Autonomous flight start-up Daedalean has published a roadmap outlining its path to developing self-flying aircraft by 2028. The Swiss company is working on a vehicle-agnostic, fully autonomous flight system, starting with situational- awareness software and sensors that will be used as an aid for pilots. It aims to eventually be able to convert any type of aircraft to fly fully autonomously using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
“If you want to actually replace the pilot, either remote or onboard, you have to make systems that can do that,” said Daedalean CEO Luuk van Dijk. “So, for that, you need to have this complete situational awareness, and after that, you need sufficient sensors, and then you need these AI parts to make sense of these sensors.”
To start, Daedalean is working on getting its situational-awareness system certified for general aviation purposes, under design assurance level (DAL) C, with the aim of eventually certifying a fully autonomous flight system up to DAL A, the highest level of design assurance that can be applied to airborne software. The company plans to launch its PilotEyemachine learning-based onboard pilot aid for general aviation in 2023. It is developing the system in collaboration with Melbourne, Florida-based Avidyne.
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