical industrial applications, equipping the next generation of engineers with real-world problem-solving skills.

Vision (What we want to become) Our vision is to become a thriving community for roboticists, unmanned systems developers, and engineers, a hub of innovation and a think tank that pioneers groundbreaking solutions in robotics and unmanned systems. We aspire to be a key contributor to the unmanned systems industry by fostering impactful advancements, enabling collaboration, and driving meaningful contributions to research and development.

Strategy (How we will achieve our vision)

• Leveraging Academic Resources: Actively engaging laboratories, research centers, and faculty members in our projects.
• Participating in Industry-Centric Competitions: Competing in events like SUAS and hackathons to address real-world industry challenges.
• Research: Along with our alliances driving academic research towards key areas of requirement as per industry.

Goals (How we measure our success)

• Immediate Goals: Successfully participate in SUAS 2025, showcasing our product and innovation to a global audience.
• Near - Future Goals: Develop a market-ready product derived from our SUAS solution, Publish research findings to contribute to the knowledge base of the unmanned systems field.

We are developing a multi-rotor (Quadcopter) platform which falls under the small class (2-25kgs) of the UAVs as per the Indian Government. The features of the drones are strategically chosen to be designed along the industry needs based on SUAS problem statement and IDEX, ADITI requirements posed by the government. Our major focus is on the autonomy of the system which will help in man-power reduction and higher over system intelligence.

• Designed to be carried and transported in a compact suitcase.
• Capable of autonomous flight of upto 24 kms in 30 minutes.
• Can carry and deliver multiple payloads mid- flight autonomously.
• Autonomous aerial mapping.
• Autonomous Target site detection for delivery.
• Static and dynamic obstacle avoidance for usability in dense environments.

This is an illustration of the actual model that our team has designed over the past few months considering all the requirements and end goals.

We are developing a real-world deployable solution, pushing the boundaries of innovation in unmanned systems. However, undertaking such an ambitious R&D endeavor demands significant monetary and material resources.

We require around 30 lakhs of funds that are majorly divided in three categories (Refer Budget sheet for detailed breakdown)

• Competition Entry Fee : 1500$ (1.3 Lakhs)
• Product Development cost : 14 Lakhs
• Logistic expenses(for 8 members) : 14 Lakhs
• This includes complete travel, accommodation and related expenses to & fro IITM campus.

As a student-driven team, we operate under limited resources and funding, making external support crucial to our success. Your contribution can play a vital role in turning this vision into reality, enabling us to not only achieve our immediate goals but also contribute to the larger industry through groundbreaking solutions and research. By supporting us, you’re not just investing in a project—you’re empowering a community of future engineers and innovators dedicated to making a difference in the field of robotics and unmanned systems.