A team of PolyU students claimed the first runner-up prize at the 2024 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS’24) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Competition in Greece in June. Led by Prof. WEN Chih-Yung, Chair Professor of Aeronautical Engineering, Head of the Department of Aeronautical and Aviation Engineering, and Associate Director of the Research Institute for Sports Science and Technology, the team comprised Mr YANG Wenyu, Mr TAN Zheng, Ms XUE Yuanbo, Mr LO Li-yu, and Mr JIANG Bailun, students from the Department of Aeronautical and Aviation Engineering.

The PolyU team vied with 24 other international teams from 20 regions. The teams were challenged to develop UAVs with the autonomous path planning and target detection capabilities to accurately count fruits in a farm environment, both under an indoor simulation and outdoor real-life setting. They were required to navigate their UAVs, equipped with a front- facing cameras, slightly pitched-down 3D LiDAR, GPS receiver, IMU and Pixhawk controller, to identify and quantify different coloured fruits.

ICUAS’24 UAV is co-hosted by the Technical University of Crete, the University of Denver, IEEE, IEEE Control Systems Society, IEEE Robotics & Automation Society, and the ICUAS Association, Inc.