Zhang Yu, CEO of TOPXGUN Robotics: From Flight Control to Complete Aircraft, Technological Breakthrough and Industrial Innovation of TOPXGUN Drones | 36Kr Future Industry Conference 2025

On September 10th, the 2025 36Kr Future of Industry Conference, hosted by 36Kr, grandly kicked off in Xiamen, China. This conference has joined hands with the "China International Fair for Investment and Trade" hosted by the Ministry of Commerce. With the core theme of "In the Era of In - depth Cultivation, the Tides Surge in the Land of Abundance", it has made every effort to create a high - standard, high - value, and high - influence industrial event that combines national vision, industrial depth, and market popularity.

The conference closely aligns with national strategic directions and the forefront of industrial development. It focuses on five core sectors: artificial intelligence, low - altitude economy, advanced manufacturing, new energy, and mass consumption. It brings together top industry players to discuss development paths and outline the future of the industry. During the two - day agenda, with the "industrial cooperation chain" as the main logical line, the conference focuses on the collaborative mechanism among the government, investors, and industries. It delves into how to break down barriers, integrate resources, and precisely solve the pain points, bottlenecks, and constraints in industrial development.

On that day, Zhang Yu, the CEO of TopXGun Robotics, delivered a keynote speech titled "From Flight Control to Complete UAVs: TopXGun's Technological Breakthroughs and Industrial Innovations".

The following is the content of the speech, edited by 36Kr:

Thank you all. Good morning!

Thank you very much for the invitation from the organizer. Today, I have the opportunity to report to you on TopXGun's practices in the industry. I'm Zhang Yu from TopXGun. The theme of today's speech is "TopXGun's Technological Breakthroughs and Industrial Innovations". Our path is clear: starting from flight control technology at the beginning of our entrepreneurship, we have gradually expanded into the field of complete UAVs.

At the beginning, I'd like to talk about the currently popular "low - altitude economy". Since last year, this sector has seen a soaring popularity. As a company that has been deeply involved in the industry for ten years, we have felt this popularity while also remaining rational - the development of the low - altitude economy must follow objective laws. Currently, many application scenarios of UAVs are still in the process of gradual maturity, which I will elaborate on later.

Let me first talk about TopXGun's vision: we hope that UAVs can become "good production tools" serving all industries. In simple terms, we aim to build UAVs into a general - purpose platform that can meet the needs of more industries through iterations of "more intelligent, cheaper, and more efficient". In fact, long before the concept of the low - altitude economy emerged, the UAV white paper released by Huawei ten years ago mentioned a similar idea: in the future, there will be a large number of aircraft serving society in the air, and most of them will be unmanned devices, which coincides with our vision.

Next, I'll report on TopXGun's core business. When we started our business ten years ago, we focused on UAV flight control systems. Looking at the development history of UAVs: early UAVs were more like "remote - controlled planes" with weak intelligence and perception capabilities. Now, they have evolved to have powerful autonomous driving capabilities. Currently, we mainly have two product lines: one is standardized complete UAVs, and the other is non - standard customized products - the latter mainly serve medium and large UAVs, including eVTOLs (electric vertical take - off and landing aircraft) for manned scenarios.

The evolution path of UAV autonomous driving is very similar to that of vehicle autonomous driving, both breaking through from Level L1 to L4 and L5 step by step. Fortunately, in the field of aircraft, a large number of scenarios have achieved Level L4 and L5 autonomous flight in advance. This is largely because the flight conditions in the air are simpler than on the ground, and there are fewer extreme situations to deal with. So in many scenarios now, UAVs can already achieve fully autonomous flight.

Let me briefly introduce the company's qualifications: as a startup, TopXGun has been recognized as a national high - tech enterprise and a specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative enterprise. It holds the title of "unicorn", has a rich reserve of intellectual property rights, and has undertaken several national and provincial - level major projects. Currently, we have completed our Series C financing. Thanks to the support of shareholder institutions including Xiamen Financial Holding.

Now, let me focus on our products. Among the standardized products, the most mature one is the agricultural plant protection UAV - this is the earliest mature application scenario for UAVs. Why agriculture? A key point is the low regulatory threshold: according to the regulations of the Civil Aviation Administration, plant protection UAVs are classified separately. There is no need to apply for airspace or flight routes, and the requirements for pilots are also relatively low. To lower the usage threshold, we must achieve extreme intelligence. As a company starting from flight control, we defined the flight control as a "cerebellum + brain" structure early on: the "cerebellum" is responsible for stable and reliable flight control, and the "brain" is responsible for intelligent decision - making, ensuring that even farmers with a low level of education can easily operate the UAVs.

Looking back ten years ago, UAVs were still a "luxury" in the agricultural field. A flying UAV cost over 300,000 yuan, which was unacceptable to farmers. Now, the mainstream fully - intelligent plant protection UAVs with a payload of 70 - 80 kilograms and a daily operation area of over 2,000 mu are priced at only about 50,000 yuan at the terminal. Moreover, farmers can enjoy a purchase subsidy of 10,000 - 20,000 yuan for agricultural machinery, which means that farmers can own an efficient production tool at the cost of an electric tricycle. In addition to spraying pesticides and fertilizing, it can also undertake agricultural transportation: in mountainous areas such as Fujian, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, UAVs have been used to transport agricultural products such as durians, coconuts, and tea. They can transport several tons of goods a day, which is cheaper, more efficient than manual labor, and can also reduce the labor intensity.

In addition to regular scenarios, UAVs are also covering the "tough scenarios" in agriculture, such as mountainous areas and sloping tea gardens where ground equipment is difficult to reach. In the past, these areas relied entirely on manual labor - for example, spraying pesticides manually in hot weather is not only labor - intensive but also prone to cause pesticide damage and pesticide inhalation. UAVs can precisely solve these "operation pain points in harsh environments". In terms of intelligence, current agricultural UAVs are generally equipped with perception and decision - making systems, and intelligent aerial surveying has become a standard feature: one mapping can be used for a long time, and they can operate precisely regardless of terrain fluctuations and complex ground conditions.

As an agricultural machinery product, we not only provide equipment but also comprehensive training and services. The training of agricultural UAV pilots is borne by the manufacturer. There is no need to obtain a license from the Civil Aviation Administration. Pilots only need to obtain the manufacturer's certification. We have invested a lot in training in the past few years, and it is very rewarding to see farmers easily using UAVs.

Beyond agriculture, we are also deploying in the low - altitude logistics scenario, which is on the verge of explosion. With the gradual opening of airspace and the improvement of UAV payload capacity, more and more UAV logistics routes have emerged in forests, water areas, and cities. Here are some cases with clear commercial closed - loops: One is the supply for cargo ships on the Yangtze River. In the past, supply boats were used, which were time - consuming and costly. Now, UAVs can directly deliver supplies such as Starbucks and McDonald's from the shore to cargo ships, which is low - cost and fast, greatly improving the living conditions of crew members; The other is the material transportation in Huangshan Scenic Area. In the past, it relied on porters, which was not only costly and inefficient but also faced the dilemma of "young people not willing to take over". UAVs can carry a payload of 80 - 100 kilograms and complete a 5 - kilometer mountain transportation in 5 - 10 minutes, far exceeding the efficiency of manual labor. The commercial model is completely viable. We believe that the development of the low - altitude economy requires more such scenarios that can provide real commercial value.

In addition to plant protection and logistics, we are also gradually launching new UAV products for scenarios such as photovoltaic panel cleaning, building cleaning, and emergency delivery.

Now, let me talk about the non - standard product line. Since our founding team comes from the Flight Control Research Institute of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, flight control technology is our core competitiveness. Therefore, we got involved in the research and development of medium and large UAVs early on. For example, we launched a project for a medium - large UAV with a ton - level payload in 2018 and conducted its first flight in 2019. At that time, the concept of the low - altitude economy had not yet emerged, but we had already deployed in this field. On this basis, we also participated in the research, development, and delivery of well - known projects such as "Yuyang No. 1" - this UAV with a take - off weight of 1.5 tons can achieve ultra - short take - off and landing within 200 meters and is our early wheeled fixed - wing solution.

In the field of medium and large UAVs, TopXGun does not engage in complete UAV manufacturing but provides "package - style R & D services" for customers: centered around flight control, the "Star Series" flight control system can cover various aircraft from 500 kilograms to 5 tons. In the currently hottest eVTOL sector, we are leading the industry in terms of the number of delivery cases and aircraft models. We have covered prototype verification aircraft, scaled - down models, and full - size models, especially having mature experience in complex configurations such as tilt - rotor and semi - tilt - rotor.

The development of aircraft cannot be separated from ecological support. In addition to the airframe and control system, the control and simulation system is crucial - it is not only a core tool in the R & D stage but also affects subsequent delivery, training, and large - scale implementation. Therefore, we have made in - depth deployments and have mature solutions in this field. Taking eVTOL as an example, the tilt - rotor configuration is considered the optimal solution at the physical level, but the biggest difficulty lies in the "tilt - rotor corridor" (the transition stage between vertical take - off and landing and level flight) - this stage has the most complex mechanical model and the highest risk, and most flight accidents occur during this stage. We have formed systematic solutions for aircraft of different models, configurations, and weights.

In addition, aerodynamic model analysis is also a key link in the research and development of medium and large aircraft (the demand for this was relatively low in the multi - rotor era, but it must be emphasized for fixed - wing and tilt - rotor configurations). In the past, the industry did not pay enough attention to aerodynamic supporting software. However, in fact, whether it is the iteration of prototype aircraft or commercial implementation, this is an essential ecological product. At the same time, we have also built a R & D environment suitable for medium and large UAVs, including a simulation system and the Tianniao Platform - for aviation industry practitioners, Tianniao simulation is a key step in the R & D process.

As the fastest - growing business segment in recent years, airworthiness certification is the core threshold in the field of medium and large UAVs - only after passing the airworthiness certification can an aircraft fly legally and be sold commercially. Currently, we are closely cooperating with regulatory authorities to build an airworthiness operation system.

Finally, I'd like to take this opportunity to do a little more promotion: TopXGun has always been a 2B - oriented company, and the end - market has a low awareness of us. I hope that through today's communication, we can get to know more industry partners and jointly contribute to the development of the low - altitude economy and the UAV industry.

Thank you all!