OttawaInternational technology companies were testing how they can best detect drones in a dense urban environment this week, and several local companies were included. They said the opportunity to work in urban environments, where regulations would usually prevent them from testing, was invaluable.Local companies invited by DND to test radio, optical and AI-based detection methodsGabrielle Huston · CBC News · Posted: Nov 29, 2025 4:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.A drone hovers above Ottawa’s downtown on Nov. 25 when the Department of National Defence invited companies to test their drone-detection technology in an urban environment. (Franck Pierron/CBC)International technology companies were showing the Department of National Defense (DND) how they detect drones in a dense urban environment this week, and several Ottawa-based companies were included.”There’s no price tag on this kind of opportunity,” said Moira Barnes, a mechanical engineer from Ottawa-based Rival Lab.The competition, called the Counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems Sandbox 2025, was hosted by DND in downtown Ottawa between Nov. 24 and 28. Twenty companies were selected to showcase their drone-detection technology, with DND offering up to $1.75 million in prize money for “promising technologies.” Ottawa companies said the opportunity to test downtown, where regulations would usually prevent them from operating, provided valuable insight about their technology.Sneaky urban dronesThis is the first time that DND has held this kind of test in an urban setting, said Bill Dicke, president of Tungsten Collaborative. It’s an Ottawa-based company whose drone-detection tech is based on radio frequencies. Tests like this are frequently held in Suffield, Alta., Dicke said. The website for the local Canadian Forces Base describes it as “one of the most sparsely populated areas of the Alberta plain.”It’s much harder to detect drones in a city, Dicke explained. For example, the drones might be hidden behind buildings, their sounds may be muffled, and there may be conflicting signals. Bill Dicke of Ottawa’s Tungsten Collaborative said he thinks the urban testing is a ‘natural evolution of the program and of what the drone world is doing,’ adding that ‘flying drones over the public and over people is something that’s relatively new.’ (Franck Pierron/CBC)Despite the challenges, technology is needed to detect drones in urban centres because of the security threat they pose, said Deepak Dutt, CEO and founder of Zighra, who spoke to CBC after the first day of tests.Drones could be gathering intelligence, mapping out critical infrastructure, or delivering drugs or weapons, Dutt explained. But they could also just be delivering food or taking pictures.”It’s like fraud detection in the financial world,” Dutt said. “Everybody’s innovating, so are the fraudsters. So how do you catch up to these fraudsters? There’s no one single solution that meets everything — it’s a layered defence that you put in.”Zighra’s drone-detection technology uses artificial intelligence (AI) and determines which drones are friend or foe based on their behaviour, Dutt said. LISTEN | Ottawa tech CEO discusses sandbox after first day:8:28Ears buzzing? That’s the downtown drones.Downntown Ottawa is being turned into a testing ground for drone identification tech. Deepak Dutt, CEO of Zighra, explains why his company is participating.Value of urban testingDicke and Barnes, who spoke to CBC on Friday, both said it had been valuable to get to test their technology under real urban conditions.Dicke said it was a way to “validate our assumptions” about what the technology was capable of beyond a big field in Alberta. He added that when a third party is controlling the test, they’re working against an unknown variable, rather than within their own testing conditions. “Our team, we think they’ve done very well — that’s about all I can say right now,” Dicke said.The team from Rival Lab used optical sensor technology that Barnes said is “one of the first times people have used a system like this,” but they had some technical issues because of the urban environment on Monday that they had to overcome, she explained.Rival Lab’s technology to detect drones is optical, relying on neuromorphic imaging that captures data when there’s a change in the image. (Rival Lab/YouTube)”Here we are in the snow on a balcony in downtown Ottawa,” Barnes said when she spoke to CBC from her testing location. “That’s good, because that’s what Canada is, right? There’s cities, there’s going to be inclement weather, and there’s tons of people and tons of important events going on all the time.” Barnes said even if they don’t get any of the prize money, her team is grateful for the opportunity and will be able to use the data they’ve collected to continue to improve the technology.ABOUT THE AUTHORGabrielle is an Ottawa-based journalist with eclectic interests. She’s spoken to video game developers, city councillors, neuroscientists and small business owners alike. Reach out to her for any reason at gabrielle.huston@cbc.ca.Follow Gabrielle on BlueskyFollow Gabrielle on Instagram
Ottawa companies get rare opportunity to test drone-detection equipment downtown
