17 IN FOCUS Prof. Liu Ming and his rst autonomous vehicle at HKUST campus. Green light for self-driving delivery vehicles during lockdowns utonomous vehicles designed by Prof. LIU Ming, Electronic and Computer Engineering and Director of the Intelligent Autonomous Driving Center at HKUST, took to the road on a crucial mission in di erent areas of Mainland China during the COVID- crisis by delivering food to residents in locked-down locations. Prof. Liu, who is also the founder of start-up Shenzhen Unity Drive Innovation Technology (UDI), provided several driverless vehicles to the cities of Zibo in Shandong province, Suzhou, and Shenzhen, to boost virus containment measures. UDI initially donated two low-speed unmanned vehicles to Zibo, where Prof. Liu was born. The vehicles, termed “running robots” by Prof. Liu, created a contactless alternative to regular deliveries, reducing the risk of person-to-person infection. Starting in February , they transported fruit, vegetables, and other supplies to severely a ected areas, driving themselves with the help of multiple sensors, including cameras and lidars (employing laser-ranging sensors to measure distances). The driverless vans carried about kg of supplies in the cargo compartment and were set to travel at between km and km (they can now reach km) per hour, enabling each van to make deliveries four times a day. Goods were rst loaded on to the vehicle, then the destinations selected via a mobile app. Later, the company also provided free unmanned vehicles to Pingshan district in Shenzhen. The vans distributed meals to a quarantined village, delivered materials to Shenzhen hospitals, sprayed disinfectant on streets, and broadcast messages to the community. “When news of the coronavirus broke, we were con dent that autonomous vehicles could play a positive role,” Prof. Liu said. Since joining HKUST in , Prof. Liu’s research has focused on the deployment of deep learning and deep reinforcement learning in mobile robotics, such as drones, unmanned vehicles, or boats. His research groups were among the rst in the world to implement deep reinforcement learning on actual robots. Prof. Liu’s company was founded in to provide intelligent products for robotics, autonomous systems, smart logistics and transportation, among others. The crisis proved an unexpected and invaluable learning opportunity. “We gained priceless rst-hand operating data and real-world experience,” he said. Extensive media coverage also raised public awareness of the bene ts of autonomous vehicles and the many ways they could be useful. UDI is now in discussion on solutions for several well-known companies. It has more than employees in Shenzhen and a production base for both manned and unmanned vehicles in Shandong, supported by a near billion RMB investment from the local government. UDI has established the world’s rst mass-production line specialized in autonomous vehicles there, along with an additional , -square-meter test site. On May , UDI launched a new program for city-scale autonomous vehicle applications in Zibo. Prior to the COVID- crisis, Prof. Liu’s vehicles had been tested on the industrial campuses of Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturer, telecommunications giant Huawei, and logistics rm SF Express. A Making deliveries to help locked-down communities. View a video of Prof. Liu Ming’s self-driving delivery vehicle at work, plus technical drawings in IEEE Spectrum See the Zibo autonomous vehicle program launch
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