Meituan Robot Research Institute 2024 Academic Annual Meeting and Low‑Altitude Flight Challenge

On December 27, 2024, the Meituan Robot Research Institute held its academic annual conference in Shenzhen, reviewing the institute’s 2024 research progress and inviting top scholars in robotics to discuss embodied intelligence, general large models, and related topics.

The event also hosted the award ceremony for the second Low‑Altitude Economy Intelligent Flight Management Challenge, attracting university teams and highlighting the growing interest in low‑altitude technology and talent cultivation.

In his opening remarks, Liu Huiqin, Party Secretary of Tsinghua University Shenzhen International Graduate School, praised the institute’s achievements and emphasized its role in breaking barriers between technology development, research, and industry needs, creating a win‑win platform for government, industry, academia, and users.

Meituan Vice President and Institute Chairman Mao Yinian reported that the institute has established more than 40 research collaborations with over 20 universities and research institutions, including Tsinghua, Shanghai Jiao Tong, Harbin Institute of Technology, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Joint papers have been published in top conferences such as ICRA, IROS, AAAI, ACL, and ECCV, covering drone visual navigation, large‑model‑robot interaction, and end‑to‑end autonomous driving.

According to Mao, the institute aims to act as a bridge between industry and academia, providing application scenarios that guide academic research and offering funding, scenes, and engineering resources to accelerate the translation of academic results into industry.

In partnership with Shenzhen City Transportation Planning & Design Research Center, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), and the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the institute undertook the city‑wide major project “Key Technologies for Digital‑Twin‑Based Urban Low‑Altitude Simulation Modeling and Dynamic Monitoring.” The project leverages massive real‑flight data from Meituan drones to model three‑dimensional urban low‑altitude geography, meteorology, and electromagnetic environments, iteratively empowering the entire low‑altitude industry.

Looking ahead, the institute will continue to host challenge competitions, extending platform access, providing offline testing venues, and offering internship slots for winning teams. It will also establish an Innovation Scholarship for outstanding master’s and doctoral students and invite researchers to submit joint project proposals.

The second Low‑Altitude Economy Intelligent Flight Management Challenge attracted 109 teams from 74 universities worldwide. Compared with previous years, the competition topics were more closely aligned with industry needs, offering a realistic simulation environment from Meituan drones. The “Performance Track” awarded first place to the nROS team, second place to Rigor / Cyber Eagles, and third place to the Collective Intelligence & Control team. The “Creative Track” recognized outstanding ideas such as SkyMinds Tianma Xingkong (Outstanding Creative Award) and IVG Zhihang Team (New Star Award).

Winning teams shared their experiences, emphasizing perseverance and imagination. Canadian Academy of Engineering Fellow Zhang Xiaoping, an expert advisor for both challenges, highlighted the increasing demand for intelligent, precise, and real‑time flight management systems, noting the new technical and planning challenges posed to participants and the benchmark set for industry innovation.

A round‑table discussion titled “From ‘Approaching’ to ‘Entering’: Exploring the Boundaries of Human‑Robot Co‑existence” featured experts such as Tan Zhangxi (CEO of Ruisi Xinke), Wang He (CTO of Galaxy General), Wu Yi (Assistant Professor, Tsinghua University), and Zhao Xing (Chief Scientist, Xinghai Map). Hosted by Ding Wenbo, the forum delved into challenges, solution pathways, and commercialization prospects of embodied intelligence.

The conference concluded by reaffirming the institute’s mission to convene experts annually, examine frontier robotics topics, inspire innovative talent, and explore the limitless possibilities of robot technology since its inception in 2022.