16/07/2026
Another milestone successfully achieved.
Today we completed and tested on our test platform a new Follow Me capability for our UGV HECTHOR.
Unlike most commercially available solutions, we deliberately chose not to rely on cameras, optical tracking or depth sensors. Instead, our system uses the principle of trilateration (inverse triangulation) to determine the operator's position and movement in real time.
Why?
Because HECTHOR was not designed for exhibition halls or marketing videos.
It was designed for the real world.
For environments where firefighters, first responders and critical infrastructure personnel operate. For situations involving smoke, darkness, dust, rain, limited visibility and often the stress and chaos of a real emergency response.
In these conditions, optical systems are often the first thing to stop working.
So we chose a different path.
It may not look as impressive in a promotional video, but what matters is that it continues to work in the environments HECTHOR was designed for from the very beginning.
And there is one more aspect of this project that makes us even prouder than the technology itself.
The entire system was designed and implemented by our colleague Tobiáš, who will start his third year at the Secondary School of Electrical Engineering in Ječná, Prague (Another milestone successfully achieved.
Today we completed and tested a new Follow Me capability for our HECTHOR UGV platform.
Unlike most commercially available solutions, we deliberately chose not to rely on cameras, optical tracking or depth sensors. Instead, our system uses the principle of trilateration (inverse triangulation) to determine the operator's position and movement in real time.
Why?
Because HECTHOR was not designed for exhibition halls or marketing videos.
It was designed for the real world.
For environments where firefighters, first responders and critical infrastructure personnel operate. For situations involving smoke, darkness, dust, rain, limited visibility and often the stress and chaos of a real emergency response.
In these conditions, optical systems are often the first thing to stop working.
So we chose a different path.
It may not look as impressive in a promotional video, but what matters is that it continues to work in the environments HECTHOR was designed for from the very beginning.
And there is one more aspect of this project that makes us even prouder than the technology itself.
The entire system was designed and implemented by our colleague Tobiáš, who will start his third year at the Secondary School of Electrical Engineering in Ječná, Prague (SPŠE Ječná) this autumn.
This was not a matter of integrating an off-the-shelf commercial solution.
The whole system was developed from scratch, including the algorithms, data processing and extensive tuning of the platform's behaviour in real operating conditions.
Anyone who has worked with autonomous systems knows that calculating the position is often the easier part. Achieving stable, predictable and safe behaviour in real-world conditions is where the real challenge begins.
We are therefore especially proud that this challenge was solved by one of the youngest members of our team.
At ProLab Engineering, we believe that talented young engineers primarily need the opportunity to work on real projects and validate their ideas in practice.
This is exactly how we envision cooperation between industry and technical education in the Czech Republic.
