'Eye in the sky' unmanned mini-helicopter ventures far beyond the reach of humans
July 28, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A MINIATURE "eye in the sky" helicopter is aiding Minhang emergency services, providing aerial views of blazes to assist the district's firefighters.
The helicopter, designed by a team led by Wu Junqi, a researcher with the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, has been named Yujingling, which means "imperial fairy."
One of the aircraft's first assignments was at the scene of a smoky fire at a tire plant on Longwu Road.
By remote control, Wu positioned Yujingling to hover about 30 meters above the fire scene and took 30 high-definition pictures within half an hour, showing the direction of the smoke.
"The quality of the images was satisfactory," said Wu. "I think those pictures are good enough to provide assistance to firefighters."
Yujingling was first unveiled to the public in 2007. It has since participated in mock fire drills and anti-terrorist training sessions.
The helicopter is 50 centimeters long and 26 centimeters high. Made of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic, it is light but strong. It contains an aviation control system inside and a camera underneath. The craft can fly vertically 500 meters and horizontally 1 kilometer at most. Its top speed is 100 kilometers an hour.
"On the day we shot the fire scene, the picture shooting started as soon as it reached the sky and the pictures were sent to the ground almost at the same time," Wu said.
Firefighters said they were impressed by its performance. Wu said he and his team will perfect the craft so that it provides an even better "eye in the sky."
Their ultimate goal is to design unmanned helicopters that can be used in all types of emergencies and in geological exploration.
"The unmanned helicopters are expected to reach anywhere humans and common facilities can't go," Wu said.
(For related story, see page 8)
The helicopter, designed by a team led by Wu Junqi, a researcher with the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, has been named Yujingling, which means "imperial fairy."
One of the aircraft's first assignments was at the scene of a smoky fire at a tire plant on Longwu Road.
By remote control, Wu positioned Yujingling to hover about 30 meters above the fire scene and took 30 high-definition pictures within half an hour, showing the direction of the smoke.
"The quality of the images was satisfactory," said Wu. "I think those pictures are good enough to provide assistance to firefighters."
Yujingling was first unveiled to the public in 2007. It has since participated in mock fire drills and anti-terrorist training sessions.
The helicopter is 50 centimeters long and 26 centimeters high. Made of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic, it is light but strong. It contains an aviation control system inside and a camera underneath. The craft can fly vertically 500 meters and horizontally 1 kilometer at most. Its top speed is 100 kilometers an hour.
"On the day we shot the fire scene, the picture shooting started as soon as it reached the sky and the pictures were sent to the ground almost at the same time," Wu said.
Firefighters said they were impressed by its performance. Wu said he and his team will perfect the craft so that it provides an even better "eye in the sky."
Their ultimate goal is to design unmanned helicopters that can be used in all types of emergencies and in geological exploration.
"The unmanned helicopters are expected to reach anywhere humans and common facilities can't go," Wu said.
(For related story, see page 8)
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