With the continuous acceleration of the commercialization process of 5G, based on big data, artificial intelligence and Internet of Everything technology, the digital and intelligent transformation of the industry is highly expected. According to IDC's forecasts, 70% of enterprises will need to process IoT data by 2023; by 2024, there will be 38 billion IoT devices in the digital world. At that time, the indispensable edge computing in AIoT is also expected to stand on the market and lead a new wave of technology boom.
Edge computing is about processing, analyzing, and storing data closer to where it was generated, so you can analyze and respond in real time faster. Compared with concentrating computing and storage in the cloud, edge computing can significantly improve the response speed of devices, improve network traffic management, and enhance data security. There are predictions that in 2025, 75% of the data will be generated outside the central data center.
Under the new technology and market trends, TZTEK Technology, a company listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, which has always aimed to promote the development of industrial digitalization and intelligence, officially announced the "Industrial Vision | in May last year Industrial intelligence" strategic upgrade. After the strategic upgrade, TZTEK, which started with industrial measurement and vision inspection business, officially | industrial vision "Industrial intelligence" as a new strategic direction, for intelligent factories, intelligent networking and other industrial scenarios to provide intelligent solutions.
In the field of intelligent networking, TZTEK has chosen edge computing as the entry point. In just three years, TZTEK has not only exerted its technology, talent and supply chain advantages, but also created a "0 to 1" product system construction in new areas such as autonomous driving and vehicle-road collaboration. At this stage, TZTEK has landed a complete software and hardware integration product in the field of edge computing, and can provide one-stop solutions for specific scenarios.
Globally, TZTEK's intelligent network connection business has more than 500 customers, including a number of domestic head Internet companies and new forces of head autonomous driving. Founded in 2005, from the initial image measuring instrument products, to industrial vision equipment, and then to today's intelligent network - edge computing series products, TZTEK continues to deepen application scenarios, explore forward-looking needs, and also practice the pursuit of long-termism.
Taking edge computing as the entrance, TZTEK has entered the intelligent network
At the end of 2021, artificial intelligence companies will welcome the boom of listing, and their commercialization road will gradually see the sun. After a long period of technology cultivation, the combination of artificial intelligence and industry has gradually become the consensus of major enterprise development to help the industry complete the digital and intelligent upgrading. At the policy level, we are also actively promoting the development of the digital economy and the intelligent economy. On January 12 this year, the State Council officially issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Digital Economy" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), proposing that by 2025, the added value of the core industries of the mainland's digital economy will account for 10% of GDP, and this figure will be 7.8% in 2020.
The transformation of industrial digital intelligence has provided new growth space for all walks of life, and has also advanced artificial intelligence technology from the construction of early algorithms and computing power to the implementation of AIoT. AIoT stands for AI and IoT, and can also be understood as the integration of intelligence and digitalization. In the process, the computing power will also be decentralized from the computing center to the edge of the vast area, so as to achieve the matching flow of data and computing power. This also means that edge computing will gradually enter the mainstream stage and become a core force that cannot be ignored in the field of artificial intelligence. Market research & consultancy Grand View Research predicts that by 2027, the market size of edge computing solutions will grow from the current $3.5 billion to $43.4 billion.
In the face of huge market potential, chip giants at home and abroad have laid out for edge computing. With the support of the underlying computing chip platform, TZTEK, which is positioned as "AI + Industry", has also set its sights on the edge computing landing scenario.
Dr. Liu, CEO of TZTEK Robot Division, introduced that with the maturity of artificial intelligence computing power and algorithms, TZTEK Technology, which focuses on industry applications, has begun to think about more directions and possibilities for artificial intelligence landing. In 2019, when TZTEK participated in the low-speed unmanned vehicle project of a logistics head customer, it began to officially enter the field of edge computing and opened an intelligent network business line.
In general, low-speed unmanned delivery vehicles will be installed with lidar, millimeter-wave radar and more sensors, and an edge computing unit is needed to process the data collected by the sensors, so low-speed unmanned delivery is a typical application scenario for edge computing. In cooperation with the head customer, TZTEK developed an AI edge controller for its low-speed unmanned vehicle, replacing the original industrial computer, solving the problems of power consumption, heat generation, reliability and other aspects of the industrial computer in the unmanned vehicle scene, and also accelerating the low-speed unmanned vehicle into mass production.
Since then, TZTEK has set up a research and development team for intelligent networking, and began to develop the integration of AI edge computing and perception technology. Dr. Liu, one of the six divisions of TZTEK, said, "Compared with other divisions focusing on the industrial field, our focus is on pan-industrial industrial intelligence. Subsequently, TZTEK's intelligent networking team looked for many edge computing landing scenarios in accordance with the idea of "multi-sensor, large computing power, and big data volume", including intelligent transportation, new retail, power detection, security, water conservancy, etc. "We will conduct in-depth research according to one scenario and one industry after another to develop corresponding edge intelligent products and solutions."
While providing general-purpose products and technologies, TZTEK is also carrying out industry-level solutions for some fields, and intelligent transportation represented by automatic driving and vehicle-road collaboration is the strategic market for TZTEK's intelligent networking business at this stage.
From "factory" to "road", TZTEK deeply lays out the field of intelligent transportation
As a company with deep accumulation in the industrial field, TZTEK has a complete technology platform development system and supply chain support, which also provides a software and hardware integration development model for its intelligent network business.
The so-called hardware can be understood as a computer with edge computing. Different from ordinary computers, such computers are equipped with rich interfaces to access sensors in various scenarios, taking the car end as an example, you can access car cameras, lidar and millimeter wave radar. At present, as the gold partner of Nvidia, the GEAC91S series and GEAC91VP series developed by TZTEK on the NVIDIA platform are such hardware products. The software provides customized functions for specific scenarios on the basis of the technology platform. For example, in the scenario of intelligent transportation, the perception results of multiple sensor data are required to achieve synchronization and integration in time and space.
Such hardware and software products can be used in autonomous driving, low-speed unmanned vehicles, robotics, and video analytics. Compared with specialized algorithm companies, TZTEK pays more attention to the process of data generation, acquisition and processing, which is also where the advantages of TZTEK's software and hardware are. Once you enter a scene, TZTEK will also develop a one-stop solution according to actual needs.
For the holographic intersection of vehicle-road coordination, TZTEK launched the V2X multi-sensor fusion perception system. The system is a solution for edge perception based on the fusion of lidar and visual propagation. At holographic intersections, lidar, cameras and millimeter-wave radar covering different angles will be installed on the electric police poles in different directions, and TZTEK's V2X multi-sensor fusion perception system is to fuse sensor data from different directions to portray the actual situation of the intersection.
Also in the field of intelligent transportation, TZTEK has developed a "parallel driving system" for autonomous driving scenarios to achieve remote takeover and control of vehicles. When a low-speed or high-speed unmanned vehicle encounters an abnormal situation and needs to be taken over remotely, TZTEK's "parallel driving system" can implement remote real-time control of the unmanned vehicle through real-time video surveillance, video backhaul and panoramic splicing technology. In addition, TZTEK also provides automated calibration technology for unmanned vehicles to help customers align the coordinate system of various types of data.
In addition, in the field of autonomous driving, whether it is the training data set or the construction of the simulation environment, it is necessary to collect a large amount of real scene collection data. Accordingly, TZTEK launched an intelligent car data acquisition system to provide customers with data collection solutions. At the same time, the company is also developing a new camera for emerging scenarios - V2X smart camera. The smart camera combines computing power and sensing perception functions, built-in vision sensors and computing chips to solve the low-latency perceptual computing needs of complex scenes.
TZTEK has always adhered to the principle that "the customer is the superior", and in the intelligent network connection business, the team is also practicing this business philosophy. TZTEK's intelligent networking products will combine the attributes and needs of different industries to define products, so as to accurately meet the actual pain points of the industry. In the process, TZP will provide consulting services to customers, and will also co-create with customers to jointly define products and solutions.
It is understood that TZTEK is providing intelligent network products for the head Internet company. For Internet companies, what they are good at is algorithms and cloud platforms, and they need service providers such as TZTEK on hardware. At the same time, in the field of vehicle-road collaboration, enterprises in the field of communication equipment are also the objects of cooperation of TZTEK.
So far, TZTEK's intelligent network customers have grown from 0 to more than 500, and the annual business revenue has also increased at several times. "The high growth of revenue is also a microcosm of the entire industry," said Dr. Liu, who believes that the field of intelligent networking, whether it is the Internet of Things or smart transportation, will become the main front for AI to land.
Since its establishment in 2005, TZTEK has established a good reputation and position in the industrial field through the success of its original product image measuring instrument. Subsequently, TZTEK realized the development from single products to multiple product lines in the field of industrial vision, and completed the listing of the Science and Technology Innovation Board, becoming a leading enterprise in China's industrial visual equipment. And in the "Industrial Vision | Under the new strategy of "industrial intelligence", TZS has entered the field of intelligent networking with edge computing as the entry point, and has deeply cultivated intelligent transportation scenarios such as automatic driving and vehicle-road collaboration. Every strategic upgrade is a follow-up to TZTEK under its industrial AI capability platform. Dr. Liu said that TZTEK's six business units are not isolated, not only sharing the underlying capability platform provided by the company, but also extending according to the characteristics of their respective business lines, "We inherit and expand under the platform provided by the company."
At the same time, in the face of new areas and new requirements, the team also needs to start from scratch and patiently understand the customer and the industry. After entering the field of intelligent networking, the team will shift from the factory scene to "what is it like to work on the road and in the car?" ”。 Therefore, since 2019, the R& D team led by him has invested huge energy in new scene cognition, supply chain construction, and research on core components such as sensors and chips. Finally, in three years, there was a R&D team of more than 100 people in the field of AI edge computing, and at the same time achieved a breakthrough of hundreds of customers at home and abroad.
Next, Dr. Liu will continue to lead the team to help more scenarios such as industrial testing to land AI edge computing products, match the actual situation and needs of customers in terms of function, price and other aspects, and promote the continuous improvement of industry penetration. In frontier areas such as autonomous driving and vehicle-road collaboration, TZTEK will continue to invest, "We hope to contribute to the development of smart transportation, and will also accompany the excellent enterprises in the industry to grow better, faster and more steadily."