CATUAV SL

Their core work

CATUAV is a Spanish SME specializing in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations, aerial survey, and drone-based remote sensing. They develop and deploy UAV systems for data collection tasks that require high-resolution positioning — from precision mapping using GNSS constellations (EGNOS, GPS, Galileo) to humanitarian applications such as landmine and explosive remnant detection. Their dual involvement in both a large Innovation Action (mapKITE) and a standalone SME Instrument project (ALDrone) shows they operate across the full spectrum from consortium-level technical contribution to independent product development. As a company from Moia (Catalonia), they bring hands-on UAV field expertise rather than purely academic or analytical capabilities.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Both H2020 projects were active in 2015, so there is no meaningful temporal shift to analyse from this dataset alone — early and recent focus are effectively the same snapshot. What the two projects together reveal is a deliberate breadth strategy: one project pushes into precision geospatial sensing (mapKITE), the other into humanitarian safety applications (ALDrone), suggesting CATUAV was actively exploring adjacent markets for its core UAV platform rather than deepening a single vertical. Without more recent H2020 or Horizon Europe data, it is not possible to determine whether they continued expanding into humanitarian or defence-adjacent applications or pivoted back toward commercial surveying.

With only 2015-era data available, the trajectory is unclear — but their combination of precision GNSS mapping and humanitarian detection suggests they were positioning as a versatile drone services company rather than a narrow single-use technology vendor.

How they like to work

CATUAV has experience on both sides of a consortium: they coordinated ALDrone independently under the SME Instrument, showing they can own a project from proposal to delivery, and participated as a technical partner in the larger mapKITE Innovation Action. Their 9 unique partners across 6 countries for just 2 projects indicates relatively broad partner exposure for their size. As a small SME, they are most likely brought in for their specific UAV field capabilities rather than for administrative or management functions.

CATUAV has worked with 9 distinct partners across 6 countries — a reasonably wide reach for a 2-project SME. Their European footprint spans at least the mapKITE consortium, which involved space/GNSS-sector partners, broadening their network beyond Spain.

What sets them apart

CATUAV occupies an unusual niche as a hands-on drone operations SME that has engaged with both commercial precision mapping and humanitarian demining — two application areas that rarely share the same partner profile. For consortium builders, this means they bring real field deployment experience with UAVs rather than theoretical design, which is rare among SME participants in Space-pillar projects. Their location in Catalonia also gives them access to Spanish and southern European test environments suitable for outdoor UAV operations.

Highlights from their portfolio

• mapKITE
  Largest funding received (EUR 68,218) and part of an Innovation Action integrating EGNOS/GPS/Galileo positioning into a combined terrestrial-aerial high-resolution sensing system — a technically demanding, multi-partner project.
• ALDrone
  Coordinated independently under SME Instrument Phase 1, targeting rapid humanitarian landmine detection — a socially significant and technically distinctive application of drone technology.