Daedalean

Daedalean is a Swiss-based technology company building autonomous piloting software systems based on machine learning for civil aircraft. It collaborates with eVTOL companies and aerospace and avionics manufacturers.
Daedalean is headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland, and has offices in Riga, Latvia, and Phoenix, Arizona, the USA.
The startup is developing flight deck instruments based on machine learning and neural networks which will minimize human involvement in the flying process. Its flagship products are machine-learning-based visual guidance, navigation, and control suite for general aviation.
History
Daedalean was founded in 2016 in Zürich, Switzerland by former Google employees Anna Chernova, Luuk van Dijk, and Jasmine Kent, who has later moved away from the company's affairs to become a co-founder of Dufour Aerospace.
In November 2019, Honeywell Inc. signed an agreement with Daedalean on joint testing and technological partnership in developing solutions for autonomous takeoff, landing, and GPS-independent navigation and collision avoidance for general aviation and eVTOL. Additionally, Honeywell Ventures joined the Swiss startup’s pool of investors.
In December 2019, the company was announced as one of the winners of a multi-million Euro grant under the Horizon 2020 Program. Daedalean received a €2.3 million EIC Accelerator grant from the European Innovation Council.
In March 2020, The , jointly with Daedalean, published the report titled ‘Concepts of Design Assurance for Neural Networks (CoDANN)’ under a 10-months long Innovation Partnership Contract (IPC).
In 2020, Daedalean won the first Swiss AI Award for innovations in Artificial Intelligence.
In March 2021, Daedalean partnered with Reliable Robotics to build advanced navigation and situational awareness systems for commercial aircraft operations.
In 2021, the company got the Excellence Club Aerospace award for the best innovation.
In May 2021, Daedalean, together with EASA, published the second report, ‘Concepts of Design Assurance for Neural Networks (CoDANN) II’, following a 10-month collaboration under their second Innovation Partnership Contract.
In December 2021, Daedalean and Avidyne completed the development of an AI-based vision avionics system for general aviation, special mission, and advanced air mobility markets, to be marketed as the Avidyne PilotEyeTM Vision System. The companies applied for the supplemental type certificate (STC) by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), with concurrent validation with EASA.
In May 2022, the company and the FAA completed a joint research project based on machine learning for general-purpose aircraft. The subject of the project was the study of a visual landing system (VLS) for fixed-wing aircraft developed by Daedalean. The research results were published in a project report titled `Neural Network Based Runway Landing Guidance for General Aviation Autoland`.
In August 2022, Daedalean launched the U.S. branch in Phoenix, Arizona. The president of Daedalean’s office in the U.S. became Yemaya Bordain.
Projects
From May 2019 to May 2021, Daedalean consulted EASA under two Innovation Partnership Contracts (IPC). The first project (2019-2020) investigated the possible use of Machine Learning/Neural Networks in safety-critical avionics. The results of the first project were summarized in the report Concepts of Design Assurance for Neural Networks (CoDANN) I, March 2020. The visual landing guidance system (VLS), developed by Daedalean, served as the use case.
The results of the second project, together with EASA (2020-2021), were summarized in the report CoDANN II, May 2021, which matured the concept of Learning assurance and discussed the remaining AI building blocks from the EASA AI Roadmap. The Daedalean’s Visual Traffic Detection served as the use case.
In 2021, a project with the FAA studied the applicability of the CoDANN findings to the FAA's processes of design assurance for avionics software. The subject of the project was the study of a VLS for fixed-wing aircraft developed by Daedalean. The flight test campaign, conducted in the presence of FAA members on board, took place in March 2021 in Florida. In 2022, the FAA published the project result in a report titled ‘Neural Network Based Runway Landing Guidance for General Aviation Autoland’.
Investments
In December 2017, the company was funded by the Swiss ICT Investor Club, Carthona Capital, and Emmanuel Mogenet.
In July 2019, the company closed the next funding round with CHF11.8 million, which was led by Carthona Capital, Redalpine, and Amino Capital.
In November 2019, Honeywell invested an undisclosed amount and signed a technological partnership with Daedalean.
In December 2019, Daedalean received a grant of €2.3 million under the Horizon 2020 program from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator.
In January 2022, Daedalean closed the Series B funding round with a summary of $58 million from Carthona Capital, Amino Capital, Redalpine Venture Partners, and Honeywell Ventures. The investments are intended to develop the next generation of AI-based systems for application in safety-critical flight control for new electric vertical take-off and landing and existing aircraft.<ref name="tech220118" />

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