For knowing the present status and development trends of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in China, the paper uses patent analysis method to carry out quantitative and qualitative research based on technology life cycle theory. The research concludes that China’s UAV technology has been in the period of growth stage with large development potential and an increasingly number of technology fields are springing up. But some problems, such as low percentage of invention patent, single type of innovation subject, weakness of innovation ability and imbalance in development of different region, still exist. In order to promote the equalization, standardization and internationalization of UAV industry, the paper puts forward some recommendations.
The development of new technology and industry is a new growth point of the world economy, which has become the strategic choice in future among many countries in the world. In order to foster the development of new industry and seize the commanding point of economy and technology, the State Council promulgated the “China’s 12th Five-Year Plan for Development of Strategic Emerging Industry”, which proposed the development direction and main tasks were energy saving industry, new generation information industry and high-end manufacture industry, etc. Besides, “Made in China 2025” put forward that we should support and accelerate the development of aeronautics and astronautics equipment. In 2015, the Rand Corp report “Emerging Trends in China’s Development of Unmanned Systems” concluded that China had made a significant progress in the field of UAV in the past few years, and had become a pivotal role in the global marketplace [
As an useful method, patent analysis is a crucial technique for predicting technology trends, reflecting the innovation ability of a country or region, analyzing potential markets, determining the direction of technological development, and providing appropriate decision references for governments and enterprises. With the continuous progress of knowledge economy, the innovation ability should not be judged by the number of patent applications and patent grants, but by the number and quality of valid patents [
As is shown in
In terms of region, the result shows that the number of patents in the Eastern, Central and Western part of China is obvious dissimilarity, which accounts for 67.23%; 17.68% and 14.91%. The feature of patent regional distribution appears on a diminishing scale from east to the west. More information can be found in
Due to the limited number of patents, we classify and count the number of technical fields according to IPC patent class codes. In total, the database held 1677 patent records, which corresponded to 502 different technical fields. The top 10 technical fields are summarized in
By analyzing patent output of assignees, we can assess their strength of technology competitiveness [
We divide the assignees into six types, including individuals, universities, research institutes, enterprises, foreign enterprises and mixed subjects. Mixed subjects are defined as those patents with two or more assignees.
Due to the limited space, only top 4 assignees are selected to demonstrate the following analysis. We observe that State Grid Corporation of China, with 58 patents, filed the maximum number of patents, whose research area mainly focus on UAV power patrol system, including H 02G 1/02, B 64C 27/08, B64D47/08 and G05D1/10. However, all the patents come from joint applications with other assignees, lacking of independent innovation. Ewatt Technology Co., Ltd, with 51 patents, comes in second place, whose research area mainly focus on the structure and power system of UAV, including 12-07, B64D33/02 and B64D27/02. It’s target market is industrial- grade market and comprehensive strength ranks the forefront of UAV domain in China. Beihang University
Technical Fields | Number | Main Assignees |
---|---|---|
12-07 | 119 | All-China-times Aerospace Technology and Development Co., Ltd. (9) |
B 64C 27/08 | 72 | Aeritech UAV Technology Co., Ltd. (4), AIbird UAV Co., Ltd. (4) |
G05D1/10 | 64 | Beihang University (7), State Grid Corporation of China (4) |
B64D47/08 | 53 | State Grid Corporation of China (5), AEE technology Co., Ltd. (5), DJI Technology Co., Ltd. (3) |
B64D1/18 | 45 | Kingtec Aviation Industry Co., Ltd. (8), Tongchun New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (5) |
B 64C 1/00 | 42 | Kingtec Aviation Industry Co., Ltd. (8) |
B64D47/00 | 37 | Aeritech UAV Technology Co., Ltd. (2), Union of Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (2) |
B 64C 27/02 | 32 | Good Fly Robostar Technology Co., Ltd. (4), Gan Tiantian (3) |
B 64F 1/06 | 30 | AIbird UAV Co., Ltd. (4), Special Vehicle Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (2) |
H 02G 1/02 | 27 | State Grid Corporation of China (7) |
Assignees | Number | Main Technical Fields |
---|---|---|
State Grid Corporation of China | 58 | H 02G 1/02 (6), B 64C 27/08 (5), B64D47/08 (5) |
Ewatt Technology Co., Ltd. | 51 | 12-07 (5), B64D33/02 (4), B64D27/02 (4) |
Beihang University | 47 | G05D1/10 (7), G 01C 21/24(5) |
All-China-times Aerospace Technology and Development Co., Ltd. | 43 | 12-07 (9), 10-05 (6) |
Aeritech UAV Technology Co., Ltd. | 34 | B 64C 27/08 (5), 12-07 (4), B 64C 25/10 (3) |
Kingtec Aviation Industry Co., Ltd. | 32 | B 64C 1/00 (9), B64D1/18 (8), B 64C 1/14 (7) |
DJI Technology Co., Ltd. | 29 | B64D47/08 (3), B 64C 27/08 (2), H05K7/20 (2) |
Good Flying Robostar Technology Co., Ltd. | 28 | B 64C 27/08 (8) B 64C 27/02 (4) |
China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics | 28 | B 64C 1/00 (3), B64F1/04 (2) |
AEE technology Co., Ltd. | 23 | B64D47/08 (5) B 64C 27/32 (3), 12-07 (3) |
ranks third after State Grid and Ewatt in the number of patents, whose main area is flight control system, including G05D1/10 and G 01C 21/24. It is the first professional institution which undertakes lots of major and key scientific research projects, specialized in aviation technology. All-China-times Aerospace Technology and Development Co., Ltd ranks fourth, but the level of technology is low in consideration of the fact that technology fields focus on design patents. Finally, it’s worth putting out, the enterprise has carried on the patent pledge attempt, which is comparatively rare and offers valuable experience for diverse use of intellectual property of UAV in China.
The trends of technology evolution can be predictable to some degree [
Thus, the S-curve model adopted by this study is logistic curve model, and it has the equation below
where P(t) and t represent the dependent variable and the time variable for the S-curve respectively, the growth rate parameter α specifies the “width” or “steepness” of the S-curve, β specifies the time when the curve reaches K/2, or the midpoint of the growth trajectory, often re-labeled tm, and K is a constant meaning the limit value of P(t) when t approaches infinity.
By Loglet Lab2.0, one can forecast how many patents will be generated in the future, and once the possible number of patents is determined, the stage of technology life cycle is estimated and time when the saturation of the technology will occur is computed [
Parameters | Value |
---|---|
Saturation (K) | 21719.28 |
Midpoint (tm) | 2018.28 |
Growth Time (dT) | 7.58 |
The changing trends of number of top 10 technical fields are shown in
Based on the analysis above, we conclude that: 1) eight technical fields with rapid growth trend will maintain upward momentums and are the key fields in future; 2) with several standards and policies issued about UAV inspection system, including “Configuration guide of UAV inspection system for overhead transmission line”, the technical field H 02G 1/02 (for overhead lines or cables) will get a booming opportunity for developing; 3) due to the fundament role played by navigation system of whole UAV industry, the technical field G05D1/10 will get considerable national-level funding and support.
Identifying core technologies is essential for formulating national technology strategies and policies for pursuing technological competitive advantage. Centrality is a key index in social networks, which is one way to quantity an individual’s structural importance in a group [
Top 300 co-occurrence similarity matrix of IPC patent class codes are constructed, through which density map, point centrality and betweenness centrality of UAV technical fields are obtainable by VOSviewer and Ucinet6.0 respectively. As is shown in
1) With the rapid increase of the number of patents, UAV technology in China has entered the stage of rapid development. The result can be concluded according to the prediction of S-curve, combining with the current development status. The increase in the number of patents related to UAV is expected to soar over the next few years, reaching the golden time of development. With regard to quality, patent structure is mainly composed of patents for utility models, while the number and proportion of patents for inventions are low. Overall, technical content of UAV technology in China today is not high.
Technical fields | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
12-07 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 20 | 24 | 59 | |||||
B 64C 27/08 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 55 | |||||
G05D1/10 | 9 | 26 | 12 | 17 | ||||||||
B64D47/08 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 36 | |||||||
B64D1/18 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 13 | 25 | ||||||
B 64C 1/00 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 18 | |||
B64D47/00 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
B 64C 27/02 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 21 | |||||||
B 64F 1/06 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 13 | |||
H 02G 1/02 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
Point centrality | Betweenness Centrality | ||
---|---|---|---|
Technical Fields | Value | Technical Fields | Value |
B64D47/08 | 6.760 | B64D47/08 | 11.364 |
B 64C 27/08 | 6.294 | B 64C 27/08 | 10.813 |
B 64C 1/00 | 4.740 | B 64C 39/02 | 9.135 |
B64D47/00 | 4.584 | B64D27/24 | 8.116 |
B64D1/18 | 4.507 | B64D47/00 | 6.856 |
B 64C 39/02 | 4.429 | B 64C 27/02 | 6.394 |
B 64C 27/02 | 3.885 | B 64C 1/00 | 6.296 |
H04N7/18 | 3.341 | B 64C 39/00 | 5.446 |
B64D27/24 | 3.263 | H04N7/18 | 5.376 |
B 64C 27/32 | 2.720 | G05D1/10 | 5.020 |
2) The technology fields of UAV in China are gradually enriched, but the patent layout is not reasonable. The number of technology fields expands from 2 to more than 500, which is a great significant progress. Some parts of the UAV technology, such as power system and aircraft and navigation technology, show strong technology potentials and advantages. Patent layout defects are reflected in following, such as the imbalances of technology fields, fewer number of PCT applications, and insufficient of expanding and protection of global markets.
3) The main innovation subject of UAV technology in China is enterprise, while universities and research institutions are only complements. Patents of UAV technology mainly lies in the hands of the enterprise, taking a preferred concentration on practicality. Due roles have not been played well by other innovation subjects, such as universities and research institutions, which lead to a problem that the convergences of basic research and industrialization development are not close enough.
4) The integrative ability of R&D is relatively weak, and the emphasis about technical fields of different innovation subjects is different. Most of the innovation subjects do not have comprehensive UAV research and development capabilities, with limited technical fields, which is not conducive to the overall upgrading of China’s UAV technology. In order to play an essential role in the market, innovation subjects have to excavate own superiorities as well as to expand technical fields reasonably. Only those enterprises, with more and broader R&D foci and technical fields, have diversified products and development potential.
5) Unbalanced regional development of UAV technology, with significant difference in Eastern, Central and Western China. Regions that have high level of technology related to UAV all belong to those with strong economy and technological strength. In general, Beijing, Guangdong and Jiangsu are in the lead position in area of UAV technology, Sichuan and Hubei are important regions in the development of UAV technology in Central and Western China respectively. By patent search, we found that due to some special reasons, the number of UAV patent applications in Shanghai is very small, so the number of valid patents is inadequate, although it’s a developed region in China.
Based on the conclusions above, the following countermeasures are put forward.
1) Improving the system of regulations and promoting the construction of industry standards system
So far there is not such country which open low altitude airspace completely, including the United States. Many difficulties, such as policy constrains and legal vacuum, still exist in restricting the widespread adoption of UAV in China. Such restrictive policies could put the country and its companies at a significant disadvantage in the global marketplace. As we all know, sound laws and regulations are the essential condition for sustainable development of UAV industry. Firstly, we should accelerate the reform of the airspace management system, to promote the opening of low altitude airspace. Much effort should be made to solve the existing problems such as closed low altitude airspace, complex management process and too much agency levels, etc. [
2) Improving the core competitiveness of UAV enterprises and optimizing the patent layout
Firstly, on the basis of UAV industry development plan, all innovation subjects ought to accelerate the pace of breakthrough about fundamental and vital technology as well as innovation achievements transformation and industrialization. More peripheral patents, especially high quality patents for inventions should be developed centering around core technologies to break the foreign technology monopoly. Secondly, in aim to promote the optimization and upgrading of patent structure, more support policies should be introduced to speed up the layout of high-quality and high-level patents for inventions in the early stages of development. Existing phenomena, such as stressing quantity over quality and stressing application over protection, need to be revised. Then, more consideration should be taken to the establishment of market-oriented mechanism and model of collaborative innovation, including diverse subjects such as enterprises, universities, research institutions and government departments. Every innovation subjects of UAV technology in China should grab the chance to strengthen the interaction each other, devote into international cooperation and competition, and lay importance to the technology introduction, assimilation and re-innovation of advanced foreign technology to realize the great-leap- forward development [
3) Constructing UAV industry demonstration bases and supporting the key enterprises related to UAV industry
At national level, different level of economic basis, technological capacity and resources endowment in each region of China lead to different policies of UAV industry. Every region needs to define role orientation and major developing direction themselves, avoiding blind development and repeated construction, and breaking through the shackles of “big but not strong” issues in the developing process of industry. At regional level, local government, as enterprises direct administrator, they are duty-bound to take on a heavy responsibility to perfect supportive and funding policies and form some UAV industry demonstration bases with pleasant environment for innovation, powerful technological radiation and technical guidance, and strong international competitive ability to cultivate industry growth pole. As enterprises, to compete with leading enterprises at global market stage and get a long-term subsistence development, patent strategy should be based on the core competence. What enterprises should do are integrating innovation resources, increasing innovation investment, seizing chances of industrial transformation brought by technology upgrading, improving innovation competence to master the core technology system of UAV with independent intellectual property rights.
4) Innovating training mechanism high-level talents and perfecting the UAV management system
As a cross-disciplinary and cross-industry emerging industry, China’s UAV development lacks talents with professional and compound knowledge. With gradual opening of the market, talents shortage will be larger because of the fact that UAV industry service system has not yet formed. Firstly, to improve the skills and quality of employees, a strict professional admittance system needs to be determined for those people who are engaged in drone pilots. Secondly, it’s urged to establish the effective training mechanism which combines theory learning with practice training. Presently, university-enterprise jointly education is the ultimate approach for enterprises to do human resource investment and to integrate resources of universities and enterprises to promote the talents training. Finally, regulating the use of UAV and real-name registration system of UAV owners are needed to reduce risks of safety and invasion of privacy.
Qi Liu,Zhangzhi Ge,Wei Song, (2016) Research Based on Patent Analysis about the Present Status and Development Trends of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in China. Open Journal of Social Sciences,04,172-181. doi: 10.4236/jss.2016.47027