A team of 4 MSc and 1 BEng students from the Department of Computer Science has been ranked in the Top 15 teams competing in the 2016 DJI Developer Challenge. The DJI Developer Challenge seeks to simulate search and rescue operations where teams must build a robotic quadcopter system that can launch and land from a moving vehicle and then search an area for objects of interest without remote control. Here is a video introducing the tasks the students must complete: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxg60OCPdWo. The competition is sponsored by DJI (Dà-Jiāng Innovations Science and Technology Co., Ltd.), the Ford Motor Company, and the United Nations Development Programme in order to advance aerial robotics for emergency responders. More information: https://developer.dji.com/challenge2016/
In March, students Tony Ngan, Cao Chao, Matthew Clark, Jianbo Miao, and Liao Wang came together to form TeamHKU and compete in the DJI Challenge. Dr. R. Chris Roberts from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and Dr. Dirk Schnieders from the Department of Computer Science serve as advisors. At that time the students submitted a detailed technical proposal and were advanced to the Top 25 from more than 130 applications worldwide. The team was then awarded a DJI Matrice 100 quadcopter and accessories valued at more than HK$40,000 for development. Another technical report and progress video was submitted in May updating DJI on the team’s progress, resulting in their advancement to the Top 15 of the competition. Throughout the summer TeamHKU will continue developing their robot in preparation for the competition, which will be held in San Francisco, California USA at the end of August. The team’s progress can be followed on their website: http://www.teamhku.com
Please view the team's round 3 video submission here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_32SzCGPbc8
