IFEZ Journal

We Lead the Future Drone Market 

with a Drone-Control System in the Sky

CLROBUR, which provides drone-integrated control platform services, is creating new wind in the drone industry, 

one of the core technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Another way to look at CLROBUR, which supports autonomous drone operation, is as a control tower in the sky.

CLROBUR

Date of Establishment

July 25, 2019

Type of Business

Development of drone operating software

Products

DROW GCP(Drone Ground Control Platform)

Address

#403, Insta #1, 204 Convensia-daero, Incheon, Republic of Korea

Korea’s First 3D Map-based Drone-Integrated Control Platform

Drones, which are called an aggregation of cutting-edge technologies, organically connect local communities by increasing the function and convenience of cities. Drones are used in various fields, from military use to construction, logistics, traffic observation, and agricultural photography. With the rapid spread of drones worldwide, the need for a control platform for safe flight has emerged. CLROBUR is known as a company that brought a new wave to the drone industry with web-based integrated ground-control platform services. While existing drone services have limitations in securing accurate data and figuring out flight schedules with the implementation of 2D maps, CLROBUR has developed a drone-integrated control platform (DROW4D) based on 3D maps for the first time in Korea.

The drone-integrated control platform is a system that can simultaneously perform integrated control and monitoring of various uncrewed aerial vehicles. Imagine drawing a flight path freely on a piece of paper. The control platform helps a drone fly smoothly along this route. To this end, the system collects various bits of information to design and suggest optimal flight routes. It is also differentiated from existing systems in that it can respond immediately in case of danger through an AI-based intelligent system. Another service is DROW-World, a swarm flight simulator. This service provides indoor and outdoor flight-simulation functions based on a web browser. Representative applications include various performances using drones and drone art shows in the night sky.

1 Briefing the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport at the CES 2023 Fair.

2 CEO Choi Tae-in explains hydrogen fuel cell drones to the Prime Minister.

3 Explaining about technology of CLROBUR at the Ulju-gun drone-integrated control center.The Ulju-gun drone-integrated control center explains the technology of Clover Studio.

Drone-Application Services Based on Original Technology

CLROBUR derives optimal solutions from product implementation to problem-solving. The driving force behind this company’s pioneering of new paths in the drone industry has been the passion of CEO Choi Tae-in, who has been immersed in platform development by directly carrying out drone software-related projects at the Incheon Smart City Corporation. Taking advantage of his experiences leading the project, CEO Choi founded the company with the determination to build a drone software company to lead Korea and the world. CLROBUR, now in its fourth year of operation, holds patents and platforms related to drone control and recently won the CES Innovation Award for a third consecutive year (following 2021 and 2022) at the International Consumer Electronics Show CES 2023. CLROBUR continues its collaborations with various organizations, such as the Spatial Information Industry Promotion Agency (SpaceN) and Seoul Metro, based on its own technology.

CLROBUR is now moving towards another path. To preemptively respond to the urban air mobility (UAM) market, which makes passenger transportation possible, the company is promoting business cooperation with FREQUENTIS, the no. 1 air-traffic management (ATM) software company, and OneSky, an artificial control company. CLROBUR will also develop drone- manufacturing hardware technology, with plans to move into the future with certainty by predicting the market without losing sight of the promises set at its establishment. CLROBUR’s challenge continues, and the dream is as strong as ever for becoming the global drone control tower.

MINI INTERVIEW

Choi Tae-in  

CEO of CLROBUR

Nice to meet you. Can you please briefly introduce CLROBUR? 

Established in July 2019, CLROBUR operates a company-affiliated research center and four sales offices. The “CL” in CLROBUR is a transliteration of the Korean pronunciation of “big.” Meanwhile, “ROBUR” means “oak” in Latin. In other words, CLORBUR signifies that our company will grow into a big tree to establish a new ecosystem of space-creating and servicing drones. Currently, CLROBUR is working hard on research and development to foster various markets using drones and with the vision of becoming a company that builds drone highways in the sky.

What are the unique features of CLROBUR compared to other companies?

CLROBUR has a unique core technology. As a representative example, we have received a patent for an Intelligent Drone Flight Planning Method and Drone Control System using the same, along with a 4-dimensional path display method for uncrewed vehicles using a point cloud. We filed a PCT international application for this technology in 2021 and received a patent in the United States in 2022. Since technologies to be patented are complex, we have subdivided them.

CLROBUR has made its name in the industry by winning the Innovation Award for three consecutive years at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Such outstanding technology must come as a result of your research center. What areas are you currently focusing on?

From the customer’s point of view, all products have problems. CLROBUR always looks for new trends and market changes to solve any existing issues and derives solutions through ceaseless research and development. To this end, we are focusing on creating software to provide convenience to end users by resolving unexpected problems during product implementation.

What are CLROBUR’s goals and plans for the future?

CLROBUR has the ambition and vision of becoming the most competitive company in the world — beyond Korea — in the drone-application service business. Drone-application software development always requires experienced personnel. For this, our primary goal is to grow into an organization capable of stable management, even in rapidly changing environments. In the future, we also dream of establishing a branch office in the United States in order to open up worldwide markets — including the United States.