
SHENZHEN, (Xinhua) -- China's drone industry is soaring into a new era of cognitive capability, with artificial intelligence (AI) transforming unmanned systems from remote-controlled tools into autonomous problem-solvers.
At the ninth Drone World Congress that closed on Sunday in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, 825 enterprises showcased over 5,000 drone models. One spotlight belonged to "AI+" innovations redefining possibilities in infrastructure, heritage preservation, disaster response and urban governance.
DJI's Matrice 4E exemplified this shift during a 1,300-year-old Nankan Grottoes restoration project in southwest China's Sichuan Province. By autonomously mapping precision flight paths around the curved cliffside, the drone captured 18 GB of imagery, generating a detailed 3D model in 1.5 hours.