Tech giants start by disassembling systems

Chapter 102 A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire

April 22, 2020, five days after the launch of Project Flying Bird.

A document from the Civil Aviation Administration of China has been quietly circulating within the industry – the “Interim Regulations on the Management of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flights in Low-Altitude Airspace (Draft for Comments)”.

The core content of this draft for comments is only one point: starting from January 1, 2021, all civilian drones sold in China must have their flight control systems approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), and products that have not passed the approval will not be allowed to enter the market for sale.

The news sent shockwaves through the entire drone industry.

For companies like DJI and Hony Capital, which possess their own flight control systems, this policy is merely a formality. But for hundreds of small and medium-sized drone manufacturers across the country, it is nothing short of a death sentence.

Most of these small manufacturers lack the ability to develop their own flight controllers. Some modify open-source flight controllers, some buy loose flight controller boards from Taobao and assemble them, and some simply copy a solution and change the shell.

These flight control schemes lack even the most basic redundancy design, let alone pass the Civil Aviation Administration's airworthiness certification.

In other words, if this policy is officially implemented, at least 60% of small and medium-sized drone manufacturers nationwide will be forced out of the market.

While these smaller manufacturers were struggling with their problems, Hongyuan Intelligent's sales team had already been dispatched to various parts of the country.

……

Daojiao Town, Dongguan, Guangdong.

Deep in an inconspicuous industrial street, there is a small company called "Xiangyu Aeromodelling Technology". Although it is called a company, it is actually just two rented tin-roofed workshops with a total of 23 people, specializing in the assembly and modification of agricultural drones.

The proprietress's surname is Chen, and she is known as Sister Chen. She is in her early forties, has dark skin, and speaks in a loud voice. She is the kind of woman who has been working in the manufacturing industry in the Pearl River Delta for more than ten years.

Her husband used to make molds, but three years ago he switched to making agricultural drones. He was in a car accident at the end of last year and is still recovering at home. All the work of the company has fallen on her shoulders.

At this moment, she was standing at the factory gate, arms crossed, looking warily at the young man in front of her who was wearing a white shirt and carrying a silver briefcase.

"From Hongyuan Intelligent?"

Sister Chen looked the newcomer up and down, her eyes filled with disbelief.

"Yes, Mr. Chen, I am He Zhiyuan, the regional manager of the Bird Business Unit at Hongyuan Intelligent."

The young man smiled and handed over his business card.

"You Hongyuan are a big factory that makes F4 (referring to four top-tier male celebrities), why would you want to work with a small workshop like ours?"

Sister Chen didn't take the business card, her tone wary, "You're not here to sell some training courses, are you? Two groups of people came last month, one selling flight control courses, and the other selling some kind of drone business franchise. They're all scammers."

"Mr. Chen, I'm not here to sell courses, I'm here to deliver a solution."

He Zhiyuan calmly placed the suitcase on the cement block next to him and opened it with a snap.

Inside the box lay three circuit board modules, each only the size of a palm, with the "HY-BIRD" logo printed on them and different model codes laser-etched next to them.

"This is our standard flight control module for the Flying Bird platform. There are three models: Basic, Advanced, and Professional."

Sister Chen glanced at it but didn't react much. Having worked in this industry for three years, she had seen all sorts of flight control panels.

"Our current flight controllers can also fly, so what's different about yours?"

"Mr. Chen, would it be convenient to borrow one of your machines to try it out? Ten minutes will be enough."

"try?"

Sister Chen raised an eyebrow, hesitated for a moment, and finally shouted into the factory:

"Old Zhou! Bring out a six-axis machine!"

A few minutes later, a somewhat crude-looking six-axis agricultural drone was pushed onto the open ground outside the factory.

He Zhiyuan put on an anti-static wrist strap, skillfully opened the top cover of the drone, and removed the original flight control board with a screwdriver.

What are you doing?!

Sister Chen was startled, "You dismantled my flight controller!"

"Mr. Chen, don't worry, I'll put it back in quickly. Let me show you the results first."

As he spoke, He Zhiyuan took out the advanced version of the bird module from his suitcase, aligned it with the reserved interface slot, clicked it into place with a sound, then connected the ribbon cable and tightened the fixing screws.

The whole process took less than eight minutes.

"Standard 5x5 cm interface, compatible with over 90% of racks on the market."

He Zhiyuan stood up, dusted off his hands, and said, "President Chen, we can proceed with the test flight."

With some skepticism, Sister Chen picked up the remote control and pushed the accelerator lever.

The six-axis drone took off with a hum and hovered steadily at a height of three meters.

"this……"

Sister Chen's eyes widened.

She knew these machines in her factory all too well. When taking off with the old flight control board, the aircraft would always sway left and right a couple of times before stabilizing, and there would be visible drift when hovering.

But now, the machine is frozen in mid-air, completely motionless.

"GPS dual-mode positioning plus nine-axis IMU fusion, hovering accuracy is ±10 centimeters," He Zhiyuan explained from the side.

"Try the automatic route again."

He Zhiyuan took out his tablet, opened the accompanying app for the Flying Bird SDK, and quickly drew a rectangular flight path on the screen.

"Click here to execute with one click."

Sister Chen pressed the green button on the screen.

The drone immediately began to fly along the set route, its turning posture smooth and fluid, completely unlike the abrupt angled turns she had seen before.

After completing one circle, the drone automatically returns to the takeoff point and lands precisely with an error of no more than 20 centimeters.

The technician next to him, Lao Zhou, was stunned. He even forgot to smoke his cigarette, and ash fell all over the ground.

"This flight control..."

Old Zhou swallowed hard, his voice trembling slightly, "Sister Chen, this hovering accuracy, this flight path planning... this is beyond what you'd expect at this price point."

"besides."

He Zhiyuan then took out a folded parameter comparison table from the box and unfolded it on the cement block.

"On the left are the parameters of mainstream open-source flight control solutions on the market, and on the right are the parameters of our Flying Bird Advanced version. Mr. Chen can compare them item by item."

Sister Chen looked down for less than half a minute, and her expression changed.

Sensor redundancy: No open-source solutions, but dual redundancy is available from Feibiao.

Automatic route planning: Open source solutions require secondary development, while Feibiao natively supports it.

OTA remote upgrade: No open source solution available, but supported by Feibiao.

Airworthiness pre-certification: No open-source solutions available; Feibiao has submitted its application to the Civil Aviation Administration for pre-review.

The last point hit Sister Chen like a hammer blow.

Airworthiness pre-certification.

She had just seen the draft for comments the day before yesterday and was so worried that she couldn't sleep all night. Her own open-source flight controller wasn't even qualified to apply for airworthiness certification, let alone pass the certification process.

"How much does this module cost?"

Sister Chen's voice was a little hoarse.

"Basic version: 490; Advanced version: 690; Professional version: 990."

"Four hundred and ninety?!"

Sister Chen suddenly raised her head.

The open-source flight controller she's currently using, along with various sensor modules, GPS modules, and matching ESC driver boards, costs over 500 yuan in total, not including the labor costs for soldering and debugging herself.

The advanced version of the Flying Bird costs 690 yuan and has integrated everything into a palm-sized module. It's plug-and-play and saves you the trouble of adjusting parameters.

Including the saved labor and debugging costs, it is actually cheaper than her current solution.

Moreover, the performance... is not even in the same league.

"Manager He."

The way she addressed Sister Chen had changed. She grabbed He Zhiyuan's arm, her eyes burning with a fierce light.

"For the advanced version, give me two hundred sets first."

"No problem. For the first batch of orders, we will also provide free technical support. Our engineers will remotely assist you in completing the device compatibility process."

"well!"

Sister Chen said "good" twice, then turned and shouted into the factory:

"Old Zhou! Stop using all of our remaining flight control boards! We won't need them anymore!"

……

Such scenes played out simultaneously across the country over the following week.

The Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, Chengdu-Chongqing, Wuhan, Xi'an... Forty-seven regional managers from Hongyuan Flying Bird Business Unit, carrying silver briefcases, visited one small and medium-sized drone company after another.

Some companies have only seven or eight employees who solder circuit boards in villagers' houses; others have hundreds of employees and have already achieved an annual output of three thousand units.

But regardless of size, their reactions after seeing the live demonstration of the Flying Bird module were almost identical—

First disbelief, then shock, and finally madness.

As of the end of April, the Feiniao platform had accumulated over 320 signed clients and pre-ordered over 40,000 modules.

This number far exceeded Su Chen's initial expectations.

He originally expected to sign 100 contracts in the first month as a success, but the market's thirst for customers exceeded everyone's expectations.

That draft for comments was like a sword hanging over their heads, forcing all small and medium-sized manufacturers to find a compliant flight control solution in the shortest possible time.

Looking at the entire market, only Hongyuan can provide standardized, airworthy, plug-and-play flight control modules.

DJI has its own self-developed flight controllers, but it never sells them to external parties.

After the S2 Pro's reputation collapsed, no one dared to use the Skyhawk's flight controller anymore.

The Flying Bird platform became the only option.