{"id":75506,"date":"2025-01-08T16:28:51","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T15:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xitaso.com\/?page_id=75506"},"modified":"2026-02-12T15:21:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:21:27","slug":"engel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/xitaso.com\/en\/projects\/engel\/","title":{"rendered":"ENGEL: Energy-efficient flight guidance for rescue helicopters"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Challenge<\/h2>\n

Every day, emergency services around the world are faced with the important task of providing efficient and rapid assistance in critical situations. One component of these missions is air rescue, where it is crucial to provide help to patients as quickly as possible and transport them to appropriate hospitals for further treatment. However, the locations are often in unfamiliar terrain where helicopters cannot land safely<\/strong>. We want to make this challenging landing situation safer and faster for the helicopter crew with the help of technical assistance systems<\/strong>.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”30″][vc_empty_space height=”30″ el_class=”ausgeblendet”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_empty_space height=”30″ el_class=”not-on-mobile”][vc_empty_space height=”30″][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

How we will help<\/h2>\n

The ENGEL consortium is developing a complex assistance system that uses suitable sensor technology and artificial intelligence<\/span> to better detect and understand the helicopter’s environment during flight, approach and landing,<\/span><\/strong> thereby enabling the pilot and crew to land even more safely and quickly. We ensure the <\/span>safe operation of the system<\/span><\/strong> through <\/span>robust software architecture\/integration<\/span><\/strong> at runtime. In addition, we use data to<\/span> increase the robustness of AI algorithms responsible for capturing the environment<\/span><\/strong>. To design the assistance system, we talk to helicopter pilots, technical crew members and paramedics <\/span>to better understand their daily work and the challenges they face.<\/span><\/strong>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”30″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

Technologies<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”15″][vc_raw_html css=””]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[\/vc_raw_html][vc_empty_space height=”60″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” z_index=””][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”30″ el_class=”not-on-mobile”][vc_empty_space height=”50″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” el_class=”two-column-with-heading-on-top” z_index=””][vc_column][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

Software architecture<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

We develop a software system that integrates all (AI-based) algorithms of the consortium and <\/span>is also able to monitor and adapt itself during runtime<\/span><\/strong>. The adaptations will be executed in order to keep the system as efficient as possible in all different flight phases. Furthermore, it is able to recover itself from possible failures or faults. When monitoring the system, an <\/span>error analysis is performed at runtime<\/span><\/strong> based on the dependencies between software components and constant checking of data quality in the system. This enables us to find and fix the cause of errors, as well as <\/span>explain<\/span><\/strong> to the crew in the helicopter <\/span>when they can trust the software system<\/span><\/strong>. <\/span><\/p>\n

At ENGEL, we ensure robustness not only at runtime through the self-adaptive system, but also at design time through <\/span>extensive testing of individual software modules and the overall system with hardware-in-the-loop<\/span><\/strong>. To do this, we build an exact replica of the hardware used in the helicopter.<\/span><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_single_image image=”98592″ img_size=”full” css=”” qode_css_animation=””][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” z_index=”” el_class=”two-column-icon-and-text”][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”30″ el_class=”not-on-mobile”][vc_empty_space height=”30px”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

Robust perception<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”15px” el_class=”not-on-mobile”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=””]We help develop a more robust perception of the environment by <\/span>enriching public data sets with synthetically generated realistic data<\/span><\/strong> that depicts situations not currently covered by AI algorithms (e.g. weather conditions and rare obstacles). As a result, the AI algorithms in the project are trained on a broader database and <\/span>deliver reliable results even in rare but dangerous edge cases<\/span><\/strong>. This significantly reduces the effort required to collect and annotate real project-specific edge case data.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”15px”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”75412″ img_size=”full” css=”” qode_css_animation=””][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”75418″ img_size=”full” css=”” qode_css_animation=””][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”75415″ img_size=”full” css=”” qode_css_animation=””][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” el_class=”two-column-with-heading-on-top” z_index=””][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”30px”][vc_empty_space height=”30px”][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=””]<\/p>\n

User-centered research<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner row_type=”row” type=”grid” text_align=”left” css_animation=””][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text css=””]To get to know our target group and their day-to-day work better, we conduct qualitative interviews<\/strong>…<\/p>\n