The low altitude economy is booming, and the trend of "decentralized" development in the drone industry is obvious

"UAVs are an important part of the general aviation industry and the key to breaking the deadlock in the high-quality development of the low-altitude economy." On August 23, at the "Unmanned Systems Industry Development Forum" of the 2024 World Robot Conference, Zhao Qifa, Supervisor of the China Remote Sensing Application Association, said that from the perspective of market space and profit prospects, the cost and price of consumer and industrial drones have dropped rapidly, which can provide flexible and convenient diversified general aviation services for more places and users.

When it comes to drones, the public is more aware of the consumer drone market dominated by DJI. In fact, a reporter from China Business News learned from the forum that drones are playing an increasingly important role in various industries and scenarios such as agriculture, industry, urban services, emergency rescue, public safety, and military. The latest data from the Civil Aviation Administration shows that in the first half of 2024, the total number of drones in my country increased by 48% compared with the end of last year, and more than 14,000 drone companies hold valid civil unmanned aircraft operation certificates. It is estimated that by 2025, the comprehensive contribution of the low-altitude economy to China's national economy will reach 3 trillion to 5 trillion yuan.

"Indispensable": In-depth participation in emergency rescue

In recent years, with the rapid development of aviation technology and the maturity of drone technology, the low-altitude economy has ushered in an unprecedented important opportunity period. Drones have rapidly shown great potential in various fields with their advantages of strong flexibility, low cost and easy operation. Especially in 2024, which is called the "first year of low-altitude economy" by the industry, drones can be regarded as "flying robots".

Ji Renxin, a professor at the China Fire and Rescue Academy, pointed out that emergency rescue is the most typical scenario for drones. He introduced the demand characteristics of emergency rescue scenarios and the actual combat verification of drones from four aspects: beyond-visual-range communication guarantee, beyond-visual-range reconnaissance, material delivery, and bombing and fire fighting. He introduced that thanks to the development of technology, in emergency rescue, a single disaster scenario has developed into seven typical scenarios such as detection and monitoring, survey and investigation, delivery and fire fighting, and environmental detection. In every process and every link of the entire rescue process, drones are deeply involved, which can be said to be "basically indispensable".

Tao Liang, founder and chairman of Maijie Aviation Technology Co., Ltd., a large unmanned helicopter manufacturer, introduced that the company's main tandem twin-rotor unmanned helicopters currently have four types of products with load capacities of 100 kg, 200 kg, 300 kg and 600 kg, which are mainly used in emergency rescue, logistics transportation, power construction and other fields. In the future, the application scope of unmanned aerial vehicle products will be further broadened in order to serve people's production and life more widely.

When asked about the application of unmanned aerial vehicles in the field of logistics and whether they can play a substitute role, Tao Liang's view is based on comprehensive considerations of factors such as safety and cost. At present, unmanned aerial vehicles can only be used as a supplementary means in the field of logistics.

Zhao Qifa pointed out that as an important part of the general aviation industry, the development of the unmanned aerial vehicle industry is the key to promoting the large-scale and high-quality development of the low-altitude economy. In this regard, we can give full play to the advantages of remote sensing in multidisciplinary cross-border, multi-field penetration, multi-dimensional application and focusing on serving social governance, resource development and other application scenarios, and closely integrate with real-scene three-dimensional, urban information models, smart transportation, land rights confirmation, new urbanization and other businesses and artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, cloud services, and multi-individual collaboration to promote the integration of sky and ground and "high-end equipment + high-performance software + data application". In particular, it promotes the transformation of major achievements of the aviation system of the major scientific and technological project of the National High-Resolution Earth Observation System, closely links with public security, grassroots governance, renovation and improvement of old urban communities, agricultural finance, public resource transactions, green finance, etc., and closely links with "one network for all affairs", "one network for unified management", "one network for coordination", etc., actively serves the construction of intelligent and efficient digital government affairs and inclusive and convenient digital society, faces the needs of the public in education, medical care, elderly care, child care, employment, etc., strengthens supply-side structural reform and demand-side guidance, promotes value-added services of aerospace information, and vigorously develops general aviation service business with drone remote sensing as the connotation.

"Visible, callable, and controllable"

Li Yuanlong, senior editor of the News and Publicity Center of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, believes that the continuous maturity and popularization of unmanned technology has promoted the decentralized development of the industry, and the use of civilian technological achievements and resources is becoming more and more important. He pointed out that the rise of the drone industry and the popularity of the low-altitude economy are the natural results of the evolution of technology, especially military technology. The application scope of drones in military and civilian fields has been continuously expanded, forming a diversified and customized market pattern. More and more countries and enterprises have been involved in the industry, which has promoted the decentralized development of the industry.

In Li Yuanlong's view, the decentralized development trend of the drone industry will be more obvious in the future, which is mainly driven by three factors: First, technological progress and cost reduction enable more small and medium-sized enterprises to enter the market. While reducing costs and improving production efficiency, more small and medium-sized enterprises can participate in the competition in this field. In particular, small and medium-sized enterprises can quickly launch products and services that meet market requirements with their flexible operating mechanisms and keen market insights, which has accelerated the rapid development of the drone industry. Second, market demand is diversified. Different fields and industries have different demands for drones, requiring customized and differentiated services and products. Changes in market demand have also provided a boost to the decentralization of the drone industry. Third, policy support and industrial ecological construction have also created some conditions for the decentralized development of drones. Some policy environments have promoted the cooperation and coordination of upstream and downstream of the drone industry chain, and built a relatively complete industrial ecological system. The industrial ecological system has built a platform for the decentralized development of the unmanned industry.

Cao Zhiheng, deputy director of the Unmanned System Safety Committee of the China Security Association, pointed out that in the next few years, the low-altitude economy and the unmanned economy will have a brand new look and take a big step forward. The development of the low-altitude economy needs to be based on safety. "Let low-altitude aircraft be visible, reachable, and controllable." It is necessary to further improve the effectiveness of safety supervision, accelerate technological development, and build a "safe low altitude."

Sun Baiyuan, Secretary-General of the China Unmanned System Industry Alliance and Chairman of Gaobot Information Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., mentioned that the 2024 Unmanned System Technology Achievements Trade Fair will be held in Yiwu, Zhejiang on September 1 this year. Based on the current situation of the domestic market being too "involuted" and Yiwu's foreign trade status as an international small commodity city, the initiative of "staying away from involution and going out to sea" was issued to the upstream and downstream of the industry. Through the exhibition and fair, domestic and foreign cooperation resources will be developed, and more generous value-added services will be provided to participating companies, thereby promoting the sustainable development of unmanned system companies and the continuous improvement of their competitiveness.