Li Deren, academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing in Wuhan University (WHU), together with his team, brought their compelling innovations into the spotlight.

Intelligent robots, unmanned aerial vehicles, panoramic mobile measurement and content-based remote sensing image retrieval, all of these research achievements displayed recently caught attention around the campus.

The intelligent robot –Xiao Jia

The intelligent robot Xiao Jia is developed by applying remote sensing, surveying and mapping, and inspecting technology, according to Luo Bin, director of the intelligent robot project. Xiao Jia is a full-featured product, carefully designed with simultaneous functionality in mind. It can continue filming while deciphering its walking area, as well as orient and position itself. Xiao Jia is also capable of automatically discerning and skirting barriers. Moreover, the robot Xiao Jia possesses an eye-tracking system. As long as an object catches people’s eyes for more than a split second, it will move towards and shoot this object.

The robot Xiao Jia received its own mission during the back-to-school season. With its programming slightly adjusted to help it remember the site terrain, Xiao Jia wandered back-and-forth between four fixed marking points, greeting freshmen and even shaking hands with President Li Xiaohong.

“It took us years to complete Xiao Jia.” said Luo Bin, “Nationally it ranks first class in the field of positioning and navigation.” Next, Xiao Jia will receive an upgrade to its face and gesture recognition systems, which will allow it to discern human faces as well as gestures. More possibilities such as enhancing the flexibility of the mechanical arm will also be explored on Xiao Jia, while co-tasking operation among several robots will also be scheduled.

President Li Xiaohong shaking hands with robert

The robot—Backpacker (Bei Bao Xia)

The robot Backpacker is equipped with high-precision positioning and navigation systems, ensuring it will collect highly precise geographic data in places where mobile mapping devices fail to cover.

Backpacker weighs less than 14 kilograms and looks like a backpack. Sun Kai, a PhD candidate from Li’s team, introduced that they had spent one year on designing this wearable panoramic mobile measuring device. Backpacker can continuously collect HD panoramic images and output panoramic video with measurements and other geographic data results. It is reported that Backpackers will be available in the market within half a year.

Unmanned aerial vehicle

Unmanned aerial vehicle is another eye-catching device on display. Your typical unmanned aerial vehicle is usually applied only in three realms: intelligence, high-definition recording and multi-sensors. Students in WHU have made great effort to further its utilization.

“It only takes half an hour to collect data and one night to process the images, and then we can produce a three-dimensional model of the administrative building in WHU.” said Zhang Fan, a 2014 PhD candidate. Zhang and his team established the first slant photographic platform of low-altitude unmanned airplanes in China based on swinging design. Such unmanned airplanes are used in three-dimensional rebuilding of sites and after-calamity survey of landslides.

Large-scale content-based remote sensing and image retrieval

Unaware of the detailed information of a certain place, you can still figure out which place suits you most. Xiao Zhifeng from the lab explained that their research is based on the Map World, a public service platform of national geographic information. Their system supports high-resolution remotely sensed images (HRRSI) from 20 cities in China depending on words, semantics and pictures. It will cover all of the provincial capitals and important cities in China by year’s end.

Traditional remotely sensed image retrieval systems are based on metadata such as geographic position, sensor type, coordinated system, resolution and time. But the newly-developed technology based on deep learning can help you get access to the information you want even without naming it.

With their vision extended and pioneering spirit preserved, the School of Geodesy and Geomatics at WHU waxes in the race of innovation. Such successes will surely incite greater passion for scientific endeavors out of WHUers.

(Photo by Wuhan Evening News/Wuhan Morning News/Yangzi River Daily/ State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing)

(Rewritten by Li Minjia, Edited by Zhang Ran, Edmund & Hu Sijia)