A few days ago, the SNEC2019 International Solar Photovoltaic and Smart Energy Exhibition, which is very influential in China, came to an end in Shanghai. As a world-recognized international annual photovoltaic event, SNEC brings together global photovoltaic companies and achievements every year, and is known as the "wind vane" of photovoltaic trends.

Hu Xinyi was interviewed by a reporter from Century New Energy Network

It is necessary to break through the relatively high barriers to the use of UAVs in the past, and build an extremely easy-to-use UAV system based on technology based on intelligence. In another year or two, it will be completely unmanned from flying out to generating reports with one click! "Hu Xinyi, founder and CEO of Shanghai Boonray Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., said in an interview with Century New Energy Network.

Intelligent photovoltaic power station inspection system based on UAV

Form an intelligent dispatch system

"Make More Sense", creating more value, has been focusing on industrial applications in the field of drones. This is Shanghai Boonray Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Boonray Technology). Over the years, Boonray Technology has been a global leader in ubiquitous robotics technology, dedicated to empowering traditional industries with related technologies such as robotics, AI and the Internet of Things, and creating enterprise-level intelligent operation solutions.

This time to participate in the SNEC2019 Shanghai exhibition, Boonray Technology brought its research and development products. "Strictly speaking, the new product released is an intelligent photovoltaic power station inspection system based on drones, which combines new drones, Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence technologies with photovoltaic inspection scenarios." Boonray Technology Founder and CEO Hu Xinyi introduced that in the whole system, a fully automatic flying drone that does not need to be controlled, uploads the collected data files such as pictures with thermal imaging to the system cloud - the big data processing center, and then Intelligent analysis and identification of data, and finally produce results. It can replace the manual to find hot spots, defects and other problems on the photovoltaic panel, and form an intelligent dispatching system. At present, an unattended photovoltaic power station has been realized in the Nanchang Power Station of the State Power Investment Corporation. The drone is stationed on site, and at the push of a button, the drone will set off to collect the desired data.

Drones can be a very fast and effective supplement

Start to deploy overseas markets such as Southeast Asia

At present, most of the EPC monitoring in the photovoltaic market adopts the contact type, which is realized by monitoring the current. "Most of the monitoring indicators of drones are looking at the surface hot spots. Before the monitoring system finds no changes, problems such as hot plates and defects on the photovoltaic panel can be found in advance to achieve early prevention. This is also what has been said in Industry 4.0. Yes, from occurrence to taking measures to predicting in advance, this is the trend we lead.” Hu Xinyi introduced that in terms of data collection, not all power stations can deploy many real-time monitoring systems on a large scale. Drones can be used as a very fast and effective supplement, and the efficiency of taking data is very high. For example, for a 100MW power station, it takes about two days to collect all the required data. After synthesizing the data results, a comprehensive diagnostic report is provided to serve customers. In this regard, it is a trend at home and abroad.

When asked about the current market layout of Boonray Technology, Hu Xinyi said that the company's products serve about 10GW of power stations. At present, there are many photovoltaic power stations in China. The state encourages innovation and is willing to provide some scenarios for innovative high-tech companies like Boonray Technology. At present, the products mainly serve the domestic market. The next step of the company's layout is to expand overseas, including the photovoltaic market in Asia and Southeast Asia is also very prosperous. With this trend, it will definitely deploy overseas markets such as Southeast Asia.

The case of Boonray Technology is not just eyeball economy

More and more proof of great practical value

In recent years, the gradual reduction of subsidies is forcing enterprises to "reduce costs and increase efficiency". Under the decision of this industry environment, enterprises seek survival and development, and pursue profits. "Reducing costs and increasing efficiency" is an inevitable requirement for market development. It is in line with the ultimate goal of grid parity for photovoltaic power generation in the future.

When it comes to "reducing costs and increasing efficiency", Hu Xinyi expressed her special affection for this word. "'Cost reduction and efficiency increase' runs through the values of Boonray Technology. Our value is to reduce costs and increase efficiency for customers. For the company, new products and new technologies that it does not want to launch are just an eye-catching economy. Over the years, we have indeed seen that there will be obvious results in terms of manpower saving and even the entire operation and maintenance costs of the power station, and at the same time, efficiency will be improved." Hu Xinyi said that for the entire industry , even if the efficiency is increased by 1%, the economic benefits produced by it are relatively large. As far as the current situation is concerned, from occurrence to early prevention, although the improvement of power generation is not immediate, the specific improvement needs to be proved by continuous accumulation of data. In the long run, because it is an early prevention and control, the industry is relatively large, and the economic benefits generated are actually huge.

"In the industrial field, it is often mentioned that a 1% increase in efficiency can generate huge economic benefits. It means that it is difficult to achieve several times the increase in efficiency. And it can be seen that Boonray Technology participated in the exhibition this time, whether it is from the organizing committee. Yes, or from the attention of customers, especially the popularity of the on-site booth, this is proved: now our cases are not only economical, but more and more proofs are of great practical value." Hu Xinyi said.

Intelligent processing of data through AI

In one or two years, it can be completely unmanned with one click from flying out to generating reports.

Different from robot equipment manufacturing enterprises, Boonray Technology focuses on the research on the interconnection of various machines, and realizes clustering, intelligent operation and mining of the value of data collected by machines.

As for the future technology research and development direction, Boonray Technology insists on being based on intelligence, and deeply builds it through AI and the Internet of Things to create a brand-new system that is simple and easy to operate. Change the relatively high threshold of use and operation of drones in the past, and change the situation that makes many enterprises discouraged.

"Our philosophy is to continuously make the system intelligent, and no matter who can operate it flexibly, the entire system can be deployed on a large scale." Hu Xinyi said that Boonray Technology attaches great importance to grounding, and hopes to achieve almost full automation for customers. No matter the owner or the operating unit, the system can be seamlessly connected. When deploying the system on a large scale, there is no need to upgrade the existing system, and there is no need to increase the staffing. The original system can be used to provide services. This is Boonray Technology the goal that has been pursued.

In addition, how to collect and store the data is also very important. Hu Xinyi said that for the collected data, on the cloud platform, AI is used to realize intelligent processing of the data, and then generate an analysis report. "In the report, you can see where the problem is? How serious is it? This process can basically be fully automated and unmanned. So in the near future, in just one or two years, it will be possible to achieve from flying out to Generating reports, one-click and fully unmanned, greatly reduces the threshold for the use of the entire system and facilitates large-scale deployment.”

Next, how to make the system play a greater role, seamlessly connect with the enterprise ERP system, and help the improvement of enterprise informatization and intelligence, which can have a larger scope, larger scale, and greater impact.

From industrial automation to "photovoltaic" industry

They saw the market opportunity for photovoltaics to gradually focus on operation and maintenance

 Hu Xinyi graduated from the Michigan College of Shanghai Jiaotong University, a young entrepreneur of Shanghai "Thousand Sails Action", and a 2018 Shanghai Young Entrepreneurial Talent... She has been working in industrial automation before and transferred to the "photovoltaic" industry. Hu Xinyi said: "This is about fate." He said: "From industrial automation to industrial automation 4.0, we really see the trend of data-driven machines. From our earliest Shanghai customer, starting from aerospace, half foot has stepped into the photovoltaic industry. There is another reason , the feelings of the whole team, we are willing to contribute to the blue sky cause of the country and the earth. In addition, after understanding the photovoltaic industry, we can clearly see that before, everyone paid more attention to the construction of new power stations, and then gradually focused on operation and maintenance later. This is a very big market opportunity!"

Seeing the opportunity, Hu Xinyi and his team believed that a new technology company like Boonray Technology should have a better combination with such a scenario. This is also confirmed by the unremitting efforts of the team and feedback from many markets. "The whole market has become more and more accepting of our products and our solutions. Our annual performance is growing rapidly, and we have achieved several times of growth." Hu Xinyi said that this year's evaluation from the aspects of share and other aspects, Mr. Radium Technology ranks in the top three, no problem.

Strive to be the global leader in ubiquitous robotics technology

The future of Boonray Technology will be more technological and more possibilities

At present, Boonray Technology's products have served customers in multiple vertical fields such as photovoltaic inspection, mine operation, and park management.

 Looking forward to the future, perhaps the subject line of a frame of Boonray Technology's official website can reveal some news: Boonray Technology is a global leader in ubiquitous robotics technology.

"Boonray Technology will develop in a healthier direction in the future." Hu Xinyi is full of confidence. "Boonray Technology is positioned as a ubiquitous robot company. This year, the power grid has mentioned 'ubiquitous' and ubiquitous power grids many times. In addition to drones, Boonray Technology is also integrated into the apron. After the drones fly back, they will automatically charge and automatically Turn off the power. In the future, the entire system will try to connect more possibilities, such as cleaning robots, including robots that look at the photovoltaic panels from the opposite side...

As the founder and CEO, Hu Xinyi's description of the future of Boonray Technology is more technological and exciting, "The whole system will be connected to more integrated robots, and then realize the scene of data sharing and mutual cooperation. "Hu Xinyi affirmed.