Iranian Engineers Develop Sea Rescue Drone Prototype

It is always great to see technology being used for something positive and while I admit there is a risk of the new drones putting a few life guards out of business in the future, the new prototype hardware created by a team of Iranian engineers could save lives.

The Pars robot is similar to many of the remote control multi prop copters that are commercially available, this one features eight propellers and is not only big enough, but strong enough to carry three life rings. It can be rapidly deployed, flown out over water to the location that someone is in need of assistance and drop them a life ring to help prevent them from drowning.

At present the drone is required to be piloted from land and first tests of this basic edition were highly promising. In a race against a human lifeguard the robot was able to reach a person 75m (247ft) out to sea just 22 seconds after launch. To put that into perspective it took the lifeguard about 90 seconds to reach the person.

Imagine a lifeguard could send this drone out on autopilot ahead of himself, carry a life ring and any other supplies required to a person in need. Even in the short range test the drone was able to assist the person over a minute sooner than a lifeguard, and that can make a difference between the person being dead or alive when the lifeguard gets there.

“We think that [one day] the drone could be used for rescues at coastlines, for offshore missions from floating marine platforms, and also to carry out rescues when floods occur.” Amin Rigi, co-founder of Tehran-based RTS Lab told the BBC.

Current prototype can move at 36km/h (22mph), and fly for up to 10 minutes. They use GPS to return home safely by themselves, but the makers hope to not only add infrared sensors, water landing capabilities and more to the device but also automate more of the features in the near future.

Thank you BBC for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of BBC.