Dongwon Industrial [006040] announced on the 20th that it has developed the world's first drone dedicated to fishing group detection (fish detection) and put it into the fishing site.
Fisheries companies have been using helicopters and general-purpose drones to find fish groups, but this is the first time they have manufactured drones for the purpose of detecting fish groups from the design stage.
The research and development (R&D) control tower of Dongwon Group led the research and development (R&D) drone development project.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Technology was established in 2023 to accelerate productivity innovation and technology development across the group, and was recently reorganized into the Dongwon Industrial Technology Division.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Technology (KAIST) developed the drone after conducting research for about two years. The design reflected flight time, speed, wireless communication distance, and wind speed resistance with PRENEU, a domestic drone manufacturing company. Focusing on the ocean (遠洋) conditions, the performance was optimized to automatically take off and land from ships on the move.
The Uttam drone is powered by batteries. Helicopters and existing general-purpose drones are powered by fossil fuels and emit a lot of carbon emissions, but fishing drones are environmentally friendly.
Dongwon Industrial expects that replacing both helicopters and general-purpose drones with fishing drones will reduce fuel use by 200,000 liters per year, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 500 tons.
The Uttam drone also has the advantage of being easy to maintain. As a result, it is expected that drones can be continuously operated without performance degradation and prevent accidents in the marine environment.
The installed battery capacity is the world's largest, and the annual flight time is more than twice that of conventional drones. The maximum flight speed is 120 kilometers per hour, which is faster than ships and tuna swarms in motion, helping to operate.
Dongwon Industrial plans to first load fishing drones on the OCEAN ACE ship and introduce them to 13 ships by next year.
Dongwon Industrial plans to improve the drone's fishing performance by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI)-based software.
Dongwon Industrial introduced the first helicopter-mounted ship in Korea in 1979, and has used general-purpose drones since 2022.
An official from Dongwon Industry said, "The fishing drone, which will enable eco-friendly fishing while securing safety, productivity, and economic feasibility, will change the paradigm of the global fisheries industry."
Source : YONHAP NEWS (https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20250520022000030?input=copy)