Madrid City Council has given the green light to the first 20 initiatives that will test technological solutions in real spaces of the city, with Villaverde as the main testing ground.
The City Council has selected the first 20 projects that will be able to conduct tests within the framework of Sandbox Madrid, the regulated environment promoted by the council to validate technological solutions directly in urban spaces of the capital.
The first call received 71 proposals from national and international companies, technology firms, and startups. After a three-month evaluation process, the committee in charge of the programme has issued a favourable assessment of twenty initiatives related to urban sensing, mobility, waste management, maintenance of green areas, infrastructure inspection, and the automation of certain municipal services.
The selection now opens a preliminary phase before the final authorisation, in which the promoters must demonstrate compliance with the technical, legal, and administrative requirements demanded for each test. Among them are the contracting of insurance, the provision of guarantees, the payment of fees, and the obtaining of permits from the competent authorities.
A space to test technology in real conditions
Sandbox Madrid is conceived as a controlled experimentation space where companies and entities can trial innovative solutions in real urban scenarios before undertaking their commercial or large-scale deployment.
This type of environment aims to reduce one of the main difficulties faced by urban innovation projects: the gap between laboratory tests and the effective functioning of technology in streets, parks, roads, transport networks, or municipal facilities.
Real conditions introduce variables that cannot always be replicated during the initial development phases. Weather, interaction with pedestrians and vehicles, available connectivity, infrastructure characteristics, vandalism, maintenance, or interoperability with municipal systems can affect the performance of a solution.
The sandbox thus allows for the study of these factors within a defined temporal, territorial, and regulatory framework. Each project must define what technology it wants to test, in what location, for how long, with what resources, and under what safety conditions.
Sensors, artificial intelligence, and autonomous systems
Some of the initiatives will use sensors and IoT technologies to monitor environmental variables, detect health risks early, or improve the management of parks and gardens. The tests will allow for the analysis of measurement accuracy, communication stability, equipment autonomy, and their ability to integrate into municipal systems.
Platforms aimed at managing mobility during large events, managing on-demand school transport services, and optimising waste collection will also be tested. In these cases, the solutions rely on data processing to adapt routes, schedules, and resources to the real needs of each moment.
The call also includes drones and autonomous systems aimed at supervising urban logistics and inspecting infrastructures. These technologies can facilitate the observation of hard-to-reach areas and obtain images or technical data without resorting to conventional auxiliary means. Due to the specific flight conditions in urban environments, some projects have required coordination with the State Agency for Air Safety and the Directorate General of Traffic.
Another line of work will be the use of robots equipped with artificial intelligence to support the maintenance of parks and gardens and certain street cleaning tasks. Their operation will need to be evaluated in scenarios with pedestrians, urban furniture, uneven surfaces, and other obstacles typical of public space.
Artificial vision tools and predictive analysis will be used to identify incidents on streets and infrastructures. These systems can detect deterioration, obstacles, or anomalies from images and other data, facilitating the prioritisation of municipal interventions.
Villaverde will concentrate more than half of the tests
The projects will be distributed across several districts, although Villaverde will concentrate more than half of the planned activities and will become the main experimentation space of Sandbox Madrid.
Tests will also be conducted in Villa de Vallecas, Puente de Vallecas, San Blas-Canillejas, Chamartín, and Fuencarral-El Pardo. The selected locations include parks, road infrastructures, municipal facilities, and areas linked to innovation.
The evaluation of the proposals has required the participation of nine general directorates of the City Council with competencies in innovation, sustainability, mobility, environment, cleaning, accessibility, public road maintenance, waste management, and parks and gardens.
For the residents of the capital, this sandbox represents an opportunity to see how technology can improve everyday services such as cleaning, street conditions, or mobility, although it will also involve the presence of drones and robots in some public spaces during the testing periods.
In the coming weeks, the promoters of the selected projects must complete the procedures to obtain final authorisation. Once granted, they can begin the tests, which will take place over a limited period and under municipal supervision.
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