FAQ
Find answers to the most common questions about KFUPM ASCENT, the SUAS competition, our aircraft, and the engineering behind our autonomous unmanned aircraft system.
- About KFUPM ASCENT
- SUAS Competition
- Technical Questions
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What is KFUPM ASCENT?KFUPM ASCENT is the official team representing King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals in the SUAS 2026 competition, designing and building an autonomous unmanned aircraft system.What is the team's mission?Our mission is to design, build, and validate a competition-ready autonomous aircraft while developing the engineering talent of KFUPM students through hands-on interdisciplinary work.Who can join KFUPM ASCENT?Students from a wide range of engineering disciplines are welcome to apply. The team officially represents KFUPM, so members are drawn from the university's student body.Which engineering disciplines are represented?The team brings together students from Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Software Engineering.Is KFUPM ASCENT a student-led team?Yes. The aircraft, software, and mission systems are designed and built by KFUPM students working across multiple engineering disciplines, supported by university facilities.Where is the team based?We are based in the Aerospace Engineering Laboratory (AE Lab), Building 75, First Floor, at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals.How can organizations support the team?Organizations can support us through direct financial sponsorship, by supplying equipment, or by offering discounts on engineering products and services used in our development.Does KFUPM ASCENT conduct research?Yes. The team carries out engineering research in artificial intelligence, autonomous flight, payload systems, computer vision, simulation, and flight optimization.Will the software become open source?Selected work may be released later through official SUAS and RoboNation initiatives when appropriate. Current competition development remains internal to the team.How can I contact the team?You can reach us through the contact form on this website or by email at ascentkfupm@gmail.com. Every message is reviewed by the team.
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What is the SUAS competition?SUAS is an international student competition in which teams design, integrate, document, and demonstrate an unmanned aircraft system capable of autonomous flight and navigation, remote sensing through onboard payload sensors, and execution of a defined set of mission tasks.What is the objective of the autonomous mission?The aircraft must fly autonomous waypoint laps within 50 feet of each assigned waypoint, then detect, classify, and localize objects on the ground and deliver payloads to them. Autonomous takeoff and landing earn additional credit.What objects must be detected during the mission?Teams must detect, classify, and localize four objects placed within the air drop boundary, drawn from the handbook's published object list, which includes items such as a person or mannequin, vehicles, and everyday sports and travel objects.What aircraft does KFUPM ASCENT use?Our aircraft is ASCENT-1, adapted by the team for the requirements of the SUAS mission.How does autonomous flight work?Missions are planned and monitored in Mission Planner and flown by ArduPilot running on the flight controller, while an onboard Jetson Nano handles perception and mission decision making in flight.How is the payload delivered?Delivery uses a custom payload mechanism designed and tested in house by the team. Handbook rules require payloads to weigh no more than two pounds, to be unable to sustain flight, and to land undamaged and safe to handle, so a retardant mechanism is used rather than a freefall drop.How is the aircraft tested?Development follows a staged process of simulation, ground testing, and subsystem validation before any change is cleared for flight testing on the aircraft.How is flight safety ensured?The competition requires a designated safety pilot, return-to-launch and autonomous flight termination that either the safety pilot or ground station operator can trigger, and automatic lost-link behaviour. We combine these with pre-flight checks, geofenced flight boundaries, and documented battery handling.Are there limits on aircraft size and transport?Yes. The handbook caps the maximum all-up weight at 45 pounds, and scores systems more highly for transportability when each packaged battery stays below the 100 Wh limit.
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Which flight controller is used?ASCENT-1 uses a Cube Orange+ flight controller running ArduPilot.Which companion computer is used?Onboard processing runs on an NVIDIA Jetson Nano, which handles perception and mission logic alongside the flight controller.Which ground control station is used?We use Mission Planner to plan waypoint laps, configure flight boundaries, and monitor the aircraft in real time during autonomous missions.Which computer vision model is used?Object detection is built on the latest version of YOLO, selected for its accuracy and real-time performance on embedded hardware.How was the dataset collected?The dataset combines publicly available imagery with aerial images captured by the team using a DJI Mini 4 Pro at altitudes representative of competition flight conditions.How was the search algorithm selected?The team built a custom SUAS Search Simulator around the official RoboNation KML mission map and ran Monte Carlo simulations to compare candidate planners on mission completion time, coverage, coverage efficiency, battery consumption, and real-world deployability.Which search algorithm is currently deployed?The current implementation is based on the Lawnmower (Boustrophedon) search pattern, selected after evaluation in the simulator.How is the simulator different from flight testing?The simulator allows repeatable evaluation of many strategies under identical mission conditions, so only well-validated approaches are deployed to the aircraft for flight testing.What software technologies are used?Our stack is built around Python with NumPy, Matplotlib, Shapely, PyProj, Pydantic, and PyYAML, together with ArduPilot, Mission Planner, YOLO, and the Jetson Nano onboard computer.How was the power system modified?ASCENT-1 uses a custom battery integration based on multiple batteries kept below the 100 Wh transportation limit. This satisfies the SUAS rapid-response and transport requirements while improving reliability and endurance.