Professional drones show off

In Magang town, Guangdong Province, continuous rain accompanied by fog. During a lull in the rain, a Chengdu-Zao vertical takeoff and landing fixed-wing UAV prepares to take off. “Start flight inspection. The inspection is complete. Lift the plane to the take-off and landing position. Takeoff and landing points have been acquired. Three, two, one, ready to go.” Buzz… The drone flew off into the distance. After more than 10 flights, the disaster site image map, regional three-dimensional model and terrain change thermal map were improved on the same day, and the landslide area and earthwork volume were calculated, which provided fast and accurate data for danger monitoring and personnel evacuation.

Nowadays, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are playing an increasingly important role in flood control and disaster reduction, danger monitoring and other fields, and the “intelligent manufacturing” in Chengdu has appeared frequently. Zheng Wenqiang, flight base director of Chengdu Zongheng Automation Technology Co., LTD, said, “As early as 2010, the domestic industrial UAV market was almost monopolized by foreign brands. In 2015, we launched vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing aircraft with better materials and stronger wind resistance. Our industrial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been ranked first in China in terms of both hardware and software, with a large market share. We also have overseas markets in more than 10 countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Korea, and Argentina.

At present, China’s UAV enterprises are widely distributed, and an industrial cluster is formed in southwest China, with Chengdu as the representative. There are more than 100 upstream and downstream UAV enterprises in Chengdu, which can realize rapid docking in composite materials, parts processing, sensors and other aspects. At present, three UAV enterprises in Chengdu have been listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and the UAV industry chain in Chengdu is accelerating