Interview with Gong Yanqin, co -founder of Jifei Technology: Agricultural automation is an inevitable trend

Text/Yangcheng Evening News all -media reporter Hang Ying Sun Jing

Picture, Video/Yangcheng Evening News all -media reporter Pan Liang

Can agriculture be cool? How many acres of farmland management can two people complete? The answer given by Jifei Technology is that agriculture can also be very high -tech, and two people can challenge 3,000 acres of high standard farmland management.

Guangzhou Jifei Technology Co., Ltd. (Jifei Technology) is committed to empowering agriculture with robots, artificial intelligence and new energy technology. In April 2021, Jifei Technology launched the "Super Cotton Field" project in Weili County, Korla City, Xinjiang. Two post -90s employees used high -tech methods such as robots and artificial intelligence to challenge 3,000 acres of high -standard farmland. Through this form, Jifei Technology tries to further verify the feasibility of unmanned management models in large -scale planting scenarios.

A few days ago, a reporter from Yangcheng Evening News interviewed Gong Yanqin, co -founder of Jifei Technology. In the eyes of this post -85s from the film and television industry cross -border to the field of agricultural technology, we can see the beliefs and persistence behind his cross -border.

Cross -border and choice: from prosperity to loneliness to rich

Yangcheng Evening News: What prompts you to cross the film and television industry from the film and television industry to the drone, and once again cross the border to the segment of the agricultural drone?

Gong Yinqin: In 2009, when I was in Australia, I saw Peng Bin (founder of Jifei Technology) on an aerial model forum. If I can hang my camera on the plane, I can take a lot of scenery that I can't see. However, I encountered many problems in actual use, and I flew directly to Guangzhou and Peng Bin to discuss product improvement to see if it could make drones apply more scenes.

In Australia, in addition to making documentaries, I also help local rescue organizations to do some development of search and rescue equipment. These are the application scenarios of drones. After communicating with Peng Bin After cooperation, I simply joined Ji Fei. In the initial period, we tried drone development of scientific examinations, forest police patrols, power lines, and logistics, but it was difficult to find that these areas were difficult to market at the time. Until 2013, by chance, a former customer invited us to Xinjiang to see the endless cotton fields still spraying pesticides artificially. Save manpower, improve efficiency, and huge market prospects and social value. Therefore, in September 2013, we took the team and technology to enter the agricultural drone track. In the past 8 years, the extremely flying drone extends from the Xinjiang Miantian plant protection to the plant protection scenes of rice, wheat and other crops. Gee Fei slowly became the head enterprise in the field of agricultural drones, and we also enjoyed this work that brought unmanned technology into agriculture and continuously improved production efficiency.

Yangcheng Evening News: Looking back at your choices and experiences now. What is the change in the surroundings that make you feel most?

Gong Yanqin: From a personal point of view, leaving the film and television industry will definitely make life not as colorful as before. After returning to China, my circle of friends, living environment, and personal cognition have changed a lot.

From the perspective of the company, when we cross the border from a civilian drone enterprise to agricultural drones, and then develop into an agricultural technology company, this means that we must roll up the legs and stop in the farmland day by day, including Many of my company employees, including, have a transitional stage. If we do not choose to enter agriculture and lead the team to do popular and consumer products, the company's development scale may be much larger than now. But on the other hand, if we do n’t do such a thing, then everyone may not have such rich imagination about agriculture, and we ca n’t see agriculture so cool. Of course, Jifei also plays a demonstration role, showing that the original agricultural technology can also be favored and market recognition. Now more and more agricultural technology companies have entered our industry.

In general, the whole process is from prosperity to loneliness to richness. Faced with urbanization, digitalization, and the aging of the global agricultural population, developing smart agriculture is the only way for human beings. From the role of an onlooker and recorder to the role of a participant and builder, it is an accidental and inevitable experience. When we realize that we can change human production and lifestyle through technology, this sense of accomplishment is unprecedented.

Circuit and technology: From the idea to the product, we can sharpen a sword in 4 years

Yangcheng Evening News: How was the domestic agricultural drone track at that time?

Gong Yanqin: In 2013, the aircraft drone just entered people's vision. Many companies at home and abroad were targeting consumer aerial drones. This model is actually creating a novel and cool product that allows consumers to spend the remaining money in their pockets to buy products. As an agricultural drone, it is essentially to help this industry improve efficiency and cost costs in a traditional industry to obtain profits.

Compared with consumer drones, our social attention and product profit space are not so high, and the industrial chain is very long. In the process, the capital, including ourselves, had a little bit bottomed out at that time, and I didn't know how much time it would take to be changed by intelligent and unmanned technology. But this is also our opportunity.

Yangcheng Evening News: Relative to consumer drones, the research and development of agricultural drones, technical difficulties and breakthroughs? Gong Qinqin: From the team's investment in the R & D drone, to the real first product of the first product, we took 4 years. Agricultural drones and consumer drones are two completely different technical directions. The latter has a small body shape, the mounting requirements are not high, and the flight environment is relatively good. Essence However, the agricultural drone is completely different. Users hope that it can be large, long -battery life, low cost, and the erosion of the changing weather and dust in farmland is a huge test for drones.

Not only that, the fertilizers and pesticides sprayed by agriculture are corrosive, which will cause large corrosion to the aircraft's components and joint bearing. Farmers are accustomed to utensils and products such as tractor and hoe, and it must be more extensive to operate drones. The size of the agricultural drone is one to two meters long and width. How to avoid drones and fertilizers after drones are loaded with pesticides and fertilizers, and the center of gravity of pesticides during flight is shifted. These are all overcome. In addition, the height and density of crops in different growth stages are different. The wind brought by the drone flight needs to carefully study and contest, so that the aircraft can not affect the crops and kill the pests.

Therefore, when designing and developing products, whether it is industrial design structure, material selection, flight reliability, and anti -interference capabilities under various uncertain factors, it is necessary to improve several levels. All materials must be designed and produced by themselves by themselves. And constantly iterating, the cost of R & D behind this is very high.

In addition to being familiar with the R & D technology of drones, R & D personnel must also understand agriculture. Prior to this, few engineers were targeted at this field. In the early days, our team came from automatic control, inertial navigation, mechanical design and other fields. Later With the in -depth understanding of agriculture and the introduction of more and more crop science talents, we have gradually become the leading agricultural science and technology team in the industry.

Pioneer and value: Agricultural automation is an inevitable trend

Yangcheng Evening News: What is the future development direction of agricultural science and technology? What is the value of the great flying in it?

Gong Qinqin: At present, many agricultural scenarios need to use large -scale mechanical land to remove cultivated land, sowing, fertilizing medicine, and final harvesting. In the process, the mechanical itself must consume fuel and bring pressure on the environment. Do we really need so much energy consumption to produce food in the future? When using pure electric agricultural equipment for operation, carbon emissions began to decrease in large quantities, just like new energy vehicles now. The exquisite agricultural operation method is an inevitable trend. For example, the agricultural drone that installed the Beidou RTK (real -time difference) high -precision navigation and centrifugal atomization technology can greatly improve the effective utilization rate of pesticides and chemical fertilizers during the process of spraying and fertilization. It also plays a protective role in the environment, which further reduces energy consumption upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.

Our country is experiencing a very high -speed stage of urbanization, and nearly 12 million people enter the city every year. This process will inevitably bring the hollow and aging of rural areas. When these people change from producers to consumers, more foods need to be, just like we often order takeaway, go out for dinner without a CD. Therefore, China's rapid urbanization is on the one hand to make rural labor shortage, and the second aspect is to grow faster for food demand. In such an environment, the automation and unmanned agriculture have become the most important solutions.

Therefore, the role and what the Jifei played in agricultural automation is to make the work that originally needed a lot of labor input to be more intelligent and efficient.

Yangcheng Evening News: In your opinion, what changes have brought to the industry?

Gong Qinqin: I think the epidemic has actually made the unmanned agriculture needs.

We can see that in many areas across the country in the first quarter of this year, due to the prevention and control of the epidemic, farmers could not gather to farmland farming, agricultural machinery cannot transport and dispatch, agricultural resources needed for agricultural production have become very tense. In these cases, lightweight and less agricultural operations have become an efficient means.

Source | Yangcheng Evening News · Yangcheng School

Responsible | Lin Xi

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