First flight 2013 | ||
Yangzhou University UAV is a Chinese UAV developed by Yangzhou University and has entered service in China for aerial cinematography, photography, and survey missions.
Osprey
The first Yangzhou University UAV is a quadcopter named Osprey. The origin of Yangzhou University Osprey traces back to its designer, Mr. Sun Jun-Tao (孙俊涛), an electrical engineering student at College of Energy and Power Engineering (能源与动力工程学院) of Yangzhou University. Mr. Sun was an photography enthusiasts and as he attempted to venture into area of aerial photography, he decided to build one on his own because the available UAV on the market are simply too expensive. After comparing and evaluating other designs, Mr. Sun decided quadcopter was a better choice than unmanned helicopter, and he spent fifteen days and ¥ 3000 to build his first quadcopter, which crashed into the lake at its maiden flight at the beginning of 2013. The second ¥ 3000 unit built also crashed during its maiden flight, but Mr. Sun would not give up and begun to work on the third one in March 2013. The design was finally proved to be successful on the third trial when test flight was completed on May 5, 2013. Osprey is in typical quadcopter layout with a pair of skids as landing gear. Navigation is provided by GPS, based on which Osprey can perform fully autonomous flight. Although initially developed as an aerial photography platform, the potential of Osprey and its economical cost soon caught the eye of the university, which stepped in to participate in the project. Professor Tang Hong-Run (唐鸿儒) of automation was put in charge of helping Mr. Sun to upgrade Osprey by incorporating real time data transmission system and electronic maps to further enhance the performance, so that Osprey can be better suited for law enforcement and disaster relief missions. Specification: