HKUST Robotics Team Named Champion in Meituan’s 3rd Low-Altitude Economy Intelligent Flight Management Challenge
The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) sub-team “Icarus” from the HKUST Robotics Team has been crowned Champion in the creativity category at the 3rd Low-Altitude Economy Intelligent Flight Management Challenge, jointly organized by Meituan Academy of Robotics Shenzhen and Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School in August and September 2025. The competition focuses on real-world challenges and industry research hotspots in urban low-altitude drone operations, particularly exploring the application of vision-language navigation in air-ground collaborative operations.
The team, composed of five members—CHAN Chi-Kit (Team leader), LU Yan, LI Wing-Yam, CHAN Wai-Hang, and Gurvir KAUR—demonstrated exceptional skill in drone navigation and innovative ideas on low-altitude logistics throughout the competition. They tackled complex low-altitude economy scenarios using a blend of autonomous strategies and manual precision.
They impressed the judges with their innovative “Aerial-Ground Integrated Logistics Robot System”. This comprehensive solution synergistically combines VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) hybrid-wing drones for long-distance cross-regional flight with all-terrain ground robots, which include highly maneuverable wheeled platforms and legged robots designed for complex environments, to accomplish first-and-last-mile delivery. The system’s core innovation lies in its modular docking station, which enables fully automated package transfer between ground and aerial units and integrates real-time meteorological monitoring to ensure safe operations.
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