Daedalean

Address: Daedalean AG
Albisriederstrasse 199
8047 Zürich
Switzerland
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Artificial Intelligence for Flight Control and Situational Awareness

Founded in 2016, Daedalean is building autonomous piloting software systems for the civil aircraft of today and the advanced aerial mobility of tomorrow. The eventual goal of the company is full autonomy, that is, an AI pilot that can outperform a human pilot in all functions. Today, the company is focused on developing and certifying its products as flight desk instruments for pilot assistance.

Technologies

Situational awareness functions are currently developed up to Technology Readiness Level 6 (“system prototype demonstration in operational environment” by European Union definition).

Visual Traffic Detection: The innovative solution based on computer vision. Continuously tracking the sky, never-tiring, more attentive and reliable than human vision. Independent of cooperative equipment (XPDR, ADS-B) and sees all possible air hazards, from other aircrafts to balloons, drones, and birds.

Visual Landing Guidance: Dissimilar navigation system to existing ILS, enabling safe autonomous landing under any circumstances – no similar instrument exists. It is capable of recognizing runways or helipads and leading to a safe landing. Based on cameras installed on aircraft and neural networks developed by Daedalean.

Visual Positioning: A system that, just like a human, can look out the window and reconstruct the position of the aircraft. Designed to integrate with GPS/GNSS into existing flight deck instruments to provide uninterrupted, reliable, and redundant navigation. Continuously outputs position, heading, velocities, height above ground, landing guidance, and corresponding uncertainties. Localizes itself within a global coordinate frame using its own map that comprises descriptors of visual features.

Products

PilotEye™: Developed in collaboration between Daedalean and recognized avionics manufacturer Avidyne. The product provides a visual traffic detection source based on Avidyne’s computational hardware and Daedalean’s neural network-based software. The output is being integrated with Avidyne’s flight display. Avidyne submitted the STC application for the comprehensive list of aircraft models in December 2021. The certification process goes with the FAA with the concurrent validation by EASA. After the certification is granted, PilotEye will become the world’s first certified civil aviation cockpit application with a machine-learned component. The level of certification will be DAL-C.

Eval Kit: Software function demonstrator for onboard computer vision applications. Daedalean has reached the stage of development where it is ready to demonstrate its technology. The evaluation kit includes all three essential functions (navigation, positioning, and landing guidance) for helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, and eVTOL. It is currently offered to the selection of customers able to gain the necessary documentation to install the removable equipment for gathering flight data on their aircraft.

Eval Kit includes a set of cameras, a computing box, and a tablet computer as a user interface. A user – say, a second pilot – can watch the tablet screen to follow the system performance in real-time, watching the visual data (such as other aircraft or runway) on a real-time video stream supplied with the relevant numeric data. The system also records the detailed output for the post-flight analysis.

Challenges on the Way to the Certification of Neural Networks

Neural networks can’t be certified based on the existing DO-178C standard. Aviation regulators have been working on how machine learning fits into their design assurance processes of safety-critical applications and how to adjust the respective standards. EASA and the FAA have both established guidelines for the introduction of artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), and Daedalean is involved in this effort with both authorities.

EASA published, together with Daedalean, two reports on Concepts of Design Assurance for Neural Networks (CoDANN) (2020, 2021). The reports discuss how classical software design assurance can be adapted for ML in safety-critical settings. The results of this research partly led to EASA’s first guidance for Level I AI/ML in aviation. An essential finding of the first EASA/Daedalean report was identifying a W-shaped development process adapting the classical V-shaped cycle to machine learning applications. CoDANN II answered the remaining questions on the system safety assessment process, concluding discussions on integrating neural networks into complex systems and their evaluation in safety assessments.

In 2021, a project with the FAA set out to study the applicability of the CoDANN findings to a real application (including flight tests). This project resulted in a report published by the FAA in 2022.

The current STC project with the FAA and EASA will be the first case where a specific flight control-related NN application for civil aviation gets certified, referencing the NN policy among alternative means of compliance.

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Daedalean News

Xwing and Daedalean Join Forces to Advance AI in Aviation

Xwing and Daedalean Join Forces to Advance AI in Aviation

Xwing and Daedalean AG have announced a formal collaboration to share data, knowledge, and processes in the field of machine learning and AI.

Taking Flight: A Daedalean Engineer Becomes a Pilot

Taking Flight: A Daedalean Engineer Becomes a Pilot

Daedalean engineer, Giovanni Balduzzi, recently earned his pilots license and chronicled his findings along the way.

How Will a Modern City Actually Look With Urban Air Mobility?

How Will a Modern City Actually Look With Urban Air Mobility?

Daedalean has been awarded a grant by Innosuisse to develop its BRAVEN (Bimodal Radar for Aviation Environments) Solution.

How Visual Positioning Fills In When GPS Goes Down

How Visual Positioning Fills In When GPS Goes Down

Daedalean believes one of the three key skills of a human pilot is to fly according to visual flight rules (VFR) and in visual conditions.

Ensuring Safety and Certification of our Products

Ensuring Safety and Certification of our Products

At Daedalean, the team has always focused on developing products for aviation with an eye toward future certification.

The Importance of Enhancing General Aviation Safety: NTSB Data

The Importance of Enhancing General Aviation Safety: NTSB Data

Daedalean recently looked into accidents related to navigation, flight planning, geographic disorientation & navigation error.

Daedalean Tensor Accelerator

Daedalean Tensor Accelerator

Daedalean’s Visual Awareness System (VXS) relies on the input from several (one to four) cameras installed on an aircraft.

High Performance, Low SWaP, and Certifiable for Aviation

High Performance, Low SWaP, and Certifiable for Aviation

Daedalean leverages the power of artificial intelligence to provide superhuman situational awareness systems to aerospace.

Daedalean’s Aircraft Photoshoot

Daedalean’s Aircraft Photoshoot

Daedalean’s data-collection aircraft photoshoot in the Swiss Alps illustrates the beauty of nature and technology.

Daedalean Launches US Office, New President Appointed

Daedalean Launches US Office, New President Appointed

Daedalean hires Dr. Yemaya Bordain to lead its new office in Phoenix, AZ, as the company officially opens for business in the United States.

Neural Network-Based Runway Landing Guidance for Aviation

Neural Network-Based Runway Landing Guidance for Aviation

Daedalean has concluded a joint research project with the FAA on Neural Network-Based Runway Landing Guidance for General Aviation.

Avidyne and Daedalean Develop AI-Based Avionics Vision Systems

Avidyne and Daedalean Develop AI-Based Avionics Vision Systems

Avidyne Corporation and Daedalean AG are developing, manufacturing and certifying an AI-based avionics vision system together.

Daedalean Videos

Daedalean Images

Daedalean | Daedalean’s Aircraft Photoshoot

Daedalean | Daedalean’s Aircraft Photoshoot

architecture of the system

Architecture of the system

Avidyne’s experimental Cessna with Eval Kit onboard – camera under wing

Avidyne's experimental Cessna with Eval Kit onboard – camera under wing

Cameras in a custom enclosing case on a test helicopter during Embraer Autonomous Systems project

Cameras in a custom enclosing case on a test helicopter during Embraer Autonomous Systems project

Daedalean engineers at work – 1

Daedalean engineers at work

Daedalean engineers at work – 2

Daedalean engineers at work

Daedalean Visual Landing System development view

Daedalean Visual Landing System development view

Daedalean_s system onboard

Daedalean system onboard

Daedalean | Aircraft Over Mountain

Daedalean Aircraft Over Mountain

Embraer engineers watching the system work during test flight

Embraer engineers watching the system work during test flight

Daedalean Traffic Detection System

PilotEye™ Traffic Detection System

Eval Kit installation principal scheme

Eval Kit installation principal scheme

Eval Kit installation set

Eval Kit installation set

Daedalean | Aircraft Over Alps

Daedalean Aircraft Over Alps

Infographic explaining the product

Infographic explaining the product

Landing Avidyne’s experimental Cessna with Daedalean system

Landing Avidyne's experimental Cessna with Daedalean system

vertical landing guidance development view

Vertical landing guidance development view

Daedalean | Aircraft Over Hills & Trees

Daedalean Aircraft Over Hills and Trees

Daedalean Documents

Daedalean Social

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