Rescue robot, capable of quickly saving drowning people

This robot will emerge from underwater and rescue drowning people immediately after receiving a signal.

While lifeguards are essential to maintaining pool safety, they can't always see what's happening above and below the water. This is why so many unfortunate drowning accidents still happen at swimming pools. However, that's about to change, because there's a robot hidden underwater that can save people.

Robots save drowning people. (Photo: New Atlas).

Its current prototype is being developed by a team of engineers from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Optoelectronics, System Technology and Image Exploitation. They are developing the project together with colleagues from the water rescue service in the city of Halle. The main part of the robot will be located underwater at the bottom of swimming pools, docks and other places. A camera system is also installed on the ceiling to monitor the movement patterns and position of swimmers in the pool. When an artificial intelligence-based computer system detects a drowning person, it will send their location to the robot.

The robot responds by moving to the notified coordinates, using an onboard camera to visually locate the person showing signs of drowning. It then rises from below to pull the drowning person up using a buoy-like mechanism. If the swimmer does not respond, a tightening mechanism holds the person's body in the proper position on the robot's head to prevent it from slipping off.

Robots can also be used in pools, although in this case the overhead camera would be mounted on a balloon or drone. Additionally, since the water quality is not as clear as a pool, the robot would approach swimmers using acoustic sensors instead of a surveillance camera.

Robot transports mannequin to shore during test. (Photo: New Atlas).

In a test conducted at the Hufeisensee Lake in Halle, the prototype robot successfully located an 80kg dummy at a depth of 3m. The robot then secured the dummy, floated it and transported it 40m to the rescue team on shore. All this was done in about 2 minutes. Although the current version of the robot is based on the chassis of an existing underwater vehicle, the researchers hope to create a future version that will be smaller, lighter and cheaper.

These are not the world's first robot rescuers . Similar devices have been developed, such as the EMILY, U-Safe and Dolphin 1 robots that can walk on water to rescue swimmers in trouble, and drones called Auxdron and Pars that can drop buoyancy devices like buoys for drowning people from the air. However, all of these devices require real-time remote control by technicians on shore. The system under development, on the other hand, can work completely autonomously.