The Belgian company Agilica – a deep-tech startup and spin-off from the Royal Military Academy (RMA) – has entered into a strategic partnership with DronePort. In concrete terms, Agilica is installing a permanent UWB positioning system in DronePort’s drone cage. This installation enables drones to hover, hold position, and land with extremely high precision under challenging conditions. The technology marks an important step forward for the industrial and maritime sectors as well as for defense, with applications including industrial inspections, drone landings on ships, and security operations. Agilica already works with around 15 international customers and partners across Europe and the United States.
Agilica was founded two years ago as a spin-off from the Royal Military Academy (RMA) and specializes in ultra‑wideband (UWB) positioning and navigation systems for drones operating in GNSS‑degraded environments. “GNSS stands for Global Navigation Satellite System and refers to the collection of systems used for global positioning, navigation, and timing services. In Belgium, for example, GPS is the most well‑known system,” explains Hafeez Chaudhary, CEO of Agilica. “Due to increasing tensions and conflicts worldwide, positioning systems are being disrupted more frequently. This can occur through jamming, where a powerful signal blocks the reception of satellite signals, preventing accurate positioning. Another cause is spoofing, the intentional transmission of a false GNSS signal. The result? Your navigation system shows an incorrect location. Spoofing is harder to detect and is often used for military purposes.” Alongside jamming and spoofing, Agilica also addresses challenges encountered in everyday civilian settings. “In some environments, signals are naturally weak — for example, areas with large amounts of steel.”
From validation to market introduction
With its UWB positioning system, Agilica now offers a global solution to the problems caused by disrupted positioning systems. Hafeez Chaudhary: “Autonomous drone operations require positioning systems that remain reliable in areas where GNSS falls short. Our technology makes that possible.”
To allow end‑users, partners, and industrial stakeholders to evaluate the technology in a realistic operational environment — and to bridge the gap between laboratory validation and real-world deployment — Agilica is now entering into a partnership with DronePort.
As part of this partnership, Agilica will use DronePort’s testing infrastructure as the primary demonstration and validation site for its UWB positioning system, supporting precise drone operations such as hovering, position‑holding, and landing under challenging conditions. The company will focus on applications including drone landings on ships, industrial inspections, and security operations. “Precision landing and navigation in GNSS‑degraded environments are among the biggest challenges in drone autonomy. Thanks to this partnership with DronePort, we can demonstrate what is already possible today — not as a concept, but as an operational, working capability,” says Bart Scheers, COO of Agilica.
Advanced navigation technology + state‑of‑the‑art testing and demonstration facilities
Agilica had several reasons for partnering with DronePort. “DronePort’s unique infrastructure — including controlled airspace, a drone cage, and integration facilities — provides the perfect environment for validating, demonstrating, and further developing advanced autonomous drone operations,” highlights Bart Scheers. “By testing in a realistic operational context, we also give our customers and partners strong confidence in the deployability of our technology.” These customers include drone manufacturers, operators, and companies requiring precision landings.
DronePort itself is enthusiastic about the collaboration. “On the one hand, this underscores Belgium’s potential as a leading center for advanced drone and autonomous technologies. On the other, it aligns perfectly with DronePort’s mission to help innovative drone technologies evolve from concept to operational reality — and from there, to enable next‑generation drone applications for global use. Moreover, it is not only DronePort’s infrastructure that adds value; thanks to our broad ecosystem, Agilica reaches even more potential customers,” adds Ward Declauwe, CEO of DronePort. “In short, this further confirms DronePort’s position as an important European hub for drone innovation, empowering both start‑ups and scale‑ups as well as industrial and public organizations.”
