TJU Team Wins Top AI Award for Low-Altitude Sensing Breakthrough

The Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence recently announced the winners of the 2024 Wu Wenjun Artificial Intelligence Science and Technology Awards. Tianjin University, in partnership with EFY Intelligent Control (Tianjin) Technology Co., Ltd., Tiandy Technologies Co., Ltd., and the 54th Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, claimed the First Prize for Science and Technology Progress for their project on Key Technologies and Applications of Low-Altitude Intelligent Sensing.

Named after Wu Wenjun, a pioneering figure in Chinese intelligent science research and the first recipient of China’s top science and technology award, this accolade is widely regarded as the highest honor in artificial intelligence within the country.

Low-altitude airspace—defined as the zone below 1,000 meters—is where drones, flying cars, and other advanced aerial vehicles operate. With industries like drone logistics, flying cars, and low-altitude tourism booming in recent years, the low-altitude economy has become a global growth driver. However, challenges such as unpredictable weather, dynamic environments, and overlapping perspectives during multi-drone operations have made intelligent sensing in this space a difficult problem to solve.

To tackle these challenges, the Tianjin University team developed groundbreaking solutions. Their innovations include all-weather sensing technology that ensures reliable performance in adverse conditions, self-evolving foundational models that allow systems to adapt to complex scenarios, and multi-drone collaborative sensing technology that provides comprehensive, 360-degree monitoring. These advancements culminated in a robust low-altitude sensing platform capable of “seeing clearly, seeing accurately, and seeing comprehensively”.

The project has achieved remarkable success, securing over 80 authorized patents and 100 software copyrights, with several patents receiving prestigious awards such as the First Prize of the Hebei Patent Awards and a Silver Award in the China Xiong’an High-Value Patent Competition. The team has also published over 60 high-impact papers, authored one national drone standard, and contributed to four additional standards. Their technologies have been commercialized into two major product lines—single-unit intelligent systems and cluster collaboration systems—resulting in sales of over 334,000 units. These solutions have been adopted by more than 100 organizations and enterprises, supporting applications in security monitoring, water resource management, emergency rescue, and other low-altitude scenarios.

“This award-winning project not only advances low-altitude intelligent sensing technology but also lays a strong foundation for the rapid development of the low-altitude economy,” said Professor Hu Qinghua, team leader and professor at Tianjin University’s College of Intelligence and Computing. “As the technology matures and its applications expand, low-altitude intelligent sensing will unlock even more potential, driving innovation and economic growth in new fields.”

By Eva Yin