SUAS @ IIT Madras
Thinkers? Doers? Planners? Precisely not. We are The Curious Minds.
We are the official SUAS 2025 team of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM). We take aerial robotics to the next level, bridging the gaps between student communities, research laboratories, and industries innovating from the ground up.
Operational Headquarters
We operate from the Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) Laboratory at IIT Madras – a hub where a crazy set of innovators come together to build and ideate on all things aerial. It’s a space that has witnessed our journey from sketches to heated discussions to fully functional systems, as the team has grown bit by bit over the span of its existence.
Our testing base is the IITM’s home stadium, where our outdoor flights are tested to their limits with utmost safety and of course, scenic views :)
Takeoff - The Origins
Over the weight of books, assignments, and semester examinations, the need to make the hand meet the hardware was felt, and soon enough, the team discovered SUAS as well as Robonation. The idea of such a team took root, and by the start of 2024, the spark had turned into action.
The team was formalized into existence on 14th February 2024 (Surely our Valentine). Since then, we’ve grown into a 16-member core with an advisory board that spans multiple engineering disciplines, research labs, and even universities.
Fuel Behind the Flight - Our Mission
We started this to peek outside our books and classrooms, to use theory in application to understand what actually goes behind a complex aerial system, and finally to see how we can bridge gaps between our research and academic grounds to real-world systems and industry applications.
Our mission is two-fold:
- To educate ourselves and others through experimentation about various systems of aerial robotics
- To use that knowledge to create meaningful systems that make a difference in the industry
Trajectory Ahead
SUAS 2025 has been a great starting point for the team, but with the core ideals of our team, we envision something that contributes to this industry on a larger level. We envision being a Think Tank connecting research labs and student communities spanning beyond universities and national boundaries, focusing on innovative and collaborative solutions in robotics and unmanned systems.