국토교통부, 인천광역시 주최 '2024 대한민국 드론박람회'가 9일부터 11일까지 3일간 송도컨벤시아에서 개최됐다. ‘드론으로 실현하는 세상, Drones Come True!’라는 주제로 열린 이번 행사는 20여개국 드론 관련 종사자가 참여했다. 드론 공모전 수상식, 드론 라이트쇼, 국제드론축구제전, 각종 컨퍼런스가 열려 글로벌 드론 시장을 조망했다.
Global drone market size expected to reach $53 billion by 2030
China DJI 90%, Autel 5% dominate the low-cost drone market
'K-Drone Delivery Commercialization Project' to be implemented in the second half of this year
The global drone market size is gradually expanding. However, while China’s drone market share is approaching 95%, Korea’s drone industry support level remains at 20th place. Experts have suggested that domestic support for drone standards and regulations needs to be expanded.
The '2024 Korea Drone Expo' hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Incheon Metropolitan City was held for three days from the 9th to the 11th at Songdo Convensia. Under the theme of 'A World Realized by Drones, Drones Come True!', this event was attended by drone professionals from around 20 countries. A drone contest award ceremony, drone light show, international drone soccer festival, and various conferences were held to provide an overview of the global drone market.
Drones are being used in various fields such as agriculture, construction, and security, and are emerging as a promising industry. For example, drones are being used for agricultural purposes such as crop monitoring, pest control, and spraying fertilizers and pesticides. In addition, delivery drones are expected to be used in logistics fields such as product delivery, disaster relief, and medical supplies transportation.
According to Hendrik Boedecker, CFO of Drone Industry Insights (DII), at the Drone Transportation Global Symposium held on the 9th, the global drone market is expected to grow from approximately $34 billion in 2024 to $53 billion by 2030.
The drone market has been growing steadily since its explosive growth in 2021, but the growth rate has slowed. From 2022 to 2023, there was a slight decline due to geopolitical reasons and global inflation, and there was a trend of investing in stabilization rather than new businesses. However, Hendrick is optimistic that investment will increase starting next year based on aircraft and systems that have already been developed to a large extent.
CTO Hendrick explained, “The reason why the active technological development of Korean drones continued and then gradually subsided is because the technology has matured sufficiently. It seems that employee development, investment, and marketing have increased based on the already good quality achieved through hardware and software product development.”
In the drone market, hardware (airframe) accounts for 16%, software (3.9%), and the service sector accounts for 80%. CTO Hendrick said, “In the drone market, services have scalability in the market.” The domestic drone industry is evenly distributed across hardware, software, engineering, and SI.
According to research, China has a market share of about 95% in the global non-visual-line-of-sight drone market. This includes DJI, founded in 2006, with about 90%, and Autel Robotics with about 5%. Based on price competitiveness, about 1 million Chinese drones were launched last year alone. Chinese drones have also entered Korea, and the share of Chinese drones in Korea has exceeded 70%.
However, drone companies in the US, Europe, and Korea account for only about 5%. Korea ranked 9th in the ranking of countries with the largest drone companies, following the US, China, and Japan. CTO Hendrick said, “In the Korean drone market, regulatory implementation will be the most important. In other words, there is a framework, but when it is actually implemented, new regulations different from aircraft will have to be established, and challenges such as public acceptance and inflation will have to be addressed.”
Currently, the drone industry remains in a state of ‘the aircraft is legal, but the regulations are illegal.’ As international standards and regulations have not yet been established, it is expected that national efforts will be needed to take the lead.
In Korea, investment is being made in supporting the commercialization of drones, focusing on the 'drone delivery' business. In February, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Aerospace Safety Technology Institute announced the results of the 'Drone Demonstration City Construction and Drone Commercialization Support Competition' for the commercialization of drone services. Through this, we will discover drone utilization models that fit regional characteristics and apply them to public services, and promote the commercialization of excellent drone technologies.
This year, 14 local governments will fully implement the 'K-Drone Delivery Commercialization Project'. A total drone delivery infrastructure will be built in the first half of the year, focusing on islands, ports, and parks, and daily necessities, food, etc. will be delivered by drone to 38 islands in the second half. In addition, △Fire identification and disaster site mapping solution (Near Lab), △Advanced AI school identification detection system based on tuna fishing boat drone images (Marine drone technology), △Verification of autonomous flight collision avoidance equipment based on drone data communication technology (UAAN) (Tops Communication) are participating in the drone commercialization support project.
Meanwhile, the government has announced a roadmap for Korea-type urban air mobility (K-UAM) and is also preparing for the commercialization of UAM (urban air mobility) through the Grand Challenge. The open field demonstration with the participation of six private consortiums began in August of last year, and the flight demonstration was conducted in Goheung, Jeollanam-do in November, and will continue until December 2024.
A demonstration in the metropolitan area is scheduled to begin in the second half of this year. The demonstration in the downtown area will be conducted from August 2024 to June 2025 for consortiums that passed the first stage.