Led by Prof. Lee Der-Horng, Dean of Zhejiang University-University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Institute (ZJUI), two major platforms—the Platform for Theories and Key Technologies of Integrated Transportation and the Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Research Center for Multimodal Transport Logistics Large Models—have long focused on technological R&D in fields such as port-hinterland multimodal transportation logistics, smart transportation, public transport capacity sharing, and low-altitude logistics. Recently, Prof. Lee Der-Horng led his team to achieve phased breakthroughs in two key areas: the construction of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) takeoff and landing sites in complex urban low-altitude environments, and air-ground integrated collaboration technology. These breakthroughs have provided an implementable "Zhejiang Solution" for the development of general infrastructure for low-altitude logistics.

Currently, large-scale low-altitude logistics faces four key challenges: First, interoperability issues—heterogeneous UAVs have inconsistent communication protocols, uneven perception and guidance capabilities, and complex collaboration requirements, which hinder unified formation and dispatching; second, inefficient resource sharing, as unsynchronized battery swapping and cargo exchange lowers overall turnaround efficiency; third, connection bottlenecks, where inadequate automated loading and unloading as well as dynamic dispatching in air-ground transportation restrict operational efficiency and multimodal link-up capabilities; fourth, integration limitations, with UAV takeoff and landing platforms lacking modular design and compatibility, making them unable to accommodate heterogeneous UAVs of multiple models and for multiple tasks.

To address the four key challenges above, the team focuses on building the technological system of "intelligent UAV takeoff/landing equipment+air-ground integrated logistics network" and prioritizes four core technologies: Unified Access (for heterogeneous UAVs), enabling unified perception, secure access and stable autonomous operation in complex airspace; 2-in-1 Compartment, boosting UAV ground turnaround efficiency via synchronized battery/cargo swapping; Dynamic Scheduling, offering an innovative online algorithm for urban multi-point/mode scenarios to support fast task response; and Takeoff/Landing Equipment, using modular, scalable design to fit multiple UAV models and enable parallel operations. These four technologies will form low-altitude logistics' general infrastructure system, providing core support for demonstration applications.

Currently, a set of modular multimodal UAV takeoff and landing equipment has been developed. It shows strong engineering capabilities in compatibility, operation accuracy and capacity improvement: it works with over 3 major domestic and foreign UAV brands, solving the problem of adapting different types of UAVs; it supports scalable parallel takeoff and landing of 16 UAVs, and the battery/cargo compartment swapping robotic arm has a positioning accuracy of ≤2mm, ensuring fast and stable swapping; in urban emergency cargo transport, it cuts overall transport time by ≥60% compared with traditional methods, greatly improving terminal efficiency and turnover. Building on this, led by ZJUI and joined by YTO Express, Beihang University International Innovation Research Institute, and Huzhou Institute of Zhejiang University, a mechanism for in-depth industry-academia-research collaboration has been established to jointly develop a demonstration system for future low-altitude logistics takeoff and landing sites.