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Recently, the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence (CAAI) officially announced the winners of the 2025 Wu Wenjun Artificial Intelligence Science and Technology Award. The project titled "Key Technologies and Applications of a General-Purpose Robot Controller Integrating Sensing, Computing, and Control," nominated by Shandong University and featuring Dr. Zhang Tianlei, Chairman and CEO of Trunk.Tech, as one of the principal contributors, received the First Prize of the Technological Invention Award. Trunk.Tech also became the only autonomous trucking company to be recognized in this round of awards.
The Wu Wenjun Artificial Intelligence Science and Technology Award, known as the "highest AI award in China," is named after Academician Wu Wenjun—a pioneer and leader of intelligent science research in China and the first recipient of the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award. Approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology and initiated and organized by the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence (CAAI), the award aims to recognize researchers and projects that have made significant breakthroughs and outstanding contributions to the field of intelligent science and technology, representing the highest honor in the AI field. Following a rigorous review process, a total of 116 achievements and individuals were selected this year from the 413 proposals that passed the initial screening, including eight First Prize winners of the Technological Invention Award.
Earlier, in 2020, Academician Li Deyi, a fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Chief Scientist of Trunk.Tech, received the Wu Wenjun Award for Outstanding Achievement in Artificial Intelligence. As a pioneer and leader in China's AI and autonomous driving sectors, his academic vision and industry practice have profoundly shaped Trunk.Tech's development path. Dr. Zhang Tianlei, a doctoral student of Academician Li Deyi, has long focused on decision-making, planning, control, and simulation technologies for autonomous driving. From the Outstanding Achievement Award to this year's Technological Invention Award, this progression not only reflects the sustained recognition of the innovative achievements of Trunk.Tech's team and individuals but also highlights the company's deep, long-term accumulation in general-purpose AI underlying technologies—bridging academic heritage with engineering practice.
Whether it is robots or autonomous trucks, from a core conceptual perspective, both serve as quintessential embodiments of embodied intelligence—achieving autonomous learning, decision-making, and evolution through dynamic interaction between a physical body and the environment. The challenge lies in deeply integrating perception, action, and cognition to pursue zero-latency synergy. Trunk.Tech's self-developed AiTruck is a type of "wheeled robot" operating in open, dynamic, and high-speed scenarios. To enable a truck weighing dozens of tons to drive safely, stably, and efficiently in complex environments, it must achieve real-time closed-loop control integrating high-precision environmental perception, millisecond-level intelligent decision-making, and precise vehicle chassis control. The full-stack technical capabilities and systems engineering experience accumulated through this process have been generalized into the "nourishment" needed to develop a universal robot controller, empowering and extending into the broader field of embodied intelligence.
Trunk.Tech is driven by market demand and committed to product implementation. While carrying forward the legacy of academic research, it also strives to bridge cutting-edge achievements with industrial application. Looking ahead, the company will continue to deepen industry-university-research-application collaborative innovation, contributing a solid force to the integrated development of China's artificial intelligence and real economy.
