AUVSI-SUAS Competition

Held each year at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in St. Mary's County, Maryland, the AUVSI-SUAS competition is the premier unmanned aerial vehicle competition for students.

AUVSI SUAS 2022 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 included the following tasks:

• Mapping
  • Given a region to map from the air
  • Stitch photos together to create a single overhead image of the region
  • Map areas inside static obstacles without entering their airspace

• Autonomous Navigation
  • Given locations of waypoints and static obstacles autonomously plan a path through waypoints while avoiding obstacles
  • Dynamically adjust flight path around moving obstacles

• Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) 
  • Design vehicle that is dropped from the UAV into a target region
  • Vehicle must autonomously navigate from the drop region to a goal region to deliver a 64 oz. water bottle

• Alphanumeric Recognition (OCDL)
  • Use AI image processing to identify alphanumeric symbols placed randomly on the ground
  • Actively identify these symbols while completing the other tasks