China's booming IT industry helps drones fly high

Power technicians operate a drone to check local 220kV overhead lines in Anhui. [Photo provided to China Daily]

There are 300 to 400 civilian drone enterprises in China at present, involving over 10,000 employees, according to the AOPA.

Chinese manufacturers are not satisfied with just making civilian drones. For some at least, industrial drones represent one of the future opportunities. No Chinese company leads in this segment yet.

Compared with consumer drones, industrial drones need more complicated technologies but yield higher profits as well.

Ehang has already launched two industrial drone products, which mainly work on environment protection, forestry and aerial photography, said Xiong.

"We applied the concept of 'intelligent flying' to our industrial products. They could fly according to pre-planned flight points and save on the cost of human resources," he said.

Despites the small scale of its sales of industrial drones, the company has been receiving queries from potential buyers since August 2015.

The manufacturer has set for itself the tasks of educating consumers and displaying models of its drones at some industries, Xiong said. Drones can make a difference to many industries, he said. "We need to show them what drones can do now."

Similarly, DJI-Innovation has made development of industrial drones one of its future goals.

It has already launched its first product exclusively for the agriculture industry. Its drone with a built-in pesticide-sprayer protects crops. It hit the market in November 2015.

DJI-Innovation has tied up with a US-based company to develop thermal-imaging cameras for inspecting power lines, bridges and solar panels, said Wang Fan, vice president of DJI-Innovation. "We are entering new areas with these products."