Our Projects
Everything we're building for the 2026 SUAS Competition — and beyond.
Competition Systems
The core systems that go on our aircraft. Each one is student-designed and built in-house.
Custom Quadcopter Airframe
Carbon fiber and 3D-printed frame designed for stability, payload capacity, and the specific flight requirements of competition day.
Target Detection System
NVIDIA Jetson-powered computer vision that identifies and classifies ground targets in real time during autonomous flight.
Payload Delivery Mechanism
Servo-controlled release system for precision autonomous payload drops. No pilot input — the aircraft decides when and where.
Custom Li-ion Battery & BMS
Hand-built lithium-ion packs with our own battery management system. Lighter and higher-capacity than off-the-shelf alternatives.
Low Voltage Power Distribution
Custom PCB that routes power to avionics, the Jetson, and payload electronics — all from one clean board.
Photogrammetry Mapping
Aerial 3D mapping using OpenCV. The drone photographs the field, and we stitch it into a competition-ready map.
Research Projects
Longer-term R&D that pushes what our team can do next.
VTOL Fixed-Wing
Vertical takeoff, then transition to fixed-wing flight. Way more range and endurance than a quadcopter alone.
FPGA Computer Vision
Offloading vision processing to an FPGA for faster inference than the Jetson alone. Targeting sub-millisecond latency.
GPS-Denied Navigation
Visual-inertial odometry for flying indoors or in GPS-jammed environments. The aircraft navigates by sight, not satellites.
Multi-Drone Swarm Tracking
Coordinating multiple drones to track and identify ground targets across a wide area. Shared intelligence, distributed coverage.