Abstract—HERMES-ATC explores a distributed, node-centric framework for aviation assistance in terrain-challenged environments — conditions where rotorcraft operate with limited situational infrastructure. The design distributes sensing across autonomous field nodes and aggregates it at a supervisory node for situational awareness and anomaly detection.
Index Terms—sensor fusion, mesh networking, nRF24L01+, telemetry, rotorcraft, distributed systems
I. Problem & Motivation
Rotorcraft operating in terrain-challenged environments often lack distributed, low-cost environmental and situational-awareness infrastructure. HERMES-ATC investigates whether a network of low-cost autonomous field nodes, reporting to a central supervisory node, can provide usable situational data to support operations in these conditions.
II. Architecture
Two node classes. Autonomous Field Nodes handle local sensing and mesh communication. A Supervisory Node aggregates telemetry from the field, persists it, and surfaces it through a dashboard. Field nodes communicate over nRF24L01+ radios in the 2.4 GHz ISM band.
FIELD NODE
- ESP32-S3
- BME280
- AHT20
- MAX44009
- HC-SR04
- u-blox NEO-M8 GPS
- nRF24L01+
SUPERVISORY NODE
- Raspberry Pi 5
SUPERVISORY NODE SOFTWARE
- Telemetry aggregation
- SQLite persistence
- Visualization dashboard
- Anomaly detection
III. Design Decisions
The system is deliberately node-centric and distributed rather than relying on a single sensor platform, so that coverage and redundancy come from the network rather than from any one device.
IV. Implementation Status
Tracked per component. Nothing here is marked built unless it has actually been built and tested.
| Component | Status |
|---|---|
| Software infrastructure baseline | implemented |
| ESP32-S3 field-node prototype | implemented |
| Sensor fusion & calibration | designed |
| Extended Kalman Filter (state estimation) | designed |
| Visibility index computation | designed |
| Mesh networking — routing, retransmission, link quality | designed |
| Time synchronization across nodes | designed |
| Forward Path Viability / dynamic rerouting logic | designed |
| Graph-based (Dijkstra-style) routing | designed |
| Supervisory telemetry, SQLite persistence, dashboard | designed |
| Anomaly detection | designed |
| Watchdogs / OTA updates | proposed |
| Energy management strategy | proposed |
| Security considerations | proposed |
| ADS-B integration | proposed |
| Aviation certification considerations | future work |
- Implemented & tested
- Designed, not yet verified
- Proposed
- Future work
V. Results
No results are published yet. The prototype is in a testing and data-recording phase; measured results will be added once this stage is complete rather than estimated in advance.