AUVSI Seafarer Chapter’s Student UAS Competition

Our Seafarer Chapter of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), in cooperation with the AUVSI Foundation and U.S. Navy, is proud to host the annual Student Unmanned Aerial System (SUAS) Competition. This event is held at the United States Navy’s Webster Field, site of the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Test & Evaluation Directorate, supporting a UAS Center of Excellence for development and test, supported by experts in industry and academia nestled in the heart of scenic Chesapeake Bay area in historic St. Mary’s County, Maryland.

The competition’s aim is to stimulate and foster interest in unmanned systems, technologies and careers.

Our competition’s focus is to challenge undergraduate students with an event requiring the design, fabrication and demonstration of an autonomous UAS capable of completing a wide range of specific tasks. Student teams are judged on their design, communication and flight performance. Teams from U.S. and international colleges are able to compete for prize money. Student recruitment opportunities of future engineers, scientists and leaders are planned for sponsors prior to competition start, and a post event awards banquet is always a highlight to interact with students and peers.

This competition begins at the beginning of each academic year with a draft release of the rules, followed by the final release and registration in October. Student teams accepted to compete must submit specific deliverables over the course of their academic year, culminating in submission of the technical journals in May timeframe, and flight demonstrations in mid-June, frequently the same weekend as Fathers Day.

For up to date SUAS rules, information, news, and insight into past competitions, go to our new SUAS competition website at http://www.auvsi-suas.org and join our AUVSI-SUAS Google Group to stay abreast of current discussions.