By Yang Zhenying | PUDONG TIMES

With the rapid development of science and technology, robots can already "go up to the sky and down to the ground", among which underwater robots are somewhat "mysterious". Industry experts pointed out that the underwater robot market is a high-quality market with huge capacity and huge potential, but it has not been fully developed yet.

There is a startup focused on consumer underwater drones——Youcan Robotics(Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Youcan Robotics) in Pudong. Less than three years after its establishment, the company launched the world's first underwater drone with intelligent functions, breaking the professional divers’ privilege of underwater exploration, and quickly entered the stage of mass production and sales, occupying the overseas high-end consumer market.

Achieve Global Leadership in a Short Period of Time

In recent years, driven by the rapid development of the robot market and the development of the marine economy, underwater robot products have begun to emerge. The underwater robot, also known as the unmanned remote-controlled submersible, is a robot for underwater extreme operations, which provides great help for humans to explore the underwater world. However, due to the high cost and "bulky" body, it is still difficult for underwater robots to enter the consumer market. Therefore, from a global perspective, makers of consumer underwater robot are still small in number and are small innovative companies, and the giants have not yet entered the field.

In 2016, the founder of Youcan Robotics, Snow Lee, relying on years of experience in research and development and production of consumer electronics and a keen "sense of smell" of key gaps in market changes, invested in all of his own funds and began to work on the development and marketing of consumer underwater drones. In just one year, he launched the first underwater drone that can be mass-produced. Up to now, Youcan Robotics has developed the fifth generation underwater drone and has more than a dozen invention patents, all reaching the global leading level.

The biggest highlight of the new BW Space from Youcan Robotics is its intelligent tracking function. The underwater robot needs to be controlled by the remote controller on the shore in use, and the BW Space can track and shoot the target person underwater, and has the function of automatic lighting adjustment and live broadcast, based on its powerful computer algorithm and image recognition and information processing techniques. In addition, BW Space can shoot 4K UHD images, broadcast in real time and dive to 100 meters. Compared with similar products on the market, BW Space has excellent endurance and battery life of up to 7 hours.

"In the consumer robot market, the key to competition is the speed of innovation and mass production. It's about getting the product from the laboratory to the production line as fast as possible. Of course, before entering the production line, the products of Youcan Robotics will be repeatedly demonstrated, measured, and tested in the laboratory and underwater. We will chisel the quality of the product with the spirit of the craftsman." Said Snow Lee.

Preemptively Develop Overseas Consumer Market

After three years of development, Youcan Robotics has established a research and development and sales center and a supply chain production base respectively in Lingang, Shanghai and Ningbo, Zhejiang to further ensure the mass production and industrialization of products. According to Snow Lee, the latest BW Space from Youcan Robotics will be presold overseas in July this year. This will also be a milestone for the Youcan Robotics to seize the global consumer underwater robot market.

Why did he decide to sell overseas first? Snow Lee said frankly that in the field of underwater robots, the overseas market already are matured while the domestic market is still in the stage of cultivation. "Selling overseas is also a way to explore the market. I believe that with the continuous improvement of domestic consumption, fast growing of domestic market is around the corner and Youcan Robotics has already taken the lead in the cultivation of market users." According to the blueprint of Youcan Robotics: the plus and mini versions for the classified market will be launched on the basis of the original products, and gradually extend to the B end. Taking its team's advantages in images, videos and information processing, mass production, cost control, and high-efficiency execution, Youcan Robotics will become a leader in the global underwater robot industry.