In recent years, China's drone industry has witnessed rapid growth. From military applications to scientific research, commercial performances, emergency rescue, environmental monitoring, and logistics transportation, among other fields, it has continuously expanded the boundaries of its applications with its outstanding performance and flexibility. According to the "2025-2030 China Drone Industry Market Research and Prospect Forecast Report" released by Zhongshang Industry Research Institute, the market size of civilian drones in China reached 117.43 billion yuan in 2023, with a year-on-year growth of 32%. It is expected that the market size of civilian drones in China will reach 140.92 billion yuan in 2024 and 169.1 billion yuan in 2025. The number of drone operation enterprises in China has increased from 7,149 in 2019 to 19,825 in 2023, with an average annual compound growth rate of approximately 29.05%.

    However, with the rapid development of the drone industry, the market's requirements for the performance, safety, and application scenarios of drones are also constantly increasing. How to create drones with high maneuverability, high safety, and the ability to achieve the "human-machine integration" state has become a common research topic and breakthrough direction that various universities, research institutions, and experts are currently facing.

       For research on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the application of optical motion capture technology has provided new breakthroughs and research directions for UAV development. Through precise positioning and tracking, as well as visual synchronous data analysis, it offers accurate and complete data support for UAV spatial positioning, obstacle traversal, autonomous navigation, cooperative control, algorithm research and verification, among other areas. The application of this technology has not only greatly improved the efficiency of UAV research, but also made UAV operation more stable and reliable, while significantly enhancing the precision and complexity of mission execution. --- ## Applications of Motion Capture Systems in UAVs ### 1. Spatial Positioning By deploying high-precision infrared cameras to capture marker balls mounted on the UAV, the system calculates the 3D spatial coordinates of the markers in real time, enabling the analysis of the UAV’s positional information — including 3D spatial position, relative position, and other key data. ### 2. Dynamic Analysis The motion capture system can resolve the UAV’s 6DOF data in real time, including yaw, roll, pitch, Euler angles, velocity, acceleration, and more. These data provide precise support for UAV control research and help improve flight performance and stability. ### 3. Algorithm Verification High-precision positioning and measurement yield data such as the UAV’s flight trajectory and attitude, supporting the verification of algorithms including autonomous obstacle avoidance and navigation, traversal control, attitude control, formation flight, adaptive control, and landing control. In addition, motion capture systems can be used for research on heterogeneous cooperative control involving UAVs, unmanned ground vehicles, quadruped robots, and underwater robots, as well as for research scenarios such as ground-air coordination and sea-air-space coordination. --- ## CHINGMU Motion Capture System and Its Applications CHINGMU’s optical motion capture system features high precision, low latency, wide field of view, and multi-target tracking. It offers spatial positioning accuracy of 0.1 mm, angular accuracy of 0.1°, and jitter error of only 0.01 mm. It can track rigid bodies, soft bodies, quadruped animals, and other targets, and visually presents 3D spatial positions and 6DoF data. The system adapts to diverse scenarios including above-water and underwater environments, indoor and outdoor spaces, and large-scale areas. Complete and customized solutions are also available.

     In the field of UAV research, CHINGMU’s optical motion capture system has gained popularity among numerous universities and research institutions thanks to its high-precision positioning and tracking performance as well as stable and smooth data output. Universities including Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Xidian University, Guangxi University, Shanghai University and Wenzhou University have adopted CHINGMU’s optical motion capture system for UAV control research, algorithm verification and formation flight experiments. With the help of motion capture technology, research costs are reduced while supporting efficient and accurate completion of experiments.

### Partial Case Studies: **School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University** To study the coordinated flight of multiple UAVs, the research team carried out a project titled *Path Planning for Dual-UAV Cooperative Suspended Transportation Based on Artificial Potential Field-A* Algorithm*. The research findings were published in **Knowledge-Based Systems**. In the study, joint simulations and experiments on the coordinated flight control and path planning of quadrotor UAVs were conducted based on the AirSim virtual scene and real-world field tests. To ensure reliable experimental results and obtain accurate data, the experimental platform was built using the high-precision infrared optical motion capture system from **CHINGMU**.

### **University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Institute of Machine Intelligence** The research team proposed a distributed control method integrating velocity damping and a novel nonlinear saturation function, achieving consensus of multi-agent states without violating input amplitude and rate limits. The research findings were published in the renowned international journal **IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering**. In this study, the experimental setup comprised the **CHINGMU Motion Capture System**, four Crazyflie 2.1 UAVs, and a ground station equipped with the Linux operating system. Leveraging the sub-millimeter positioning and high-precision capture capabilities of the motion capture system, it enabled real-time acquisition of motion information such as UAV pose and flight trajectory. This provided accurate data references for algorithm verification and ensured the authenticity and validity of the experimental results. --- ### **Chen Si and His Research Team, College of Mechanical Engineering, Wenzhou University** To address the lift issue of a novel Flapping Wing Rotor (FWR), the research team conducted a study titled **"Research on the Aerodynamic Efficiency Enhancement Effect of Energy-Harvesting Technology on Flapping-Wing Rotor Systems"**. The research成果 was published in the prestigious engineering journal **SCIENCE CHINA Technological Sciences**. The experiment consisted of a lift test system, a flight system, and a motion capture system. The **CHINGMU optical motion capture system** was employed in the experiment to accurately capture and visualize the physical motion of the FWR, ensuring the reliability and validity of the experimental data. Based on MC4000 cameras and CMTracker software, the system captured the time-varying position information of 6 fluorescent feature points on the wing surface using high-speed cameras. The CMTracker software then exported the position variation data, from which the torsional, rotational, and flapping motion curves of the wing were calculated.

      In addition to applications in UAV research, CHINGMU's optical motion capture system can also be used in the research of quadruped robots, humanoid robots, dexterous hands, and soft robots, providing accurate data support for scientific engineering, embodied intelligence, and other research fields.