Low-altitude economy nears commercial horizon

Airspace resources

Beyond logistics, industrial inspection has emerged as one of the most commercially mature applications of low-altitude technology.

Wang Haibin, chairman and CEO of Skysys, a company that focuses on drone products and services, said low-altitude applications can be divided into three categories: data collection, material transportation and passenger mobility.

At present, data-driven inspection services represent the most mature commercial scenario, while logistics applications are still expanding rapidly.

Inspection of power infrastructure has become a major driver of drone adoption, he said.

China's expanding wind and solar power facilities are creating growing demand for efficient maintenance and monitoring solutions.

Equipped with visible-light and infrared sensors, drones can quickly detect equipment faults, potential fire risks and abnormal operating conditions at distributed photovoltaic sites that generate electricity at or near where it will be used.

The technology is also being applied in industrial parks, municipal facilities and high-temperature equipment inspections, reducing reliance on traditional manual operations.

Skysys has developed an integrated system combining aerial inspection with ground-based robotic operations.

The company's drone-deployed robotic equipment can perform tasks including photovoltaic panel cleaning, dust removal, deicing and snow removal.

Such systems can carry out around 100 maintenance cycles annually and improve power generation efficiency by about 10 percent, according to Wang.

"The low-altitude economy is closely connected with embodied intelligence," Wang said.

Future competition, he added, will not depend only on aircraft hardware, but on integrated capabilities combining aerial sensing, autonomous decision-making and precise execution.

Hu Yongchao, vice-president of Beidou Fuxi, a technology company focusing on low-altitude traffic management and intelligent networking, said digital infrastructure will become a key foundation for the sector.

"The low-altitude economy cannot develop without a powerful background management system and digital brain," Hu said.

The company has developed low-altitude intelligent supervision platforms for nearly 30 major cities, providing digital management of flight applications, monitoring and traceability.

Hu pointed out that the rapid growth of drones has created new challenges for traditional aviation management systems.

While China has just over 7,000 traditional civil aviation and general aviation manned aircraft, the number of active drones in a major city can exceed 10,000.

To address this imbalance, Beidou Fuxi has developed a three-dimensional grid airspace management model, dividing urban low-altitude areas into standardized units and enabling more precise flight planning, monitoring and control.

"Developing airspace resources is similar to urban land development. It requires top-level planning and supporting infrastructure," Hu said.

He emphasized that safety supervision and industrial development should advance together.

"Loose supervision may create safety risks, while overly rigid restrictions could limit innovation," Hu said.