HRESS™

AP-TECH came up with another innovative idea for an aviation software - a tool that would give helicopter pilots information if they can land in a particular area.

HRESS™ is a helipad and heliport limitation surface scanning and monitoring system. It helps businesses and institutions - such as hospitals - find the right place to land, as well as gives the pilots information on the current helipad availability, which is a life-saving innovation for the medical air rescue teams.

The system 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.

The problem is well known to helicopter pilots.

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.

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 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 whether the helipad is clear for landing. If it isn't, the app suggests landing in another place.

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.