As a key exchange platform for China–ASEAN transportation technology, the AI Empowerment for All Industries Super League (known as “A-Super”), organized by the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Department of Transport, concluded recently in Nanning.
With the theme “Smart Transportation · Connecting the Future,” the competition featured two core categories: “AI + Low-Altitude Inspection” and “AI + Transportation Transformation,” with awards spanning technological breakthroughs, application value, international collaboration, and more.
In the “AI + Low-Altitude Inspection” category, the joint team comprising lecturers from Kuala Lumpur University of Science and Technology (KLUST), led by Assoc Prof. Ts. Dr. Tadiwa Elisha Nyamasvisva, and China Railway Changjiang Transport Design Group Co., LTD., won the Gold Award for their project titled “Smart Bridge Surface Defect Inspection Technology Enabled by Low-Altitude UAV + AI.”
The project established an advanced UAV-based intelligent inspection system for bridges, supported by a self-developed series of UAV products equipped with onboard edge-AI cameras for real-time data collection and processing.
According to reports, the team’s self-developed UAVs achieved two major technological innovations:
- Breakthrough in flight control under zero-signal conditions – Using a multi-sensor fusion positioning algorithm, the UAV can maintain stable flight, precise positioning, and active obstacle avoidance regardless of satellite signal availability, with a positioning accuracy of 5 cm.
- Innovative “Triple-AI Recognition” model – The team developed an integrated edge–near–cloud intelligent recognition framework combining real-time on-device identification, near-edge deep analysis, and cloud-level precision verification, significantly improving defect detection accuracy.
Moving forward, KLUST will continue to drive transportation innovation through data-powered and AI-driven approaches, focusing on applying AI across key sectors such as highways, railways, water transport, low-altitude economy, and logistics. The university will strengthen industry–academia–research collaboration with Chinese universities and enterprises, advance applied talent development, and pushes the transformation of research to support high-quality regional transportation development and China–ASEAN cooperation.
