Asia Winter Science Popularization Issue 7丨Unlocking the code of Heilongjiang ice and snow fever: Technology engine fully driven

Heilongjiang: The technological power behind the ice and snow craze

Ice and snow tourism in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province has become extremely popular. The technological power behind this has injected strong momentum into the high-quality development of Heilongjiang's ice and snow industry .

Light up the "colorful" ice and snow world with technology

In the Ice and Snow World, which is home to a large number of ice sculptures, the temperature inside the scenic area is 5-10℃ lower than outside the scenic area. In this cold winter, how can the lights be "stablely output"?

The intelligent control system for driving ice and snow landscape lighting developed by Professor Zhang Haifeng's team at the Harbin Institute of Technology's School of Aeronautics has solved this problem. The system not only has overvoltage and overcurrent self-protection, but also has functions such as scalability and live plugging, which greatly improves the reliability of the system and the efficiency of ice and snow landscape construction. At the same time, the use of lamps that have undergone rigorous cold resistance tests means that the ice and snow landscape of the 26th Ice and Snow World can also present stable and soft dynamic and static light effects in extremely cold conditions as low as -40°C.

Image source: Visual China

The beauty of ice sculptures depends on the performance of lighting. In order to better tell the story of ice and snow to tourists with the language of light, Professor Zhang Haifeng's team has developed a human-machine interactive lighting control system and realized wireless remote control based on 5G network. With this help, the lights of the main tower and the "Dream Stage" of the Ice and Snow World change instantly with the melody of music, harmoniously and beautifully, and tourists also "play" with the lights.

Institutes empower skiers to experience the passion of snow

Figure skating in Harbin, ice hockey in Qiqihar, speed skating in Mudanjiang, cross-country skiing in Jixi, alpine skiing in Hegang, short track speed skating in Heihe... In Heilongjiang, the unique geographical advantages and deep ice and snow foundation have created a dazzling ice and snow sports business card. How to empower the ice and snow industry with digital technology and "unlock" Heilongjiang's ice and snow equipment in another way? Zhu Mingqing, director of the Institute of Intelligent Manufacturing of the Heilongjiang Academy of Sciences, has a deep feeling.

The Institute of Intelligent Manufacturing of Heilongjiang Academy of Sciences focuses on the development of ice and snow economy, takes the digitalization and intelligent transformation and upgrading of ice and snow equipment as the driving force, and takes skiing "data collection-movement evaluation-skill improvement-skiing competition" as the technical route. It has carried out the key technology research and development and demonstration application of digital twin simulation skiing system and digital skiing competition platform. At present, the project has been implemented in many places in the province, including Mudanjiang, Daqing, and Hegang.

"At present, foreign countries generally use the 'straight-line' indoor simulated ski training machine, and our team has pioneered a digital twin simulated skiing system and a digital skiing competition platform based on the 'slope-type' indoor simulated ski machine. Through new-generation technologies such as computing power networks, distributed cloud rendering, and intelligent motion diagnosis, we have achieved in-depth integration and comprehensive development of mass sports and competitive sports, filling the market gap." Zhu Mingqing introduced that the "slope-type" indoor simulated ski machine system and the digital skiing competition platform not only realized the zigzag movement of alpine skiing, which is closer to the real skiing experience, but also through the research of key technologies such as synchronous collection of skiing posture data, motion feature analysis, reconstruction of virtual ski resort digital assets, and dynamic feedback of virtual environments, it has realized intelligent skiing training and sports big data management, creating a skiing event space that combines the virtual and the real.

Simulate skiing.

"In the virtual and real skiing event space, we have implanted a large number of Heilongjiang elements, such as the Yabuli Ski Resort, and also designed appropriate storylines and game levels to enhance the fun of the system." Zhu Mingqing said that as a science and technology worker, he hopes to break the limitations of time and space through technological innovation, so that more people can experience Heilongjiang's ice and snow sports and ice and snow culture immersively through this device.

Enterprise innovation ice pouring vehicle from scratch

"From the most primitive use of kettles and washbasins for pouring ice, to using homemade ice-making vehicles, and then to independently developing new energy ice-making vehicles, this road has been hard but worth it." Li Yan, founder of Gao Kuai Qiang Sports Equipment Co., Ltd. in Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province, lamented that scientific research is taking a path that no one else has taken, from nothing to something, from something to better. This research process is full of uncertainty, but what is certain is that innovation has a future.

Product development.

On December 30, 2018, the company successfully developed an oil-powered "ice-making truck"; in April 2019, the company successfully developed an electric-powered "ice-making truck"; in September 2020, the company entrusted Maxplus Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. to bid on its behalf and won the bid for the procurement project of ice-making trucks for the National Disabled Ice Competition and Training Hall of the China Disabled Persons' Sports Administration Center, creating the first time that China's domestically produced ice-making trucks have entered a national ice venue to provide ice-making services... Along the way, as a major participant in economic activities and a major promoter of technological progress, the role of enterprises as innovation subjects has been continuously activated.

Only by holding the "diamond drill" can we avoid being controlled by others. "The price of an imported ice-making vehicle was more than 1.6 million yuan, which required a lot of foreign exchange. So we had to develop our own products." Li Yan said that the core technology of the ice-making vehicle is mainly concentrated on the sled. If the mechanical structure is unreasonable, the team will repeatedly modify the drawings and manufacture products for testing; if the sled does not scrape ice, then start from scratch. During the most difficult days, the team spent a full three years and thousands of experiments to fill the domestic gap.

For the first time, domestically-made ice-making trucks entered national-level ice venues to provide ice-making services.

"At present, our products have won praise from users in many provinces." Li Yan said that the 9th Asian Winter Games will be held in Harbin in 2025, and the company will also accelerate the pace of scientific and technological innovation, hoping to provide high-end, intelligent and green ice and snow equipment for the Asian Winter Games, and gather athletes from all countries and regions in Asia in the ice city to feel the unique charm of ice competitions.

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