Development of an Autonomous Uncrewed Aerial System - Dragonfly - with Payload delivery, Image detection and Mapping capabilites, for the 2025 SUAS Competition

This paper covers Saint Louis University’s (SLU) Student Unmanned Aerial Systems competition Team, and their progresses in developing an Autonomous Aerial System, meant to compete in the Robonation SUAS 2025 competition. SLU’s Student Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) team designed, manufactured and flight tested the Dragonfly - a uncrewed aerial system (UAS), capable of autonomous waypoint navigation, object detection and localization, terrain mapping, alongside payload delivery. The Dragonfly is the first of its type to be built by the SUAS team at SLU and makes use of integrated computer interfaces and payload delivery systems to satisfy the mission requirements for the 2025 SUAS competition. This paper will cover the SUAS competition requirements, the team’s strategic vision and approach to competition tasks. Additionally, this paper will also cover the validation and flight testing of the UAS, payload delivery, object detection and mapping.