5G Drone Market Expands... Domestic Technology Level Reaches Only 65% of Advanced Countries

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] Starting this year, competition surrounding the next-generation unmanned mobility market, including 5G drones, is expected to intensify worldwide. However, it has been revealed that the current domestic technology level is only about 65% compared to the leading advanced countries. The technological gap with the leading country, the United States, has widened to more than four years. Securing core source technologies and national investment for this purpose are urgent.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 14th, domestic unmanned mobility source technology is weak at about 65.7% compared to the top advanced countries and is concentrated mostly in small and medium-sized enterprises with annual sales of less than 1 billion KRW. A survey conducted by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute in late 2018 showed that the average gap with the world's best technology was 4.5 years.

Specifically, among six fields, the Human-Machine Interface (HMI) technology level was the lowest at 62.6% compared to the leading country, the United States. The HMI technology gap reached as much as 6.5 years. The communication (66.3%), autonomous intelligence (64.5%), and power source and mobility (71.2%) fields also showed technology gaps of 4.3 years, 4.9 years, and 4.8 years respectively compared to the U.S.

The technology gap in the detection and recognition (70.4%) field was the smallest at 2.8 years. In the system integration (system, hardware, software) field, the range was 55.9% to 74.0%, with the hardware gap (6.3 years) being the most prominent. A Ministry of Science and ICT official evaluated, "Domestic technological capability is at a level between a learning country and a catching-up country."

Earlier, a survey conducted ahead of the 2017 announcement of the "10-Year Roadmap for Unmanned Mobility Technology Innovation and Growth" showed that domestic technology levels lagged behind the U.S. and Europe by 3.8 years and 2 years respectively. While the leading country, the U.S., filed 449 related technology patents from 2007 to 2016, Korea only filed 24.

The global drone market is expected to grow from $10.6 billion (approximately 13 trillion KRW) in 2016 to $20.2 billion (approximately 24.6 trillion KRW) by 2025. However, the current domestic market is being encroached upon by Chinese-made drones. A Ministry of Science and ICT official said, "This year, competition in the 5G drone market will intensify as countries develop 5G communication modules," adding, "To overcome the current situation, we will focus on building infrastructure and conducting demonstrations for early 5G transition."

The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to start a mid- to long-term unmanned mobility source technology development project from May. They will develop new technology convergence platform services combining 5G and artificial intelligence (AI) and also launch a smart farming demonstration project using 5G drones.