Configuring EMS helicopters virtually

At a tradeshow in Las Vegas, attendees had the opportunity to get hands on with a pioneering emergency medical services (EMS) interior for helicopters. The carbon-fiber cabin, called KOKON and developed by HeliAir, is designed specifically to house all the latest specialized equipment doctors need to deliver life-saving treatment in the air. On the event floor, prospective users got a real sense of how the interior would look and function; it felt like they were inside a real helicopter, except they weren’t. The entire experience was virtual.

Rather than transporting a physical helicopter to the event, HeliAir made the decision to unveil its pioneering KOKON concept using virtual reality (VR). The Austrian company worked with its local technology consultant EBM to develop the interactive demonstrator. Having already used CATIA to design KOKON, it made sense for HeliAir to move all its product development processes to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud and take advantage of its innate VR capabilities to create the new virtual experience.

“The feedback to the VR installation was great,” said Florian Bucher, head of design and production manager at HeliAir. “Medics interacted with it and commented on how realistic the interior looked. It gave them an accurate impression of how the equipment fitted within the helicopter and let them see how they could work within the space.”

The VR experience was so successful that HeliAir now uses it as part of its daily work. Within the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, designers create parts in 3D and test them out virtually, seeing how they function in a particular configuration and whether they can be accessed easily.

This approach is not only transforming how HeliAir configures KOKON but also how it collaborates with its customers, saving on time and physical prototypes. Medics that will be working in the helicopter can try everything out in VR and approve the design well before it’s built.

Read the full story to learn how the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on the cloud has transformed the way HeliAir develops KOKON and supports it to deliver a truly collaborative and differentiated customer experience.