D-Fend advert. Click for website

Beyond UTM – how China is automating its low-level economy with intelligent ground infrastructure

Published in cooperation with 7ITSNEWS – http://7itsnews.com/

By Jiuyao  – edited by Philip Butterworth-Hayes

In 2025 China’s Ministry of Transport listed the low-altitude economy as a representative of new productive forces, coupled with the deployment of the Artificial Intelligence Plus initiative. Low-altitude traffic is becoming a core incremental track in the intelligent transportation field. In the future, with the deepening integration of “air-space-ground,” low-altitude traffic will fundamentally reshape urban mobility and logistics patterns, opening a new chapter for intelligent transportation.

For Zhang Jun, Director of Nanjing Les Information Technology Co., Ltd., the capability transfer for traditional intelligent transport enterprises does not start from scratch but is an extension and innovation based on existing core strengths. Les Information has a three-dimensional strategy to create a fully automated low altitude economic airspace, linked with ground assets. In the short-term (for the next one to two years) there will be a focus on products like the Tianmu Low-Altitude Management Platform and Tianwei Low-Altitude Application System to seize dominance in new infrastructure and participate in industry standard formulation. In the medium-term (three to five years), the company will extend into the operational ecosystem, expand real-time air traffic control services, upgrade platforms to scheduling and transaction operating systems, and deepen “air-ground integration” collaboration.

In the long-term (five to ten years years) the company will explore fully autonomous, decentralized air traffic management networks, transition from a system provider to a “data and service operator,” and build an integrated air-space-ground system.

This strategic path is representative of the industry: establishing a foothold with core products and benchmark projects in the short term, expanding influence through platform ecosystems in the medium term, and leading the future through system integration in the long term.

But how are traditional industries exploiting this new capability?

Huang Rui, Deputy Marketing Director of Jari Electronics, said that breakthroughs in UAV endurance and payload technology, the integration of BeiDou navigation and 5G-A communication, and the empowerment of flight control by AI large models have significantly enhanced the safety and efficiency of low-altitude traffic. Diverse new low-altitude business models are being spurred by demands in various sectors such as express logistics and emergency rescue in public services; agricultural plant protection and urban governance in industrial sectors; and the need to alleviate ground traffic congestion in the transportation field.

Zhang Guoquan, General Manager of the Innovation Business Department of Zhejiang Gosun Technology emphasized that the pain points of ground transport management —  “slow response, numerous blind spots, lack of data, and low efficiency”— which serve as practical demand drivers for low-altitude traffic. Zhejiang Gosun has launched a comprehensive three-dimensional traffic management platform, integrating low-altitude aircraft as a new transport dimension with expressway control platforms and urban traffic management systems. This enables unified command of “road, vehicle, and aircraft,” supporting advanced applications like emergency air corridor establishment and logistics collaborative scheduling.

The market consensus is that traditional intelligent transportation enterprises need to build an ecosystem cooperation network: collaborating with UAV manufacturers and AI algorithm companies to develop scenario-specific solutions; engaging with governments in low-altitude planning and airspace reform pilots; investing in infrastructure like general aviation airports; and extending digital capabilities such as digital twins and IoT middleware to the low-altitude field to achieve deep “ground-air integration.”

At the infrastructure level, enterprises are promoting end-to-end integration of low-altitude perception base stations, communication networks, and takeoff/landing sites, establishing multi-network interconnection solutions to ensure low-altitude data securely and instantly empowers ground management. These solutions have undergone pilot testing in places like Zhejiang and Hebei, exploring pathways for a three-dimensional transportation system characterized by “flyable low-altitude, knowable ground, reachable emergency response, and accessible logistics.”

For more information

Source: https://www.7its.com/?m=home&c=View&a=index&aid=29494

Translated By: 7ITSNEWS

(Image: Shenzhen – Shutterstock)

Share this: