Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

AI-based autonomous flight control for the electric passenger aircraft of the nearest future

Objective

In April 2017, Uber announced that it expects to deploy flying taxis in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, and Dubai by 2020, and will partner with diverse companies such as Bell Helicopter and Embraer to make the vertical take-off and landing vehicles (VTOLs). Same month a full-size prototype of an electric personal two-seater aircraft designed by the Munich-based company Lilium made a successful first flight. There are more than 30 companies globally now, developing VTOLs—lightweight electric flying taxis that will transform our transportation patterns in the nearest future.
At the same time, qualified pilots are already in short supply. Airbus predicts that given that additional 500,000-600,000 more will be needed by 2035 to keep pace with the aviation’s expected growth, especially given the nascent VTOL market. This shortage can only be covered by further automation of flight control, making it capable of replacing the human pilots altogether. With the current approach to development of avionics software this is not possible.
Daedalean is a Swiss SME started by the cross-disciplinary team of Google, SpaceX, ETH Zürich & Imperial College London alumni, which has designed the world’s first AI-based autonomous flight control system. This system is capable of passing the stringent certification tests devised for human pilots. The system will also be able to handle emergencies and unexpected situations as good as human pilots.
Daedalean is aiming at servicing a 10-15% share of the forecasted €5.2bn global VTOL market, with revenues of up to €78mn by 2025 and 170+ people employed. Ultimately, Daedalean will create a tipping point for adoption of AI-based autopilots for commercial freight and passenger flights, reducing operational costs & further increasing safety of the aviation industry.
In this Phase 1 project, Daedalean will run an in-depth market assessment and devise a strategy to undergo certification processes successfully in multiple EU countries.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-SMEInst-2016-2017

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

DAEDALEAN AG
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 50 000,00
Address
ALBISRIEDERSTRASSE 199
8047 ZURICH
Switzerland

See on map

SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera Zürich Zürich
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 71 429,00
My booklet 0 0