1. System overview and software structure

System goal : SUAS Competition

At the time of writing, the SUAS 2025 rules haven't been released yet, and so the following section is subject to change. The SUAS competition is designed to foster interest in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), stimulate interest in UAS technologies and careers, and to engage students in a challenging mission. The UAS is generally composed of a ground station and an Unmanned Areal Vehicle (UAV, aka the drone). The mission specifics change every year, but in general the mission tasks require that:

1. The UAV must be able to autonomously perform a lap in the airfield, staying within mission boundary, and avoiding obstacles such as trees and other UAVs
   • There may be up to 3 other UAVs in the airfield at the same time
   • The mission boundary is revealed within the rules, published around September
   • The mission lap way points are revealed during mission setup time, the day of the competition (around June)
2. The UAV must perform airdrops on specific targets autonomously
   • Targets are objects such as paper cutouts of different shapes or mannequins, found on the ground within a survey zone.
   • Like the mission boundary, the coordinates of the survey zone are revealed within the rules, published around September.
   • The payload, which is a small plastic water bottle, must reaches the target undamaged (lowered gently).
3. There are also the following constraints
   • The UAV must perform a lap before performing the airdrop.
   • The UAV must stay within a height range at all times outside of the takeoff area
     • In 2024's SUAS rules, the height range was 75 to 400 feet Above Ground Level (AGL)
   • There are 5 airdrops to perform to get the maximum amount of points.
   • There is a time limit for the mission.
     • Going above that time limit will lead to penalties, but is allowed
     • In 2024's SUAS rules, the time limit for the mission was 30 mins
   • There is a limit to the number of people allowed to interact with the drone during the mission (Operators).
     • Having more operators will lead to penalties, but is allowed
     • In 2024's SUAS rules, the number of operators allowed without penalties was 2

There are other parts to the competition that are not the mission, such as the flight review or the mission setup, which would be too long to mention and not too relevant for the software team.

More information on the competition and the rules can be found in the SUAS website and I strongly recommend that you read through the rules as they will dive into the rest of the details and cover other critical parts that the above points don't mention.

Introduction to autonomous UASs

2024's software structure

This year's software structure