In February 2023, Liberaware, Inc. A visit to Malaysia was the catalyst for their decision to develop their business there. We take a closer look at the local speed that they have experienced and expect.

Mr. Hong-Kyung Min, CEO, Liberaware Inc.

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Uniquely developed small drone measuring only 20 cm

We are commercializing an infrastructure inspection service using a small drone about 20 cm in length," says Liberaware President Hong-Kyung Min. The story of how the company was founded using small drones goes back 10 years. Minh, who was affiliated with Chiba University at the time, began developing a drone when he was asked to conduct an aerial inspection and survey of the debris inside the buildings of a nuclear power plant that had been hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Despite the results of his experiments, the smallest drone available at the time was one meter in length, making it too large and dangerous to fly inside the building. Although it was difficult to operate in the field and was never put into practical use, Minh used this experience to predict that demand for inspection and survey drones would increase in the future, and in 2016 he established the company. His aim was to use small aircraft to conduct inspections in confined spaces such as inside pipes and attics. However, small drones, which are mainly used for leisure purposes, have few commercially available parts that can be used for inspection projects, resulting in the need to design their own key components, such as dust-proof motors, cameras, and propellers. For example, it is common to drill holes in the motors for cooling because they tend to heat up, but this is a compromise that must be made with dust-proof performance. Therefore, by adopting a mechanism to cool the motor from the connection part while keeping it sealed, a motor with high dustproof performance and high efficiency was developed. This is the only drone company in the world that has developed a dust-proof motor in-house. The propeller is also made of heat-conductive resin to dissipate heat from the fuselage. This unique technology is packed into a space of only 20 cm. In a few years, the company plans to automate flight control and analysis. When one hears the word "small drone," one might think that the flight time would be short and that frequent battery changes would be a hassle, but for indoor inspections, an 8-minute flight is sufficient, according to the company.

Inspection demand in Southeast Asia differs from Japan

Liberaware had been working with a South Korean company since around 2021 to conduct a local demonstration test. He turned his attention to Southeast Asia after a shareholder introduced him to Liberaware's overseas support services. Until then, Mr. Minh had thought that Southeast Asia was not cost-effective for introducing and operating drones because of its low labor costs. Invited to a JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) event held around the same time, and encouraged by the small time difference from Japan, he decided to travel to Malaysia and Thailand, wondering if he should make a decision without experiencing it himself. As a result, he discovered the following issue: "Although there is a large population of young people, rising prices and salary levels are preventing people from gathering at low-wage physical labor sites. In Japan, the main issue when it comes to infrastructure inspections is the shortage of labor due to the decline in the young population, but the result was the same need, even though the situation in the country was different. In recent years, the cost of equipment inspections has approached that of Japan, and there is a growing trend, led by conglomerates, to substitute AI and robots for jobs that previously relied on cheap labor costs. While many new infrastructure facilities are new and few are aging, the idea is that by developing the technology now, it will be possible to cope with future labor shortages.

The sense of speed experienced in Malaysia

Another thing Mr. Minh discovered during his visit to Malaysia was the furious speed and attitude with which things proceed. In Japan, it is common for the initial meeting to be followed by an internal review, with the next meeting taking place after a month or two. In contrast, in Malaysia, concrete action is taken within a few weeks. One of the Malaysian companies visited in January 2023 was Putrajaya Corporation, a government-affiliated company that conducts infrastructure inspections. During our second visit in February, the company was waiting for us to drill a hole in the ceiling of a municipal building to be inspected so that they could insert a Liberaware drone into it. Surprised that the company would go to such lengths for a demonstration, they inspected the building on the spot and converted the images taken into 3D. Minh says, "The people involved in the field wanted to buy it right away, but we thought they wouldn't decide that quickly, so we didn't think about how to sell it locally or how to price it." From this experience, he decided to work with the company because he sensed a response that would produce results in a short period of time. There are concerns arising from cultural differences, such as the handling of confidential information. In addition, although many people can speak English, they also feel the need for Malay, the language used in everyday life, for speedy communication. The future of Liberaware's small drones in Malaysia may be just around the corner.

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Liberaware also conducted a survey of the existing conditions inside collapsed houses, the existing conditions under house floors, and the existing conditions inside large commercial facilities at risk of collapse during the Noto Peninsula earthquake that occurred on January 1, 2024.
Support for the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake using the IBIS small drone