Some things can almost seem too good to be true.

A former naval airbase. A 250 thousand square meter test field, with an air corridor to the sea. Over 6000 square meters of indoor space. Less than 30 kilometres away from RoboHouse and the TU Delft Campus. There, facing sand dunes that protect The Netherlands from the water, lies Unmanned Valley; a new fieldlab for sensor-based innovation.

From July onwards, researchers, students and companies will be flocking to test their drones and other intelligent unmanned systems. And they will find that Unmanned Valley is a boon for the RoboValley community.

“We have been testing drones in research projects for many years and are happy to have this beautiful test location near the TU Delft.”

Bart Remes, project manager MAVLab

“We have been testing drones in research projects for many years and are happy to have this beautiful test location near the TU Delft,” says Bart Remes, project manager at MAVLab, an award winning drone research lab. “We are proud to be one of its founding partners.”

Unmanned Valley is part of a redevelopment of Valkenburg Naval Air Base, which until 2006 was used by the Dutch navy for the Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft. The huge spaces of the on-site building were once custom-made for the maintenance of motors and propellers. Now it has all been revised for high-tech and mixed-use.

Gerard Mostert, of the Katwijk municipality where Unmanned Valley is located, says the new fieldlab is a real asset for “an area that in the coming years will change to become a new village”.

Unmanned Valley is an initiative of Delft University of Technology and Katwijk, realised with EU-funding and supported by partners such a RoboValley, MAVLab and Space Business Innovation Centre Noordwijk.

Want to know more or learn about the perks of RoboValley membership? Drop our community manager Casper van Eersel a note.