Ke Ji Zong Lan, the Chinese version of IEEE Spectrum has recently published an article about the rotorcraft UAVs system developed by Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), covering the researchers’ works in combining theoretical studies with system applications.

Rotorcraft UAVs is a flying machine that could conduct hovering, maneuvering, and vertical taking off and landing. It can achieve higher positioning accuracy than fixed-wing unmanned craft, while it doesn’t need a runway to take off.

Researchers in SIA initiated the research in 2004, and have published over 50 papers related to the subject till now, including six awards. Series rotorcraft UAVs of 40kg, 100kg, and 200kg have been developed successively and more than 20 patents were obtained. The system has been applied in atmosphere contamination monitoring, power transmission line inspection after ice disaster and flood, transmission line construction, sea surface oil spill monitoring, and life monitoring after earthquake, etc. It has won the first prize of Liaoning Science and Technology Progress Award in 2012, and won the second prize of State Grid Science and Technology Progress Award in 2013.

Source: Robotics Laboratory