Little Ripper Lifesaver (drone)

2018: Rescuing Drowning

In January 2018, the first ever operation to rescue drowning people using unmanned aerial vehicles took place.

The incident occurred on Thursday, January 18. Two surfers aged 16 and 17 could not cope with the three-meter waves and ended up in the water off the coast of New South Wales (Australia). Their acquaintance, who remained on the shore, turned to rescuers, after which the Little Ripper drone flew to help the surfers and dropped them a capsule with a self-inflating rescue raft.

Rescuing drowning drones

Rescuers were reportedly preparing to conduct tests as part of a program to reduce shark attacks when they received a signal about drowning surfers. Then they attached a special means to save drowning people to the drone and sent them.

The entire process was captured on a camera mounted on a drone. The personnel shows how the drone drops a special raft drowning, with the help of which the teenagers were able to get ashore .

According to rescuers, the entire operation took only 70 seconds, which is significantly faster than the average 6 minutes, which is usually spent on reaching drowning people. Perhaps, specifically in this situation, these minutes would not have solved anything, but sometimes they can cost someone their lives.

This is the first rescue in the world. Never before has a drone been used to rescue surfers. It is surprising to see that the investment of the NSW government in this technology has already led to the rescue of two people, said Deputy Prime Minister John Barilaro.

The drones were purchased by rescuers as part of a pilot program in December 2017, costing the budget $430 thousand. All of them are designed for different purposes: to detect sharks, rescue drowning people, there are also equipped with loudspeakers and flashing lights. After the incident, local authorities said the experiment had already fully justified itself.^[1]

2017: Shark recognition

Drones with artificial intelligence and advanced image recognition technology patrol Australia's coast to help prevent shark attacks on humans. This was reported in December 2017 by USA Today.

Developed jointly with specialists from the University of Technology of Sydney with the financial support of Westpac Group Bank, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) called Little Ripper Lifesaver are capable of recognizing the silhouette of a shark in water with 90 percent accuracy, while when observed with the naked eye, the accuracy does not exceed 20-30%. According to the publication, drones have already twice recorded the appearance of sharks near the coast and warned rescue services about the danger, which evacuated people from the beaches.

Little Ripper Lifesaver

Scientists trained the UAV system to identify sharks by uploading hundreds of thousands of photos to its database. Thanks to artificial intelligence, drones learn, and over time they will better and better recognize sharks and distinguish them from other marine life and surfers.

Nabin Sharma, an employee at Sydney University of Technology who developed drone software, calls the UAV "an extra eye in the sky."

Flying over the coast, drones shoot video that is analyzed in real time, - explains the specialist.

Beyond surveillance, drones can be used to deliver rescue supplies to swimmers in danger, Nabin Sharma said. Also, the UAV provides the possibility of speakerphone communication.

We can activate the built-in megaphone, send messages to rescuers by SMS or email, and drop inflatable watercraft on the water, "the specialist said.

Scientists plan to empower drones and train them to recognise crocodiles that are common in northern Australia, as well as monitor endangered animals.^[2]

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