Eclipse Aero Testing Daedalean AI’s Visual Awareness System Eclipse Aerospace has been out of the news reel for several years but they are back into the cycle with news relating to testing Daedalean AI’s visual awareness system for detect-and-avoid traffic deconfliction scenarios. An Eclipse Aerospace 550 Light jet is the test bed for the technology -as seen below-. There is no certification path as yet and the technology is still in its early days of testing. However, the plan is Daedalean is pursuing an FAA Part 23 supplemental type certificate (STC). That STC will be for the PilotEye visual traffic detection system in collaboration with Avidyne. They further intend to develop a similar traffic system, Ailumina Vista, for Part 27 rotorcraft and is working on an EASA STC.
Eclipse part in the testing is basically provision of the EA550 jet as the testbed. The specimen is equipped with two cameras - one forward-facing and one looking downward -. The tests are being conducted out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Eclipse Aerospace is headquartered. According to Daedalean, "The focus is to evaluate Daedalean’s system capabilities for detect-and-avoid in critical phases of flight and provide the pilot with information needed to capture, identify, and deconflict with both cooperative and noncooperative traffic".
As a result of the early phase of the testing only the two camera system is being utilized for now. However, when they transition to certification testing a full suite of cameras will be required. Two more cameras, one on each wing tip with a field of view of 226 degrees would be installed. Besides traffic avoidance the system will also work in the landing phases of flight. The cameras would feed to provide precision guidance to a runway, including lateral and vertical navigation to touchdown. Regardless it is an interesting development in the deconfliction space of aviation operations. For more information: Daedalean Albisriederstrasse 199, 8047 Zürich, Switzerland www.daedalean.ai ***
