Ninth Drone World Congress closes with multiple deals signed

The 9th World Drone Congress closed in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province on Sunday after a three-day showcase of cutting-edge aerial technologies, with Chinese firms cementing their dominance on a sector poised to reshape industries from emergency response to urban management.

With 825 exhibitors and over 5,000 drones displayed -- including unmanned helicopter, unmanned multi-rotor aircraft and electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, the annual event saw deals worth 20 billion yuan (2.78 billion U.S. dollars) signed.

Shenzhen alone, home to 2,000 drone firms generating over 100 billion yuan (13.8 billion dollars) annually, underscored its role as the sector's Silicon Valley, according to statistics.

"China's consumer drones account for 74 percent of the global market, and its industrial drones make up 55 percent of the global market. It has mastered about 200 application scenarios, and this number may exceed 2,000 in future. It can be said that there is nothing it can't do within your imagination," said Yang Jincai, chairman of Shenzhen UAV Industry Association, the first of its kind in China.

The congress also highlighted a pivot toward heavy-duty solutions.

One exhibit, a 1.4-ton unmanned aircraft capable of eight-hour missions, drew attention for its disaster response potential.

"Its takeoff weight can reach 1.4 tons and it can cruise for 8 hours. It can serve as a 120 ambulance in the air to carry out personnel rescue and extinguish forest fires, and the transportation and distribution of emergency supplies," said Sun Liye, vice-president of the United Aircraft Group, a drone company.

Another standout innovation which debuted at the event is a hybrid drone-robot platform using compliant technology -- flexible, shock-absorbing systems that reduce mid-air instability.

"We have added robotic technologies into our drone platform. First, it's lightweight; second, it has compliant technology so it can partially offset the recoil force when working in the air. It can achieve an operational capacity more than 2.5 times that of manual labor," said Wang Yilin, an exhibitor.

Ninth Drone World Congress closes with multiple deals signed

China aims to achieve secure and reliable supply of key core artificial intelligence (AI) technologies by 2027, with its industrial scale and empowerment level remaining among the world's forefront, according to a recent government action plan.

The plan, jointly issued by eight departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the National Development and Reform Commission, outlines an ambitious push to deeply integrate AI with the manufacturing sector, foster new quality productive forces and comprehensively empower new industrialization. By 2027, the plan targets the deep application of three to five general-purpose large AI models in manufacturing, the development of specialized, full-coverage industry-specific large models, the creation of 100 high-quality industrial datasets, and the promotion of 500 typical application scenarios.

It also aims to cultivate two to three globally influential ecosystem-leading enterprises, a batch of specialized and sophisticated small and medium-sized enterprises, and a group of enabling service providers proficient in both AI technology and industry know-how.

Furthermore, China plans to build a world-leading open-source ecosystem, enhance security governance capabilities, and contribute Chinese solutions to global AI development.

The document outlines measures including promoting the coordinated development of AI chips' hardware and software, supporting innovations in model training and inference methods, fostering key industry-specific large models, and deeply embedding large model technology into core production processes.

The plan also emphasizes making breakthroughs in key technologies such as security protection for industrial model algorithms and training data protection.

China aims for secure, reliable supply of AI core tech by 2027