[From the Scene] At Drone Show Korea 2021, everyone wants a slice in the sky

BUSAN -- Beneath the clear, open sky, hundreds of drones were on display at Drone Show Korea 2021, held Thursday at Bexco in Busan, where companies big and small gathered to suggest their vision for the future drone industry.

In the case of national flag carrier Korean Air, the message was clear -- drone business is all about control.

“Korean Air’s main focus is the (drone) air traffic control system because we have more than five decades of experience as an aircraft operator,” said Cho Yeong-hoon, leader of Korean Air’s unmanned aerial system business development team. 

Korean Air showcased its unmanned aerial management system, processing information of multiple drones and unmanned aerial vehicles simultaneously and streaming the real-time data visually on the map. Drones would appear as arrows on the screen and air traffic controllers could check each drone’s airspeed, altitude, battery capacity and other operational information.

The air carrier’s strategy also comes in line with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s ongoing moves to establish a unified air traffic control system for drones and urban air mobility.

The country’s largest mobile carrier SK Telecom, on the other hand, chose to highlight the importance of software and introduced a subscription-based drone video service.

“Using its 5G network, SKT is offering a real-time video transmission service. Retail customers can subscribe to the service at about 100,000 won (90) per month and send videos taken by drones directly to SKT’s cloud servers. Heavy users such as broadcasting stations can buy their own servers at a one-off expense of 100 million won to 200 million won,” said Choi Kyung-hwan, manager at video data business team.

SKT also showcased an artificial intelligence-based video analysis solution co-developed with Innodep, a local video detection and data management firm.

“About 90 percent of video data is useless. With the AI analysis system, users can search for the exact footage they want. For example, if a user orders the system to track down a person wearing a red T-shirt, the system automatically filters out the person and finds at which point of the video the person shows up,” said David Kim, senior manager of the company’s enterprise department.

Meanwhile, the Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix, a public agency also known as LX, sought to create cross-sector synergy by applying drone technologies to farming.

Recently, LX deployed drones to take aerial images of farms on Jeju Island. Using artificial intelligence, LX analyzed which crops are being grown too much and advised farmers to switch to different crops to avoid oversupply issues and prevent crop prices from falling. However, the program wasn’t received well by local farmers.

“Some farmers refused the program because they felt (they were) being watched by drones. Others complained about why we didn’t tell them to grow another crop earlier,” said Park Jin-woo, manager of the drone convergence department.

LX now only provides the analysis service to local governments, not directly to farmers. 

In contrast to most other participants, Doosan Mobility Innovation, a drone unit of Doosan Group, placed emphasis on hardware, largely reflecting its strengths in compact hydrogen fuel cell technologies.

DMI’s booth was bustling with spectators and all eyes were on the company’s latest hydrogen drone model “DS30W,” an octocopter drone the size of a large desk that can travel for two hours.

“DMI is the world’s only company that can manufacture both powerpack systems and compact hydrogen fuel cells. Based on our expertise, we will build a hydrogen urban air mobility (system),” said Yeo Ji-won of the business execution team.

Powerpacks are equivalent to the engines of cars. DMI’s powerpack is mounted with a detachable hydrogen tank in the middle that can be filled with 7 to 12 liters of hydrogen gas. DMI’s most advanced powerpack is operational between minus 5 degrees Celsius and 40 degrees Celsius, a key advantage over battery-powered drones, as a battery’s performance is susceptible to cold temperatures. Also, as the hydrogen tank is detachable, DMI’s hydrogen drones do not require charging time.

DMI aims to expand the use of its compact fuel cells to other industrial vehicles including forklifts. 

SK E&S, the nation’s top city gas provider, is taking things up a notch by developing a liquid hydrogen drone. Thanks to its experience in dealing with natural gas, SK E&S has recently emerged as a key unit to realize SK Group’s 18 trillion-won investment into the hydrogen economy.

At the booth, SK E&S presented a liquid hydrogen drone that can fly up to 12 hours. The drone was developed together by local partners including Exens and Hylium Industries. SK E&S funded the development.

However, there is a trade-off for using liquid hydrogen. Liquid hydrogen has to be kept under minus 250 degrees Celsius to stay in liquid form and therefore requires a special storage tank. For this reason, liquid hydrogen drones have limits in operations as they have to be charged at designated locations.

“Liquid hydrogen drones are suitable for traveling fixed routes from point A to point B. So based on this drone, we will develop a UAM that goes back and forth between Seoul Station and Incheon Airport, for example. Liquid hydrogen UAMs will be expensive first, but they will eventually become accessible to the general public, just like high-speed trains are available to everyone nowadays,” said Yoon Kwang-joon, professor of aerospace engineering at Konkuk University and CEO of Exens.

While everyone else is busy creating new possibilities using drones, LIG Nex1, the country’s aerospace and defense firm, is thinking backwards and aims to make money with an anti-drone system. 

At LIG Nex1’s booth, a black van that can easily fit eight passengers was parked in the center with a white oval-shaped antenna and jamming machine installed on the van’s roof.

“The jamming machine can track down drones 2 kilometers away with its cameras and neutralize those drones by shooting electric jamming waves, which confuse the drones on their current locations and make them miss their targets,” said Kim Dong-hyun, an engineer at Soosan ENS, which co-developed the anti-drone system with LIG Nex1.

When connections are lost, drones usually hover at their locations for a certain period of time and return to destinations preset by operators. However, the jamming waves mess up drones’ location information and make the drones fly to random places, the official added.

LIG Nex1 last October tested the anti-drone system at Wolsong nuclear power plant in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, and successfully neutralized all five DJI drones approaching the plant.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)