PolyU Collaborates with Meituan to Develop Vision-aided Positioning System for Parcel Delivery by Drones in Urban Canyons

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and Meituan joined hands to conduct a research project to improve the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system for parcel delivery in urban canyons.

Led by Dr Weisong WEN, Research Assistant Professor of AAE, the project “Vision Aided GNSS-RTK Positioning for UAV System in Urban Canyons” received support from Meituan. PolyU was the only institute funded by Meituan in the field of UAV perception.

Prof. Chihyung WEN, Head and Chair Professor of Aeronautical Engineering said, “This project could effectively improve the positioning accuracy and reliability of the UAV systems for autonomous parcel delivery in complex urban canyons. The collaboration with Meituan demonstrates one of the successful knowledge transfer examples of the Research Center of Unmanned Autonomous Systems in AAE.”

Prof. Guoquan Huang, the technical lead of Meituan UAV, said, “Reliable positioning in dense urban canyons is a challenging problem that prevents the massive deployment of UAV systems. Dr. Wen’s research could improve the UAV positioning, potentially unlocking a series of UAV applications in dense urban canyons”

PolyU Research Center of Unmanned Autonomous Systems (RCUAS)

RCUAS plays a vital role by providing physical unmanned autonomous systems (UAS) research and development platforms to synergise the impactful and cross-disciplinary research conducted in PolyU, and it facilitates collaboration with leading partners.

Meituan

Meituan is a one-stop platform for food, transportation, travel, shopping and entertainment. As a tech-driven retail company, Meituan has advanced the digital upgrading of services and goods retail on both supply and demand. Meituan was listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited in 2018.