In 2025, the Brazilian city of Curitiba will host drone delivery tests by Embraer company Atech. The tests will feature beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights, enabling deliveries to be achieved at greater distances.
The partnership was signed by the Curitiba City Hall through the Curitiba Development and Innovation Agency, which signed the cooperation agreement with Atech for the BVLOS Operations Research Project in an Urban Environment. The agreement, valid for one year, allows the development of the systems necessary to ensure the service in a safe and effective manner, so that it can be regulated.
The partnership was made possible by the Curitiba Regulatory Sandbox, created by municipal decree in 2021 and which authorises, on an experimental and temporary basis, the testing of innovative products and services in the city without the need for the licenses and permits normally required.
The drone delivery project has been laboratory-developed by Atech for three years.
BVLOS flights have already been tested in Brazil, on routes without high population concentrations, away from the urban environment. In Curitiba, the goal is to place drones in the city’s airspace, in real deliveries, considering buildings, green areas, electrical wiring networks and different weather conditions. Ultimately, the plan is for a complex network of drones to operate. The project will begin with preliminary studies of the city and its airspace, and later design a more complex traffic network.
In a statement, Curitiba City Hall said Embraer “wants to bring the testing schedule forward as much as possible, given that this is a technology that several other companies are trying to make viable and gain an advantage in the market”.
The statement added that the proposal to be tested in Curitiba will use national technology and will be based on international standards and concepts of operation in airspace published in the United States, Europe and Brazil.
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Image: A drone flies within visual line of sight at the presentation in Curitiba on November 27. (Photo by José Fernando Ogura/SMCS)
