Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - K.A.R.S. (ANTIROTATION SYSTEM FOR HELIRESCUE)

Teaser

It has been shown that a quick response time is crucial in road rescue to save the lives of the people involved. The helicopter is by far the fastest means but the effectiveness of its intervention is reduced due to the time it takes to safely prepare the landing area close to...

Summary

It has been shown that a quick response time is crucial in road rescue to save the lives of the people involved. The helicopter is by far the fastest means but the effectiveness of its intervention is reduced due to the time it takes to safely prepare the landing area close to the accident. The only alternative to landing is to have the helicopter hover in a stationary position and winch the stretcher down and up. This is the fastest method of retrieval but is executed in very few cases because the vortex of air created by the moving blades sends the stretcher into a spin and the resulting centrifugal force can cause cardiac decompensation in the victim.

The aim of the K.A.R.S. project is to develop an innovative device that revolutionises helirescue operations. Thanks to a new electronic system that detects the rotation of the winched stretcher, an aerodynamic device can immediately stop the rotation induced by the air flow generated by the helicopter rotors.

The device is applied by installing a simple bracket on any kind of helicopter rescue stretcher and adopting it will allow using a helicopter in rescue operations that would otherwise be impossible. The resulting quicker response time will improve the survival rate of the victim.

Work performed

The tests carried out have confirmed that the KARS device works properly and fulfills the function for which it was designed.

Different typologies of risks have been identified, analysed, ranked, and, for each of them, a mitigation measure has been proposed.

The business planning has allowed to define the projections in terms of revenues and net-profit, which appear to be positive.

We conclude this phase of project with the confidence that we can go on with its development, having a good probability of success.

Final results

The possibility of transferring the victim on board without landing helps to reduce intervention time: we estimate that 10 minutes can be saved on each intervention, resulting in economic savings per flight equal to one fifth of the cost and the possibility, every 5 consecutive missions, to save useful time for an additional mission; additionally, the reduction in pre-hospital time achieved thanks to the possibility of not landing will allow to save numerous human lives and reduce the average hospital stay: from 14 to 10 days for ICU patients, and from 21 to 16 days for normal patients.