What is the future development prospect of UAV specialty?

The UAV industrial chain is mainly divided into three parts: design and key raw materials, UAV manufacturing, and UAV application fields. At present, it is difficult to make a breakthrough in UAV battery technology in a short time, and battery life is an important bottleneck for the development of UAV industry. The representative enterprises of China's UAV industrial chain are distributed in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Beijing, Shanghai and other regions, and Guangdong's UAV industrial chain has the highest concentration of representative enterprises.

Panoramic carding of UAV industrial chain: battery life is an important bottleneck in the development of UAV industry

The upstream of UAV industrial chain is the design and development of UAV and the production of key raw materials, among which the key raw materials are metal materials and composite materials, including special materials such as titanium alloy, aluminum alloy and ceramic matrix.

The whole machine manufacturing of midstream UAV includes three aspects: flight system, ground system and mission load system, which is the core part of UAV manufacturing. The flight system includes power system, navigation system, flight control system, communication system and airframe manufacturing. It is the core system for UAV to complete the whole flight process, such as take-off, air flight, mission execution and return to the field. The market segments of UAVs are military UAVs and civil UAVs, among which civil UAVs are divided into consumer UAVs and industrial UAVs.

Downstream of UAV industrial chain is the application scene of UAV, which can be used in military reconnaissance, military strike, aerial photography, lighting performance, agriculture and forestry, plant protection, disaster rescue, logistics and transportation, power inspection and other fields.

At present, the endurance of UAVs in China and even developed countries is generally less than half an hour, and the endurance problem is undoubtedly an important bottleneck for the development of UAV industry. When the power consumption is constant, the greater the total battery capacity, the longer the battery life. However, under the premise that the electricity storage technology has not changed fundamentally, there is little room for improving the energy storage density of batteries, and more batteries are needed to increase the total amount of electricity storage.

It is not too difficult to improve the battery life in this way, but increasing the number of batteries or the weight of a single block will also increase the weight of the fuselage, which will lead to an increase in power consumption.

It can be seen that when the total battery capacity increases to a certain value, the improvement of endurance will inevitably begin to weaken. At this time, if we continue to increase battery investment, the marginal benefit will gradually decline. At present, no matter in China or other countries, it is difficult to make a breakthrough in UAV battery technology in a short time.

Regional heat map of UAV industrial chain: Guangdong UAV industrial chain represents the highest concentration of enterprises.

Judging from the regional distribution of representative enterprises in the UAV industrial chain, representative enterprises in China are distributed in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Beijing, Shanghai and other regions, and the concentration of representative enterprises in Guangdong is the highest.

There are fewer manufacturers in China's UAV industry, but the industry market concentration is high. Among many UAV manufacturers, Shenzhen DJI Innovation Technology Co., Ltd. has the strongest UAV R&D and manufacturing strength, and is a leading enterprise in China's UAV industry.

In addition, in the sub-sectors, Guangzhou Feifei Technology is more prominent in the field of agricultural drones. Enterprises with strong manufacturing strength of drones include Zero Intelligence Control, Polar Wings, Yiwate, Aerospace Rainbow, Northern Navigation, Yijiahe, Chenxi Airlines, Zhonghaida, Zongheng Shares, and Star Map Intelligence Control.

—— For more data, please refer to the Analysis Report on Market Demand Forecast and Investment Strategic Planning of China UAV Industry by Forward-looking Industry Research Institute.