AsiaIndustrial NetNews: The “2016 China UAV Industry Research Report” released by iResearch predicts that the total size of the domestic UAV market will reach 75 billion yuan in 2025. Under this trend, the number of UAV companies and products in the entire market will increase. Substantial growth. However, the core technologies of most of these enterprises are still weak. They lack independent research and development capabilities, and the quality and performance of the final products are also worrying. Users in specific industries such as agriculture, forestry, plant protection, and power inspection are also difficult to find UAV products that meet the requirements.
Among them, the flight control system, which is one of the core technologies of UAVs, is the key to controlling all plans and the status, altitude, and speed of UAVs. Currently, it mainly uses open source platforms. Development still takes a long time and a lot of money is invested, and it is difficult to meet the rapid development of the entire market.
Therefore, at present, many industry users and complete machine companies will directly purchase flight controllers with mature technology, including DJI and ZERO Intelligent Control, which also provide flight control solutions. It can be seen that the flight control market under the huge drone industry still has a good market capacity.
Hangzhou-based Robsense is also one of the manufacturers focusing on providing flight control technology to the industry market. It has launched the third-generation Phenix Pro and second-generation Phenix Lite flight control products. The former integrates powerful computing performance, making it possible for artificial intelligence technologies such as computer vision and neural networks to perform real-time operations on drones; Lite is positioning Mainstream cost-effective products, with rich secondary development interfaces to meet users’ security, stability and industrialization needs.
In fact, the Phenix Pro came out earlier than the Lite despite being the third generation.In the example of founder Jin Jie, Pro has been able to become the brain of drones, turning drones into “flying drones”.Robot”, in addition to the functions widely implemented by other flight controllers on the market, the Pro’s ARM dual-core processor with FPGA hardware acceleration makes it possible for artificial intelligence technologies such as computer vision and neural networks to perform real-time operations on UAVs. In addition, its self-customization The real-time operating system of the drone makes the drone capable of more difficult tasks. In other words, in the current situation where the entire market, including agricultural plant protection and other specific industries, does not have a standardized demand and is constantly refurbished, the Pro provides flexible and customizable The software and hardware have both high reconfigurability. However, this advanced concept is difficult to adapt to the current immature market. In addition, the price is high, and there are not many customers. Currently, it is more used in the field of science and education.
The Phenix Lite was born when the Pro encountered market obstacles. It is a more basic solution that meets the stability and security needs of industry users and has high scalability to connect to different sensors and devices. Direct competitors include DJI and ZERO Smart Control’s agricultural, forestry, and plant protection solutions. Program.
Phenix Lite
Therefore, Ruolian is very clear about the market and its own positioning. According to iResearch’s report, the market for drone agriculture, forestry and plant protection is about 20 billion, the security market is about 15 billion, and the power inspection market is about 5 billion. Ruolian will also target this market. However, Ruolian has adopted the method of providing basic forming technical solutions + professional cooperation, including the practical application of drones in agriculture, forestry and plant protection, and the actual application of power grid applications. , UAV manufacturers are also unable to meet the professional needs of the industry. Basic technology + professional cooperation can largely avoid policy and market risks for startups like Ruolian.
In addition, although focusing on the core technology of flight control means that the market and supply chain are weak, founder Jin Jie believes that in the future, the entire market will gradually mature, and when companies lacking technical barriers are eliminated, Ruolian can rely on this to cope with market competition and survive. The entire drone market is also very unsaturated, and it is not a wise choice to spend a lot of money prematurely to get through the upstream and downstream.
It is reported that the two founders of Ruolian Technology are both returnees and Ph.Ds. They both worked in the National Network Innovation Center in Ireland and are both alumni and colleagues. Jin Jie himself is an expert in computers, and another partner focuses on wireless communication technology and is currently designing a communication protocol for drones. Their expertise complements each other. Ruolian won 5 million angel round financing in 2015, and is also one of the top ten NodeSpace entrepreneurs in China Bang Awards 2017.
