Gaoju Innovation UAV formation appeared on CCTV Spring Festival Gala | 3D dolphins and fireworks seagulls amazed the audience

The 2018 CCTV Spring Festival Gala integrates modern advanced technologies such as drones and holographic images into traditional folk culture to create a magical and dreamy cultural event. The drone formation presents a beautiful and shocking audio-visual feast to the audience through innovative performance forms on such a stage.

The drone formation performance jointly created by Gaoju Innovation and Zero Degree Intelligent Control amazed the CCTV Spring Festival Gala: the three-dimensional formation performances of unmanned ships, unmanned vehicles and drones by sea, land and air created a dream carnival for the technology circle on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge; the drone fireworks formation performance at the Sanya branch venue brought a different kind of visual enjoyment to the audience.

Joyful Lingdingyang sets sail for a new era

The "dolphin" formed by a formation of 300 TAKE drones equipped with full-color LED lights gracefully leaped over the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. The "dolphin" shone with colorful colors, happily "leaping" from the calm water surface of Lingdingyang, and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, which was illuminated by lights, was shining brightly, presenting a festive scene of "fish leaping over the dragon gate".

The Pearl River Estuary and Lingdingyang are the largest habitats for the Chinese white dolphins, which are known as the "giant pandas of the sea". According to relevant reports, the efforts made during the cross-sea bridge project have achieved results, and the Chinese white dolphins have been very well protected. Between the sea and the sky, people and nature coexist harmoniously. The super project and the Chinese white dolphins watch over each other, reflecting the wisdom of Chinese engineering and the strength of Chinese technology. The "Dolphin Leap" scene carefully created by the drone formation conveys the important concept of the integration of "technology, culture, and ecology" carried by the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge to everyone in a novel way.

The drone formation performance created such a smart and beautiful "dolphin" through 3D modeling, which can be said to be a milestone breakthrough in drone formation performances. Through high-precision positioning technology, the dolphin image presented by the drone formation is vivid and not only full of technology, but also extremely beautiful, presenting a stunning visual effect to the audience.

The “dolphin” performance formed by a fleet of drones was brilliant, and the performance combining “three no products” of drones, unmanned boats and unmanned ships was even more magnificent and breathtaking!

Unmanned boats from Yunzhou Intelligence formed a circle on the sea, like ripples when a dolphin leaps, and then the unmanned boats transformed into "arrows from a bow string" and crossed the bridge with the dolphins. Unmanned vehicles from Baidu and BYD passed the bridge in a serpentine or staggered manner with dazzling lights and dynamic music. After the dolphins "jumped" over the bridge, they changed their formation again, forming the three words "New Era" in the air, and the unmanned boats transformed into the two words "Set Sail". "Set Sail in a New Era" - kicked off the new year, showing China's vigorous vitality and infinite vitality.

The technical team has been under tremendous challenges and pressure in both positioning technology and communication technology in the formation performance on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. We know that the general GPS positioning accuracy is about 2.5 meters, and the error may be greater due to objective conditions such as weather and environment. The formation flight on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge this time, the strong winds at sea, the strong geomagnetic interference on the bridge, and the optoelectronic interference on site are all testing the engineers of the drone formation.

The drone performing the show this time is Gaoju Innovation's TAKE drone, which uses the Qualcomm Flight intelligent drone platform. Thanks to the powerful platform support, the TAKE drone has high integration, strong processing capabilities, and stable performance, and can calmly face the challenges of difficult formation flying.

On the other hand, engineers used GPS-RTK carrier phase differential positioning technology with a positioning accuracy of up to centimeter level to ensure that the drone can accurately execute the flight trajectory and complete complex dance steps. This is the first time that this technology has been used in 3D outdoor drone formations in China.

The outdoor drone formation of more than 100 drones has extremely high requirements for communication technology. Engineers need to optimize the data structure and increase the bandwidth to ensure the normal real-time communication network of the formation drones, execute the dance steps to high standards, and coordinate with the drone lights to present such a wonderful performance to the national audience.

The program uses light and shadow technology and cutting-edge technology to create a dreamy and splendid grand scene. The perfect combination of "three no products" not only shows China's achievements in science and technology and intelligence, but also allows the audience to see that driven by technology companies such as Gaoju Innovation, Zero Degree Intelligent Control, Baidu, BYD, and Yunzhou Intelligence, China's technological innovation and artificial intelligence are rising rapidly.

Fly high into the sky

The wonderful performance of the drone formation at the Sanya venue shocked the audience. 100 TAKE drones carrying electronic fireworks flapped their wings and flew together, transforming into agile "seagulls" flying by. In a blink of an eye, the "seagulls" bloomed with brilliant sparks, as if covered with red flames, presenting a stunning effect of a fire phoenix dancing in the sky above the Sanya International Cruise Port.

Adding fireworks effects during formation flying, the drone's load capacity, flight stability, the impact force and heat effects generated by the burning fireworks are all issues that must be taken seriously when formulating performance plans.

The team traveled to famous domestic fireworks production sites three times to conduct on-site tests. Based on many considerations such as spray distance, burning time, and firing effect, they selected the most suitable one from more than ten kinds of fireworks for the performance.

At the performance, the technical team overcame the magnetic interference caused by the stage layout and the impact of fireworks on flight stability, and constantly debugged and optimized the control system to present the most perfect performance effect.

The drone formation at the Sanya venue used the same high-precision positioning technology, allowing the drones to accurately execute preset trajectories and complete exquisite dance moves, doing their best to create a gorgeous aerial painting for the audience.

The Spring Festival Gala allowed us to feel the festive atmosphere of the carnival and the jubilant New Year scenes. It also used stage performances to fully showcase China's technological innovation, ecological harmony, and ethnic customs, spreading the charm of Chinese culture.

The drone formation overcame numerous difficulties and performed in a novel way, bringing a visual feast of technology and artistic creativity to the national audience. This reflects China's spirit of innovation and pioneering exploration.