Agricultural technology is not just a drone
The annual “XAAC Extreme Flying Technology Annual Conference” was held in Guangzhou recently. At this conference, “Gray Technology” released the new XP 2020 series plant protection drones. It also introduced the GC4000 fuel overcharge station, ACS2 single-hand joystick with RTK module and other ancillary products.
For this release, there are two things to watch out for:
1) The first is to reduce costs and increase efficiency. XP2020 new agricultural drone capacity increased by 15%, body strength increased by 30%; intelligent broadcast system capacity increased to 16L; MIMO4D imaging radar recognition distance increased to 30 meters, recognition accuracy increased to 1cm; 3C supercharged smart battery fast charge The time is reduced to 15 minutes. The standard package price including XP2020 UAV+ACS2 (RTK) hand pole + GC4000 broadcast supercharge station + 2 B138605 batteries has dropped to 51000.
2) The second is the product line extension. Compared with the previous release of new products in the agricultural drone itself, this time we launched a complete solution including battery and super-charge station. At the same time, in addition to the agricultural drone set, the company launched its products and services such as agricultural recorders, intelligent spreading systems, agricultural intelligent XAI and prescription map services, all of which show that it provides comprehensive agricultural solutions to cover multiple agricultural production scenarios. Determination.
So, what kind of business considerations are behind these new releases?? In this regard, we interviewed Justin Gong Yuqin, co-founder of Extreme Flying Technology.
Talk about product logic
: We are concerned that the products launched by Extreme Flying Technology are much cheaper than last year. How is the cost achieved?
Justin: At the supply chain level, we expanded our production capacity this year. From the first phase of the plant to the second phase of the plant, our production capacity has increased to 60,000+, and the larger production scale can bring more Low average cost. At the same time, we have also conducted joint research and development with suppliers. For example, for the fuselage, we have developed carbon fiber/glass fiber composite materials with higher strength and lower cost. In addition, it is equally important that the technological innovation of the product, we shrink through water cooling technologyShort battery cooling time, only 2 fast charging batteries are needed for cycle operation, each battery charging time is 15 minutes, which greatly saves the purchase and use cost of the battery; by developing RTK external module, users use our ACS2 to operate with one hand The pole can lightly complete the farmland management, and the farmland that is not covered by the ultra-flying RTK fixed base station can also be hand-fed, eliminating the cost of purchasing and carrying the RTK mobile base station.
: We believe that consumers are rational and will calculate the benefits, while the price of the extremely flying products is still high overall in the industry. So what is the value of this premium for consumers?
Justin: The value is reflected in more durable products and higher efficiency, and the reason for achieving higher efficiency is that we can make drones fully autonomous, which is currently on the market. Most of the other drones are difficult to do in practice. To achieve automated and autonomous flight, there are two prerequisites. One is to establish an RTK high-precision navigation network based on high-definition farmland maps. In rural China, farmland generally has no high-definition image data and three-dimensional maps. Therefore, we will first help farmers to accurately survey farmland and 3D modeling of farmland. Second, they need emergency response capability through MIMO4D imaging radar. Combined with three-dimensional position recognition of obstacles and recognition of moving direction, distance and speed of moving obstacles, the extremely flying drone can realize the perception of thinking and realize the automatic bypass of obstacles. The improvement of efficiency and economic benefits of autonomous flight capability is particularly evident in the field operations in the north. If you use several hundred hectares of land, if you use manual control, flying a distance will exceed the field of view. The human eye can’t follow, and it is difficult for people to keep up with the aircraft, which can lead to obvious heavy leaks or flight accidents. Autonomous flight can be protected from line of sight and physical limitations, increasing flight time. Therefore, when our users work, the half-day workload is much more than other drone users.
: Regarding the iteration of the product, Feifei has basically launched new products every year in recent years. What are your considerations about the life cycle and renewal of the product?
Justin: The iteration cycle of our products is generally one year, and the life cycle of the product itself can last for two or three years or even longer. We adhere to the modular industrial design concept, the compatibility of new and old models and the ability to upgrade modules, which is the focus of our thinking for the old user. The release of a new generation of products will naturally lead to the purchase of some old products and the dissatisfaction of users. We hope to solve this problem through the quality and after-sales service of the products. The industry of drones is very new. In the early development, it is necessary to continuously optimize the functions and performances to adjust to the development needs. So currently, for old users,We will continue to maximize the design, optimization and after-sales service system, and introduce services such as trade-in to allow users to accept product iterations. In the long run, with the maturity of the plant protection drone, the product update will reach a balanced node in terms of flight performance, operational efficiency, and operational efficiency. The subsequent hardware update may not appear at the current frequency. We expect that after three years, the flying agricultural drones will no longer have major adjustments on the hardware and software platform level, and future product innovations will be more reflected in AI services and personalized applications.
Talk about business layout
:Jifei Technology has gradually developed its business from the initial UAV manufacturing company to environmental monitoring and prescription charts. . Where do you think your business boundaries are?
Justin: There are three types of players in the agricultural field. The first category includes companies engaged in agricultural production such as Lenovo Jiawo and Suntory. The second category is Bayer, DuPont and Monsanto. The crop science company of technology and pesticide technology; and the positioning of Feifei to itself is the third category, agricultural technology companies, using high-tech hardware products, information software, data services, artificial intelligence, etc. to empower agriculture. Therefore, the hardware-to-software business in this field is our direction. The first thing we look at is the plant protection link. What we want to solve is the small plagues such as “cold” such as improving the boll opening rate, pest control, etc., which can find universal solutions. These “small” The problem is precisely the one with the most demand. Next, we will consider the problem of fruit tree yellow leaf disease that is small but difficult to solve. In addition to plant protection, through the development of intelligent planting systems, agricultural monitoring systems and agricultural AI, we are also trying to create and address needs in more agricultural production processes and scenarios. For the current Extreme Flying, our business expansion lies in constantly adapting the technology and the scene to challenge the boundary.
: Mention cross-border, in fact, there are still very different technical requirements for doing drones and doing data services. How to use your original technology in the field of drones to empower new businesses?
Justin: Of course, there are undeniable technical barriers to doing drones and data services, and we have recruited a lot of technical talent to expand our R&D capabilities. But on the other hand, it is not entirely from scratch. We believe that the future business boundaries of the company will become increasingly blurred. For example, Google and Uber are Internet companies. They don’t have hardware products. However, relying on their large amount of data accumulation, they are gradually moving toward autonomous vehicles. Extreme flying through agricultural dronesThe operation of the country and the world has accumulated a large amount of farmland data. At first we did not define the purpose of the data, and only believed that existence is valuable. Gradually, we found that the data can be used to analyze the weed distribution in farmland, analyze the cotton boll opening rate, etc., and apply the data step by step to training AI and farming services, agricultural advice, this process is a natural evolution process.
: Extreme Flying Technology began to enter the overseas market a few years ago. What is the logic of your choice of the market? What kind of country and market is worth entering?
Justin: Our internationalization is not an active process. When products and word of mouth have the ability to actively spread, there will be users in many countries will find us according to their needs. For example, in Brazil, the demand for plant protection drones is very large, but considering that our products are not yet in Portuguese, the cost of customized development will be higher, and we have chosen to give up temporarily. When entering the overseas market, we will first choose a country with similar business characteristics and Chinese agricultural characteristics, that is, a market dominated by small plots and small farmers. Of course, the scale of agricultural GDP and the proportion of agriculture are also factors that need to be considered. Therefore, we have selected more than 30 countries based on these characteristics. After conducting experiments in no less than three growing seasons in each country, we will begin to carry out large-scale technology promotion. There are only two exceptions in these 30 countries: Japan and Australia. The reason why we choose to enter the Japanese market is because Japan has a very well-established legal system in agriculture, and this is also the trend of future agricultural development. We believe that Japan is a very necessary learning and development site; Australia is mainly based on large-scale farms. It is another pilot of ours.
: The very flying sales model is in the form of ToB, which works with dealers rather than directly to farmers. What is the consideration for choosing not to do ToC? Is it possible to consider opening up the ToC business in the future?
Justin: In fact, Fei Fei tried ToC in the initial stage, and finally decided to do ToB, which has team and cost considerations. When a new technology enters the agricultural market, the first step is to win the reputation of agricultural users and the recognition of farmers when they do not understand the needs of farmers who only sprinkle pesticides on the aircraft and only have pain points but do not have a clear understanding of the needs. The team that needs the most technical know-how and knows the pain points will personally go to the field to carry out technical promotion and demonstration, and persuade the farmers with service quality and plant protection effect. As early as the establishment of 13 years, Feifei began spraying experiments on cotton, rice and other crops in Xinjiang and Hainan. In 2015, the first generation of P20 plant protection drones was launched, and the direct service team was formally established. In 2016, the team grew to more than 400 people, and in 29 provinces, it was C-end.The user provides the service. After experiencing the test of two agricultural production seasons in 2015 and 2016, we officially launched the P20 2017 plant protection drone in 2017, hoping to serve more farmers through the technology-enabled user model, while the flying itself returns to technology. It is committed to research and development, manufacturing more stable and efficient agricultural drones and robots, making agricultural technology more inclusive. In the future, as the income level of small-scale farmers continues to increase, the technology of large-scale farms will become more popular, and the business model of the future will have more possibilities. C-end consumers such as farms and farmers will be able to order and complete their own operations. .
Talk about industry trends
: What do you think is the future of agriculture?
Justin: The first trend is the rise of small farmers. Although in the past history, the American and Australian ranch models brought cost advantages due to economies of scale, with the rise of India and China’s economy, the world’s agricultural model will also change with the needs of these two countries. On the other hand, large-scale farms also have shortcomings such as poor risk resistance and lack of refined farming management. With the improvement of technology and the upgrading of market consumption, the adaptability, flexibility and intensive management ability of small farmers will be able to provide more personalized choices; the second trend is unmanned and intelligent. More AI applications, intelligent jobs will appear.
Talk about corporate governance
: Unlike the Internet and consumer goods industries, the rate of fission of agricultural users is relatively slow. So, how should agricultural companies do branding? How to better reach users?
Justin: Of course, agricultural users do not have the characteristics of rapid communication like Internet users, which is also the psychological expectation adjustment needed to do agriculture. But at the same time, I believe that for good products, even in the face of farmers, they can expand their influence through word of mouth. Stand with the customer base, unify the company’s value and social value, and promote technology and value with the most experienced extension staff. In addition, through the establishment of the Polar Flying Academy, the use of the Internet’s universal education dividend, providing free knowledge services to agricultural users, agricultural producers and the public interested in the agricultural sector, believes in the concept of serving agriculture and the love of agriculture, The brand value of Feifei will be more and more recognized and actively spread.
: As an agricultural technology company, how is it different from other companies in terms of personnel management?
Justin: We advocate geek culture, which may be bigThe imaginary agricultural company is not the same. Everyone we recruit will ask him to be very good at one aspect. Be sure to have something that you really love and are very dedicated to. At the management level, we adopt flat management, reduce management levels, increase the range, and respond to changes in market demand in the first place through self-management team collaboration. At the same time, As an agricultural technology company, we hope that every employee can love the land and fear the nature. Because only in this way, the products and design procedures they created can really take root in the soil and enter the hearts of farmers. Therefore, in daily work, Feifei requires every colleague to spend a lot of time on the farmland. The management spends almost a quarter of the time in rural research and visiting users. In addition, we have created “X Space” in Guangzhou, which has greenhouses, farmland, gardens and cafes. Colleagues plant a large number of crops inside. It is not just an office building, but gradually becomes the spirit of the flying trapeze. The core of home and corporate culture.