Introduction & Table of Contents
Last updated
Last updated
Welcome to the frontlines of innovation at the 2025 SUAS Competition!
This Team Handbook contains information that teams need to compete at the 2025 Student Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) Competition. It includes task descriptions, rules, requirements, and other guidance and specifications. Teams are encouraged to read this document for a thorough understanding of what is necessary to compete effectively.
SUAS is an international student program established to generate, cultivate, and enhance a community of innovators capable of making substantive contributions to the Uncrewed Aircraft System (UAS) domain. The vision is achieved by providing a venue and mechanism, whereby practitioners of robotics and uncrewed autonomy come together at the SUAS Competition to share knowledge, innovate, and collaboratively advance the technology of aerial systems. Teams must also document their designs as described in this Team Handbook.
The SUAS program is designed to foster interest in UAS, stimulate interest 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.
Participants of SUAS may expect to:
Increase technical proficiency;
Establish valuable professional connections; and
Enjoy the satisfaction of learning and collaborating while advancing the technology of UAS.
The nominal winners are those teams that have scored the most points. The real winners are all those participants who have learned something lasting about working together to create an autonomous system that accomplished a challenging mission in a complex environment.
