SHANGHAI Beidou Research Institute is studying plans to set up a site to test technology on drones and ship navigation systems.

Gan Pin, deputy director of Shanghai’s Science and Technology Commission, said yesterday that the city aimed to promote service platforms on research and commercialization of China’s Beidou Satellite Navigation System, to promote the industry’s development and lower companies’ innovation costs.

The Beidou system, similar to GPS, is completely developed by China.

Gan said the planned test site in Qingpu would play a role similar to the pilot zone in Jiading that allows companies to test self-driving vehicles.

“The test site as a service platform can provide test services that medium and small-sized companies are not able to do,” said Gan. “The companies therefore can focus on researches on their core technologies.”

Yu Wenxian, head of the research institute, said China’s drones industry was still at a fledgling level, and the real intelligent technology had just started.

Yu said the test sites aimed to provide an environment to measure unmanned systems’ navigation ability.

“There are several possible sites in Qingpu,” Yu said.

Gan added that the city planned to set up a satellite industry base in Lingang area, in addition to the existing research base in Zhangjiang.

China’s top level academic meeting on satellite navigation technology, the 8th China Satellite Navigation Conference, is to be held in Shanghai from May 23.