A Semi-Automated Solution for Hospital Helipad Monitoring

作者：Tom Wheatcroft, SteveThurgood＆Megan Hansen

When deformation was detected at a hospital’s emergency helicopter landing site, a team fromRidge and Partners LLP(Ridge) was contracted to provide a survey of retaining walls supporting the helipad adjacent to the hospital carpark. What started as a one-time survey developed into an ongoing, semi-automated monitoring project to assess the helipad structure’s safety.

With the help of Leica Geosystems equipment and monitoring software, including theLeica MS60 MultiStationandGeoMoS Now! Survey Edition，里奇为他们的客户提供了实施预防措施所需的全面和清晰的数据，并确保附近的停车场的安全性，而稳定效果则继续前进。除Helipad项目外，Ridge还通过监视了他们的服务组合，将现有的知识和仪器投资扩展到了新的项目和收入流。

Deformation of the hospital helipad

As the area’s primary emergency and accident hospital and one of the largest in the UK, the hospital specialises in trauma and other intensive care services. Its helicopter landing site, the helipad, quickly connects the region’s emergency patients with the medical care they need.

Therefore, when a routine inspection of the helipad identified movement and possible deformation, it was important for the hospital to assess the situation, identify damage and create a data-based plan of action for ensuring the safety of the landing area. The client turned to the experienced engineering and surveying experts at Ridge and Partners LLP (Ridge) for this project.

Ridge, a property and construction consultancy with multidisciplinary services, offers a variety of specialties for public and private sector projects including heritage, infrastructure, public safety and more. The company values entrepreneurial and dynamic approaches to solving clients’ problems, a core value that was well represented in this case when a survey turned into a monitoring project and, ultimately, new services for the business.

从手册到半自动监控

Ridge’s involvement with the helipad project began with survey work including scans and topography of the landing zone for drawing analysis. This initial survey supported the findings and detected deformations from ground movements. The hospital wanted to know if movement was still occurring, leading to structural damages that might render the helipad unsafe.

里奇的调查团队决定接受挑战，并创建一个监视计划来回答这个问题。通过在设定的时间内定期测量相同点，他们可以识别出Helipad结构的运动和变形。

When they began monitoring, Ridge designed a manual campaign with 5 reference points, a fixed pillar and 15 monitoring points with L Bar monitoring prisms. In manual monitoring, the surveyor takes all measurements, uploads the data, and completes quality assurance checks and reporting. While the project did not require continuous automated monitoring, the frequency of measurement collection meant that a completely manual setup was time and resource intensive.

Consulting their local Leica Geosystems team, Ridge learned they could take advantage of the same equipment they were already using to set up a semi-automated monitoring solution. Leica Geosystems total stations, like the MS60 MultiStation used by Ridge, include software and robotics that enable automatic point measurements, minimising human error in data collection and maximising the speed and efficiency of measurement tasks.

Additionally, by pairing their robotic total stations with the monitoring service, Leica GeoMoS Now! Survey Edition, Ridge could publish results to a secure cloud account directly from the instrument, streamlining their monitoring workflow.

Monitoring project success and services expansion

岭决定中国ate the solution into the helipad project: “With the help of the local Leica team, we moved to semi-automated monitoring and received workflow training. On the first day, the semi-automated system was setup and reporting,” says Tom Wheatcroft, Geospatial Technical Associate at Ridge and Partners.

Primarily using the MS60, they established parameters and enabled automated data capture. Measurements were then automatically uploaded to the cloud and confirmed for quality assurance.

“We saw a reduction in random & systematic errors and streamlined our data processing due to the semi-automated recording of monitoring points. It also makes data entry and point identification parameters easier,” explains Wheatcroft.

Once uploaded to GeoMoS Now!, the online monitoring service calculated deformations and created customised graphs that were accessible on a password protected dashboard. Client stakeholders could easily view and download reports and make informed engineering decisions based on clearly visualised data.

在最初的六个月的监测活动,Ridge confirmed that deformation was occurring, and the hospital is taking action to stabilise the structure and prevent future damage. While Ridge continues to monitor the helipad site, monitoring is no longer a single client service:

惠特克罗夫特（Wheatcroft）反映：“系统使我们能够自信地进行监视。”“我们为测量业务增加了额外的服务，并通过这些额外的服务为客户扩展了解决方案。”

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