The Competition
The Student Unmanned Aerial Systems competition, and the autonomous mission SUAS IITM is building for at IIT Madras.
SUAS (Student Unmanned Aerial Systems) is an annual international collegiate competition where student teams design, build, and fly a fully autonomous unmanned aerial system to complete a real-world mission. It is organised by RoboNation, with AUVSI and the U.S. Naval forces.
We are SUAS IITM, the Student Unmanned Aerial Systems team at IIT Madras and the institute's first international aerial robotics team. Founded in February 2024, we grew from four founders into a multidisciplinary team across four verticals. We represent India at SUAS; the team's first international outing was SUAS 2025 in Maryland.
- Organiser
- RoboNation, with AUVSI and the U.S. Naval forces
- Edition
- 24th annual
- When
- Week of September 14, 2026
- Where
- Skyway Range, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
- Theme
- Technology in Action for Recovery and Relief, Storm Response
- Scale
- International university teams
Four autonomous tasks.
- 01Autonomously take off, navigate a series of waypoints within the boundary, and land.
- 02Avoid stationary obstacles (trees up to 100 ft) and moving obstacles (other teams' UAS).
- 03Capture imagery of a search area, detect and classify objects of interest, and report their GPS position.
- 04Autonomously drop a payload so it lands undamaged at a provided GPS position.
India at the start line.
At SUAS 2025 in Maryland, our first international outing, we placed 23rd overall out of more than 70 teams and 8th globally on the Technical Design Report, flying a flawless 29 minute 33 second autonomous mission with zero crashes. For SUAS 2026 we are developing Falcon, a folding quadcopter with a ROS 2 autonomy stack for Storm Response.
SUAS, in short.
- What is the SUAS competition?
- SUAS (Student Unmanned Aerial Systems) is an annual international collegiate competition where student teams design, build, and fly a fully autonomous unmanned aerial system to complete a real-world mission. It is organised by RoboNation, with AUVSI and the U.S. Naval forces.
- When and where is SUAS 2026?
- SUAS 2026 is the 24th annual edition, held the week of September 14, 2026, at Skyway Range in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA.
- What is the SUAS 2026 theme?
- The SUAS 2026 theme is 'Technology in Action for Recovery and Relief', a Storm Response mission focused on post-disaster recovery: autonomous search, object detection, and precise payload delivery.
- Who competes at SUAS?
- SUAS brings together university teams from around the world. SUAS IITM represents IIT Madras and India at the competition.
- What does a SUAS mission involve?
- A team must autonomously take off and fly a set of waypoints, avoid stationary and moving obstacles, capture imagery of a search area to detect and geolocate objects of interest, and drop a payload undamaged at a target GPS position.
- Who is SUAS IITM?
- SUAS IITM is the Student Unmanned Aerial Systems team at IIT Madras, the institute's first international aerial robotics team. Founded in February 2024, it operates across four engineering and operations verticals.
- How did SUAS IITM place at SUAS 2025?
- At SUAS 2025 in Maryland, its first international outing, SUAS IITM placed 23rd overall out of more than 70 teams and 8th globally on the Technical Design Report, flying a flawless 29 minute 33 second autonomous mission with zero crashes.
- What UAV does SUAS IITM fly?
- At SUAS 2025, the team flew an autonomous folding X-quadcopter with ROS 1 avionics, aerial mapping, object detection, and winch-based payload delivery. For SUAS 2026, the team is developing Falcon, a folding quadcopter with a ROS 2 autonomy stack for the Storm Response challenge.
Follow our run
On the road to Tulsa.
Track how SUAS IITM is preparing for SUAS 2026, from the airframe to the autonomy stack.
Our timeline