Exploring New Qualities of Productivity | Swiftant Technology: Build a city in the sky with drones

The 2024 government work report clearly mentions that it is necessary to accelerate the development of new quality productivity, actively cultivate emerging industries and future industries, and create new growth engines such as low-altitude economy. Some people say that 2024 is the first year of low-altitude economic development, but before that, there have been companies that have been deeply engaged in the low-altitude economic field for several years, and Xunant Technology is one of them.

Founded in 2015, Xunant is a technology company dedicated to building an urban aerial drone operation network. The UAV, unmanned station, and cloud UTM and dispatching systems designed and developed by it can work together seamlessly, and provide safe and fast automated drone operation services for cities.

Since 2015, Xun Ant has been committed to providing overall solutions for drone delivery in remote areas, and has developed to the commercial stage, and at the same time, it has also opened the first drone mail route for China Post, and has established in-depth cooperative relations with e-commerce giants Suning, Cainiao, Zhongtong, Yunda, etc.

Through the interview with Rongzhong, it was learned that the original intention of Xun Ant was to use new technology to open up new boundaries for human beings, and then create new business formats. As the stage of low-altitude economy is getting bigger and bigger, the distance between Xun ant and this original intention is getting closer and closer.

Obtained license No. 0001

Swift ants move from the countryside to the city

Since 1914, the concept of unmanned aerial vehicles began to be officially born in the military background, to 1966, China's first unmanned aerial vehicle "Changkong No. 1" made its first successful flight, and then to the millennium later, consumer drones officially entered the civilian population. So far, UAVs, which have a history of 100 years of development, have been maturely applied in many directions such as entertainment, agriculture, military industry and meteorology.

According to statistics, in 2021, the UAV industry will continue to lead the development of China's general aviation. According to the data, there are 12,700 UAV operators in the country, 830,000 real-name registered UAVs, flight time has reached the order of 10 million hours, and the total output value of the industry has reached 87 billion yuan.

With the overall prosperity of the industry, the continuous progress of related technologies and the continuous landing of demand, the application scope of UAVs is further expanding. Among them, the logistics of Xunant Technology has become a well-known track in the field of domestic UAVs.

In 2015, Zhang Lei, who graduated from Beihang University with a doctorate, founded Xun Ant and quickly entered the field of civil drone logistics. At that time, Hangzhou Future Science and Technology City was barren and became a testing ground for the early stage of Xun Ant.

Looking back at the early development of Xun Ant, the word swift is the most appropriate evaluation. One year after its establishment, Xun Ant joined hands with China Post to open China's first drone mail route in Anji, Zhejiang, realizing the first commercial operation of logistics drones in remote areas. And this drone mail route uses the first generation of station-to-station logistics system "Jieyan TM" of Xun Ant. On September 6, 2018, the first-generation logistics UAV Jieyan TR7113 completed the 16,199th milestone flight, and the total flight mileage of Jieyan TR7 reached 40,076 kilometers, which is equivalent to a circle around the earth.

Since then, Xunant has cooperated with China Post in Anji to establish a drone mail network of 3 towns, 8 villages, and 11 take-off and landing points, flying more than 1,900 sorties, more than 14,000 kilometers, and transporting mail weighing more than 2,700 kilograms. In 2017 and 2018, it also cooperated with China Post to open several drone mail routes in Guizhou Province, Sichuan Province and other places. The drone of the swift ant has become a beautiful scenery in the sky of the remote countryside. Through Xun Ant's drone products, the noble belief of "no matter how far away, the mission must be achieved" has been better reflected in the countryside.

By October 2019, Lu Erxue, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, issued the "Approval Letter for Trial Operation of Specific Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" and the "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Logistics Distribution Business License" to Zhang Lei, CEO of Hangzhou Songba Logistics Technology Co., Ltd., to which Xun Ant belongs.

It is only two sheets of paper, but it is full of weight, and this is the first project in the world to be approved for the trial operation of drone logistics in urban scenarios. This is also the first specific type of UAV trial operation project in China to complete the operation risk assessment and verification since the release of the Civil Aviation Administration of China's "Specific UAV Trial Operation Management Regulations (Provisional)" and the new policy of "decentralization, management and service" of business licenses.

From this point on, the swift ant has an additional weight title - the 0001 drone. With this title, Xun Ant has become the setter of a number of industry standards, and has the brand advantage of an industry pioneer compared with other logistics drones. Since then, there have been more swift ant drones in the sky of Hangzhou.

"The exploration of rural areas is to consider safety factors, starting with low risk and then high risk. When the capacity building of low-risk areas in rural areas is completed, it is necessary to start to enter the high-risk urban scene, after all, business is in the city. When referring to this development route from the countryside to the city, Zhang Lei, the founder of Xunant Technology, replied.

According to Zhang Lei's introduction, the core of Xun Ant is the ability to fly, in the expanding flight territory, the accumulation of product and service safety, cost, and timeliness continue to improve, from the product strength has the advantage to gain more customers.

It is worth mentioning that, according to Zhang Lei, in the second year after getting the No. 0001 license, Xun Ant achieved large-scale operation and began to gradually expand to the whole country. Founded nearly 9 years ago, Xun Ant has flown through the countryside and cities, and has begun to explore the commercialization of drone delivery in more scenarios.

Fly high on the medical lifeline

To date, Swiftant has used aerial robots to achieve 900,000 kilometers of commercial flight mileage. Based on 8 years of R&D accumulation of air logistics, the air autopilot system has been realized, similar to the uamOS Yueyi OS of HarmonyOS in the air, and the system has been adapted to more than 10 models, with strong openness and security. In addition, the accumulated aerial data has formed a data platform Skap, which has realized the real-time release of urban air communication, navigation, meteorology and other elements, enabling low-altitude safe flight.

These are just a microcosm of the product army launched by Swiftant Technology, which has been widely used in various fields in the air.

When entering the city to show its strength, the first track that Xun Ant focused on was the down-to-earth "takeaway delivery", a high-frequency application scenario for consumers, and opened a takeaway delivery route.

Swiftant's drone adopts an automated operation mode, and for the operator, the delivery person only needs to be responsible for loading and unloading items, and confirming the operation on the mobile phone. The plane will automatically fly to the destination and notify the recipient to pick up the package by phone, SMS or WeChat upon arrival. It is reported that in just one year, Xun Ant has delivered more than 20,000 cups of coffee to customers through drones.

However, there is no doubt that the consumption scenario project of drone takeaway delivery is still in trial operation on a small scale, and the track is still facing some problems. Most directly, consumers are often unwilling to pay extra for a delivery fee of 5 to 10 yuan. In Zhang Lei's view, drone logistics cannot subvert ground logistics, but is a good supplement. If you want to go further, you need to look for a long-term scenario where you are willing to pay for services.

In addition to the field of drone takeaway delivery, smart medical care is the most prominent field of Xunant Technology. According to statistics, the scale of the domestic pharmaceutical market exceeded 2 trillion yuan in 2018, of which the logistics and distribution costs of medicine accounted for about 10% of pharmaceutical sales. In other words, the market size in the field of pharmaceutical distribution is about 200 billion yuan. In 2019, after Xun Ant obtained the No. 0001 license, the company focused its business on the distribution of medical supplies. At that time, some foreign companies have tried in this field, and there is still a gap in this area in China, so it can be said that Xun Ant is a pioneer in the field of domestic drone medicine distribution.

It is understood that at present, the main application scenarios of swift ant drone transportation are medical, about 90% of which are medical routes, and the number of flights a day in the country is hundreds or thousands.

On March 24, 2021, the medical drone blood transportation route jointly established by the Zhejiang Provincial Blood Center and the Second Hospital of Zhejiang University was put into trial, which is also the country's first drone emergency blood delivery route. When there is an urgent need for blood, it only takes 5 minutes for the drone to fly blood from the Zhejiang Provincial Blood Center to the Binjiang Campus of the Second Hospital of Zhejiang University.

At the same time, Zhang Lei also mentioned in the interview that grassroots medical services are an important sector. At present, Xun Ant is actively exploring the sinking of higher-level medical resources to the grass-roots level and opening grass-roots testing services to facilitate the treatment of grass-roots patients. Specifically, from 2020 to 2022, medical transportation services for medical community samples were carried out in Cangqian Street, Yuhang Street, Zhongtai Street, Jingshan Town and other places with Yuhang District of Hangzhou as a typical example. Through the fast, efficient and manpower-free distribution mode of drones, the sample delivery process is greatly simplified, and various inspection items are opened into primary health centers, providing more convenient medical and health services for local residents. It is reported that at the end of 2022, Xun Ant has achieved the nucleic acid distribution task in Yuhang District, Hangzhou. In addition, in 2023, Xunant will cooperate with the Liangzhu Street Community Health Service Center in Yuhang District, Hangzhou. As another breakthrough in the transportation service of Yuhang District Medical Community, it has operated nearly 1,000 flights so far. The route connects the health stations of Ducheng Village, Mainland Village, Shiqiao Village, Xianshi Village and Canal Village to the Liangzhu Sub-district Health Service Center, where residents in these areas can be tested at the nearest health station in front of their homes, and drones are responsible for transporting these samples quickly and safely to their destinations, benefiting about 30,000 grassroots residents in the area.

With years of hard work, Xun Ant has made substantial achievements in the field of medical distribution.

Talking about what the low-altitude economy will develop into in the future, Zhang Lei replied: "In the future, the three-dimensional transportation we once imagined will be gradually realized, so that goods will fly over and people will take air taxis ......." How can the scene depicted in his mouth not be expected?

Take advantage of the policy

The swift ant drone accelerates its take-off in various cities

There is no doubt that this year is the first year of the development of the low-altitude economy, and Zhang Lei also agrees with this.

The spring breeze of policy is accelerating into the field of drone logistics. The Central Economic Work Conference at the end of 2023 and the 2024 Government Work Report both clearly put forward the need to develop a low-altitude economy. On January 1 this year, the "Interim Regulations on the Management of Unmanned Aircraft Flight" was officially implemented, providing a legal guarantee for the standardized development of the UAV industry. In such a policy background, other drone companies such as Xun Ant will get huge development opportunities.

However, there are still many consumers who are skeptical about drone logistics delivery, and the biggest reason is cost. Will drone delivery be higher than human delivery? Based on this question, Zhang Lei replied: At a certain distance, such as 3km, the ground must be more cost-effective; But larger than 5km, the cost and timeliness of the drone will be advantageous. Compared with the flight cost of labor cost from a single distribution, as the distance increases, the time consumed by manpower increases, the empty running distance increases, and the marginal cost of the increase in the flight distance of the UAV is very low, the two will have a meeting point, but it is not an absolute 5km, just to show that the sweet spot of the UAV flight distance is in the range greater than 5km, but on the other hand, the range limit of the electric UAV will also be within 25km, that is, in the distribution range range of 5-25km, Drones have a cost advantage over manpower, which also provides consumers with more consumption options based on their own conditions.

Above 5km, higher efficiency and lower cost, the future application scenarios of UAV logistics can be imagined.

In fact, the Xun Ant, which initially trained in Hangzhou, has now gone to many cities across the country to carry out new applications, including Zigong, Hefei, Ningbo, Qingdao, etc. Key applications include working with the government to promote the construction of air medical networks, accelerate the realization of networked operations, maximize the use of resources, and empower the entire medical system. In addition, there are also drone delivery of takeaways, etc.

For example, in October 2023, Xunant Technology set up 6 take-off and landing points for rope-landing drones in Luogang Park, Hefei. Visitors camping in the park can place an order for takeaway by scanning the QR code on the target, and the drone does not have to land, but instead of landing, it will drop a rope near the target for the orderer to pick up the food, and since the trial operation, more than 1,000 orders have been delivered. In April this year, Xun Ant Technology's first medical route in Hefei was opened, opening up a new path for the transportation of medical supplies in Hefei. The opening of this route marks a new transformation of Hefei's medical rescue services. Anhui Provincial Women and Children's Medical Center West Campus, Headquarters, East Campus and the downtown blood station respectively set up UAV take-off and landing stations, a total of 6 routes to connect the above stations, to build a low-altitude medical transportation network in Hefei, for the dispatch and transportation of emergency blood, first-aid drugs and samples.

In June 2023, Xunant Technology and Ningbo Li Huili Hospital joined hands to jointly open up the first drone medical air transportation network in Ningbo and even eastern Zhejiang, bringing revolutionary changes to medical services in Ningbo. This innovative application will provide more efficient, fast and safe medical services to patients and medical staff at Ningbo Li Huili Hospital......

With the continuous progress of science and technology, as well as the current relevant policy encouragement and support, drones have gradually penetrated into various fields. Now, the application of drone technology in the industry is bringing us infinite possibilities. It is believed that in the future, Xunant Technology will take advantage of the east wind and continue to soar, and sooner or later make the sky more "busy".