We wrote about the Innovative Act of the Year and other YMS projects for Trend

April, 2022 – ySpace from the sofware laboratory YMS won the Innovative Act of the Year Award from the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic. It’s a software tool for downloading and analyzing satellite images, which evaluates phenomena happening all over Earth’s surface, even those that can’t be seen by the naked eye.

“Every industry has challenges that a view from above can help with. Literally. Natural resource management, infrastructure, industry, and even agriculture. The analysis of satellite images shows, for example, the development in calamity and flood-prone areas, the condition of soil and forests, the threat of landslides, droughts, or erosions, the efficiency of heating systems, the existence of harmful substances in water and/or soil and more,” says Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Trnava Software Laboratory YMS, a.s., Mikuláš Szapu.

ySpace is the result of the hard work of the specialized YMS team and partners supported by the European Space Agency (ESA). Its high added value lies in focusing precisely on the area, phenomenon or combination of phenomena that need to be monitored. “We use satellite data, aerial photogrammetric or laser imaging, possibly even drone data. We combine several parameters, for example, surface temperature, changes in altitude, air quality, and others, which get us an accurate view of what is happening in the area. After setting up the input data and algorithms, ySpace works automatically and the user always has up-to-date data on the monitored area. By accumulating data over time, a time-lapse view of the development of the area is also available. For example, we monitor tree growth during the growing season and potential bark beetle attacks in Forests of the Slovak Republic. Generally, bark beetle is detected by routine inspection, but a satellite captures images of the area every 7 days and the image analysis is comparable to physical monitoring, which is a very effective survey method,” explains Radovan Hilbert, Business Development Director of YMS, a.s.

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ySpace is ready for use in other industries and YMS and partners continue the research. “In 2022 we started working on another project with the ESA. It’s rare for ESA to support the same company two times in a row. YMS, however, demonstrated a high level of expertise and ability to provide systems applicable to practice, which is the agency’s priority,” says Mikuláš Szapu. In the second project, YMS will look at the development of fertility of Slovak fields over time. The target group is middle to high management of public administration managing agricultural production, and farmers (poľnohospodári a farmári?) that want to approach cultivation in a modern manner/way. “We will look through satellite archives of Sentinel and LandSat 25 to 30 years back and evaluate each and every field in West Slovakia. What has been on the field for the given years and the quality of harvest. We will create an accurate assessment for each field, more specifically, what crops thrive on it, what parts of the field are problematic, and what care they require. We will base this on the data from decades of farming,” says Radovan Hilbert, explaining the main idea of the second YMS space project.

The field analysis will show the long-term fertility of the soil, for example, which parts of the field have weak, washed-out, or unproductive organic matter. After the analysis comes the decision on corrective action, for which YMS prepared a software product, the erosion calculator, which is the result of the European project URANOS in collaboration with the Slovak Academy of Science and other partners. “The calculator determines, which agrotechnical or cultivation measures will help alleviate or reverse the potential negative state of the field. For example, if we find that the runoff conditions at the given site are too high, ie precipitation flushes out too much topsoil, we model a paved road, a windbreak, or a grassy strip and simulate, which of the solutions will help fix the soil as efficiently as possible,” explains Radovan Hilbert on the synergic intention of YMS space and research projects.

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YMS, a.s. develops technical and geographical information systems for industry and public administration for over 30 years. We electronize processes and entire organizations and provide tailored technical and agenda systems in a complete package from analysis through design, development, testing, deployment, and long-term system care. YMS is certified as a research institute and participates in European research projects with the aim of bringing modern technology into everyday management practice.