New Guinness World Records Title Set in Tianjin University

It was 2 a.m. on December 18, 2020 and the temperature was -8℃. On this crisp and dark winter night in North China’s Tianjin Municipality, a giant and dazzling artistic work rose over Tianjin University’s Peiyangyuan Campus against the dark sky. It was not a statistic painting but an animation that depicted the life story of the world’s famous impressionist painter Van Gogh.

Six hundred unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) developed and controlled by EFYI brought forth the aerial animation performance that lasted for 26.19 minutes, successfully setting a new Guinness World Records Title of the longest animation performed by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the presence of Luo Qiong, the official adjudicator of the Guinness World Records.

EFYI started the challenge with the support of Tianjin University. As the first modern university of China which built the country’s first aero-engine, Tianjin University has a sound foundation for aerospace research and technology. Qi Juntong, the founder of EFYI, is now a professor at the university’s School of Electrical and Information Engineering. Founded in 2015, EFYI has the world’s leading UAV swarm control technology. Through establishing joint research centers and postgraduate experimental bases to explore cutting-edge technologies, it has become a model of industry-university-research cooperation among universities and enterprises.

To accomplish this challenge, EFYI applied a world-leading optimization design scheme of the whole UAV system and the technology of high-speed path planning for swam drones. The six hundred UAVs used in this performance were Agile Bee II swam drones independently developed by EFYI and launched in September 2020. According to Zhang Siqi, the COO and the person in charge of products in EFYI, as the new generation of swarm drones, Agile Bee II has advanced performance. It not only boasts a newly upgraded power endurance that can last up to 38 minutes, but has the extremely strong environment temperature adaptation ability and good performance of wind resistance. The drones support several communication modes including WIFI, radio, 4G & 5G, which ensure data link in any application scenario. “Agile Bee II’s product design, technology application and business mode make it a perfect choice for UAV formation performance,” Zhang Siqi claimed, “On the base of the successful challenge this time, we hope to usher in a new era of aerial animation.”

By Lv Ximin, Bi Ran & Eva Yin