Guinness World Records reports that a new drone record was achieved on December 18 2020, when EFYI Group and Tianjin University (China) created a drone animation using 600 drones, winning the record title for “longest animation performed by unmanned aerial vehicles” with a time of 26 minutes 19 seconds.

The Vincent Van Gogh themed animation featured scenes from the artist’s life, generating 12 images per second per the record guidelines for “animation.”  While it was a stunning visual story, the achievement is more signficant for the drone industry – demonstrating drone fleet capabilities.

The drones used were the “Agile Bee II”, which has a flight endurance of 38 minutes.  The small aircraft weighs 1.45 kg (about 3 pounds) and has a speed of 10 miles per second.  Guinness World Records points out that achieving the  longest animation record tests the capabilities of the cluster control systems, transmission of drones and ground stations, signal transmissions, and security.  These technologies all have potential to offer major benefit for the commercial drone industry well beyond drone animations.

“From a technical point of view, we use a high-precision positioning technology, to achieve centimetre-level positioning, and secondly, our synchronization technology, after the aircraft flying, to achieve multi-aircraft synchronized coordinated action,” Guinness quotes Zhao Shilei, Product director at EFYI Group.

The record for longest animation follows a recent record for the most Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) airborne simultaneously.  Achieved by  Shenzhen Damoda Intelligent Control Technology Co., Ltd. (China) in Zhuhai, Guangdong, China, the record now stands at 3,051 drones in the air at one time.  The record was demonstrated with another light show: but also has greater significance in commercial or military applications as operators demonstrate technology to operate thousands of drones in perfect formation.

Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, a professional drone services marketplace, and a fascinated observer of the emerging drone industry and the regulatory environment for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles focused on the commercial drone space and is an international speaker and recognized figure in the industry.  Miriam has a degree from the University of Chicago and over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing for new technologies.
For drone industry consulting or writing, Email Miriam.

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