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image source: photo by reporter tan zhongkui of meijing

"we cannot pursue some gimmicks, but we must earnestly and practically create a batch of scenarios." on september 19, during the 2024 china (chengdu) international low-altitude economic cooperation partner conference, ren bin, chairman of zongheng co., ltd., the "first industrial drone stock", told the "daily economic news" reporter that chengdu's low-altitude economic enterprises are already at the forefront of the country, and the government should accelerate the implementation of a batch of application scenarios, do a good job in airspace coordination, and support the development of the low-altitude economic industry with greater efforts.

as a city with a strong aviation industry, chengdu relies on chain leader companies such as chengfei, chengfa, china civil aviation institute ii, avic uav, zongheng co., ltd., wofei changkong, and tengdun to gather 500 upstream and downstream companies in the field of aviation manufacturing. the industry scale will exceed 150 billion yuan in 2023, and its comprehensive strength ranks first in the country.

at present, chengdu is promoting the advantages of the aerospace industry to accelerate the transformation and empowerment of the low-altitude economy. this year's chengdu municipal government work report proposed to make good use of the results of the pilot reform of low-altitude airspace collaborative management, activate the advantages of general aviation, industrial drones and other industries, and build a low-altitude center in the west. to this end, chengdu targets the two major problems facing the development of the low-altitude economy - insufficient management and service capabilities and insufficient low-altitude application scenarios, and takes low-altitude commercial applications as the main driving force for the development of the low-altitude economy.

"the low-altitude economy has three major application scenarios. the most popular one now is low-altitude transportation. the traditional general aviation industry has become evtol (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft) and point-to-point low-altitude transportation." ren bin believes that low-altitude transportation currently has the highest investment enthusiasm, but its industrialization may take a long time.

at the same time, low-altitude logistics is also an important scenario for the low-altitude economy. "long-distance logistics is high-altitude, and short-distance and medium-distance logistics cannot be done by current drone technology. now it is mainly urban express logistics, which relies on rotorcraft. for example, dji, meituan, and sf express deliver express parcels and takeout." in ren bin's view, this is a track with development potential in the future. the main problem currently faced is that the cost is still relatively high, "the airspace cannot be routinely flown, and the flight frequency is affected."

he believes that low-altitude transportation and low-altitude logistics are both popular application scenarios in the low-altitude economy, but how to achieve profitability and accelerate the formation of a closed business loop still faces great challenges.

another highly anticipated scenario is the low-altitude digital economy. ren bin pointed out that with the development of drone technology, it can carry various sensors such as visible light sensors, lidar sensors, electromagnetic sensors, etc., to conduct various measurements, mapping, surveillance, and monitoring of the ground in the air. the most widely used scenarios are power grids, oil pipelines, and inspections in urban management, transportation, security, environmental protection and other fields.

these patrol and inspection activities are equivalent to "mobile cameras" in the air, collecting spatiotemporal big data, and then enabling comprehensive governance in all walks of life through ai applications. "the low-altitude digital economy and vertical and horizontal unmanned systems are to help solve social governance problems and empower social governance in various industries through artificial intelligence." in ren bin's view, this is the main form of the low-altitude economy in the next 5 to 10 years, and it is also the main growth point.

according to him, zongheng will deploy a large number of "zongheng dapeng uav + unmanned system + zongheng cloud" in the pilot area to create a drone monitoring network to empower the governance of land, environmental protection, water conservancy, forestry, transportation and other fields.

in ren bin's view, chengdu's low-altitude economic enterprises are already at the forefront of the country, with advantages in products and services. on this basis, the government should make greater efforts to make good plans for the low-altitude economic industry and further guide the opening of the market.

daily economic news