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Auto-avoidance technology gives wings to seaplanes (2021-11-26)

JDadmin
2023-10-11 13:02:35 9 0

Main text

Receive technology transfer from Changwon National University

Optimized avoidance of floating objects at sea

Helps the elderly by reducing manual operation

Complete development and commercialization before June next year



For small and medium-sized businesses, patents and technology are invaluable assets. However, technology development is not easy for companies without specialized research centers. Securing technology is the key to developing new products.


The patented technologies needed by companies are held by universities and research institutes. Networking between companies and technology-holding institutions is key, and without mutual collaboration, patented technologies will be lost or companies will suffer from difficulties in developing new technologies.


Gyeongnam Technopark is promoting the Technology Trade Promotion Network project to resolve this matching imbalance. <The Gyeongnam Minjoo Ilbo> provides an overview of the project and introduces three SMEs and startups in the province that have solved their technical difficulties.




◇ From technology brokerage to holding a trading market = Gyeongnam Technopark's (Gyeongnam TP) Technology Trade Promotion Network project is a project to promote technology commercialization and technology trading in the region. Gyeongnam TP conducts a brokerage business to introduce patented technologies developed by public research institutes to companies. It also holds a technology trading marketplace to promote and match excellent technologies. It also provides prototype production support to help commercialize the transferred technologies.


As a technology transaction promotion network project, Gyeongnam Technopark has been supporting the transfer and commercialization of corporate technologies using a total project cost of KRW 775.2 million for 33 months from April 2020 to December 2022.


Along with the Technology Transaction Promotion Network project, the three companies introduced here are also participating in Gyeongnam TP's SME R&D Commercialization Support Center project. The SME R&D Commercialization Support Project is a project that supports SMEs in Gyeongnam to plan R&D projects. It provides support from writing business plans to various R&D consulting and commercialization.


An official from the Technology Commercialization Team of the Gyeongnam TP Enterprise Support Group explained, "It is a support project with synergistic effects, such as R&D support projects leading to technology trade promotion network projects, or technology commercialization linked to R&D support projects."




◇ Evolving into an obstacle-avoiding floating drone = 'JD', located in the Jinju Knowledge Industry Center, is a company specializing in shipbuilding design. It was founded in 2017 and has been working on the development of marine drones since 2019.


CEO Park Joong-gun (40) was in charge of design and R&D for a shipyard and founded JD after the company went bankrupt. With 16 years of design experience, he built JD into an early design specialist.


"The shipbuilding design field does not generate consistent revenue without orders, so I saw the need for business diversification," Park said. "I saw the drone field as a blue ocean and jumped in."


Starting with KRW 230 million in sales and three employees in 2018, J.D.'s business has quadrupled to KRW 1 billion in sales and 12 employees this year, thanks to business diversification.



9e4f4c89474bee09ddd769f6f47ce962_1696991580_3459.jpg
J.D. CEO Park Jung-gun explains while holding a model of "Ocean Farmer (tentative name)," a floating drone for fish farm management, at his office in Jinju Knowledge Industry Center in Mangyeong-dong, Jinju-si, on the afternoon of the 19th.


 
The domestic aquaculture industry was struggling to manage due to aging and climate change. Park decided that developing a floating drone would make it easier to observe and analyze real-time weather and marine information without the hassle of taking a boat to visit the farms every day.

Currently, JD has completed the development of a multi-purpose floating drone for fish farm management and is selling it on the market. There are 15 units in operation in aquaculture farms, research centers, etc.

J.D.'s aquaculture drone weighs 5 kilograms, can operate for up to 5 hours, and has a maximum speed of 3 mph. What sets it apart from its competitors is its ability to transmit video, broadcast video, autonomous driving, and rollover prevention.

"Since it is a water drone, it has a longer operation time and a lower price than air drones," said Park. "By utilizing our design experience, we have the optimal conditions to operate on the water, such as preventing capsizing."

However, Mr. Park received a complaint from the main customer base that the drone had to manually avoid obstacles such as floating objects when it encountered them. He decided that this needed to be resolved technically, and applied to Gyeongnam TP this year for the Technology Trade Promotion Network Project and the SME R&D Commercialization Support Project to transfer the obstacle avoidance technology.

Through the support project, JD received the 'obstacle recognition and automatic avoidance function' technology held by Changwon National University. In August this year, he received funding for technology transfer commercialization from the Technology Guarantee Fund. Furthermore, this year, he was selected for the Jinju Gangso Special Zone's technology transfer commercialization 'Technology Transfer R&D (Commercialization-Linked Technology Development)' and received a grant.

The aquaculture drone with automatic avoidance technology is expected to be completed before June next year.

"The development of a floating drone for fish farm management equipped with avoidance technology will reduce the fatigue of daily monitoring and manual operation," said Park. "It will be an innovative product for aging fishing communities."

In the future, JD will develop drones and equipment that can be utilized in various marine-related fields such as seabed topography surveying, marine debris and floaters collection, and oil spill response. Each device will be mounted on a floating drone for a specific purpose. The undersea terrain survey drone is expected to be fully developed by December next year. "We want to increase the proportion of sales from marine drones to 70% by 2025 with a goal of KRW 4 billion in sales," said Park. "We will expand into related industries such as smart fishing villages by growing in scale by preempting the marine drone market."


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