HRESS™ - custom development for monitoring heliport systems

The Client

We really value long-term partnerships with our clients. HRESS™ is yet another custom project we made with our partner AP-TECH, a consulting, design, and software company operating in the aviation industry.

What was the need of our Client?

Helicopter pilots know the problem of a safe landing. Sometimes there is a car parked on the landing spot or a tree branch, slight negligence by a driver or caretaker that forces an air rescue helicopter to fly to another hospital. If they are carrying a patient in critical condition at times, it's a question of life and death.

AP-TECH as an innovative technologies provider came up with a great idea for aviation software - a tool that would give helicopter pilots information if they can land in a particular area. They needed a scanning and monitoring system of heliport surface limitation.

Such a useful tool was necessary to help businesses and institutions - such as hospitals - find the right place to land, as well as give the pilots information on the current helipad availability, which is a life-saving innovation for the medical air rescue teams.

Project approach

Our ten people developers team was deeply engaged in the project. They developed a custom software system that models a heliport area and informs the pilots if they can land on it at the moment. The system ensures a preventative approach to respond to all types of hazards, significantly enhances the safety of operations, and facilitates the management and use of a heliport infrastructure.

HRESS™ analyses camera images of the landing area. The system takes a 360 camera image of a helipad, maps a cloud of millions of points, and makes a 3D model in real-time. To process such big sets of data quickly, we used optimized algorithms using the C++ programing language for image analysis. There are several variables to analyze to state whether a helipad is clear for landing automatically.

On the front end, the app gives the pilot information on whether the helipad is clear for landing. If it isn't, the app suggests landing in another place.

What was the result of web app development?

The system proved to be very useful. Building a helicopter landing spot is very expensive, and needs permits, that's why helipads are scarce. Some of them are used not so often, and there is no reason to have them monitored 24/7 by people. Now everyone can verify a helipads availability automatically if the landing spot owner installed our system.