Drone used to rescue two stranded & drowning at rough sea.(World first)

[Tech_Dreamer]

Expectation :                                                                            Reality:

 

                     

 

 

 

Reportedly a Worlds First UAV shore rescue,  Australia , a rescue drone was put into test under real life scenario has saved a pair of swimmers caught in rough seas in 700 meters off Lennox Head in the state of New South Wales. Nick named 'The Little Ripper'  an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was originally introduced to monitor offshore activity to detect deadly predator such as sharks near the beached & alert the officials to clear the beaches , The drone was being tested by officials when the distress signal came in about the situation & it went from a test mission to a rescue mission.

 

Yep, those two tiny dots.

 

Quote

"The rescued boys, aged 17 and 15, were spotted struggling in three-meter swell about 700 meters off Lennox Head in the state of New South Wales. The pair were fortunately unharmed from their ordeal apart from showing signs of fatigue"

 

Lifeguards were busy testing the UAV off Lennox Head when the distress call came in  & the testing phase was quickly changed to a life saving response to locate & assist the people in distress, The response took barely over a minute (70 seconds) to locate the individuals offshore in distress in the rough sea as they were battered by waves . A scenario which would take more than a couple of minutes for Life Guards to show up & respond let alone find them in rough environments.  The drone then deployed pods it carried  to the distressed swimmers & the individuals managed to hold on to it & stay afloat the deployed drop pods expand so it gives more than enough room to grab hold of it without loosing grip. They managed to reach the safety of shore within minutes afterwards.

 

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"I was able to launch it, fly it to the location, and drop the pod all in about one to two minutes. On a normal day that would have taken our lifeguards a few minutes longer to reach the members of the public.  The Little Ripper UAV certainly proved itself today, it is an amazingly efficient piece of lifesaving equipment and a delight to fly"

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             -  Mr Sheridan (Drone op)

 

Rescue footage

 

The Little ripper drone is packed with supplies including inflatable rafts and GPS beacons, can fly through the air for two-and-half hours on a single charge In the future there would be more of these & more advanced versions of it hopefully , This one is on a small scale , maybe we can have a bit better implications of large sized drones for this , using it other than to kill someone from a remote place.

 

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Within 70 seconds the aerial helper had tracked down the stranded duo and dropped them a flotation pod, which they used to safely make their way to shore

 

The drone itself cost about 25k AUD, But seeing it in real life scenario & it's efficiency & usefulness, i think it payed off, In December 2017, the NSW government announced it would invest $430,000 in drone technology as part of a trial on the North Coast of NSW.

 

Cool huh? Leave a comment on what You think about this whole shenanigan, with AI taking over something like this , it would be awesome .

 

Source:

https://www.surflifesaving.com.au/news/little-ripper-uav-world-first-rescue

https://www.rt.com/news/416313-lifeguard-drone-rescues-teenagers/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/australia-lifesaving-drone-makes-first-rescue-085655966.html

http://www.newscaf.com/world/australia-lifesaving-drone-helps-rescue-drowning-teens_867113.html

https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/18/little-ripper-lifeguard-drone-rescue/

 

 

[Bouzoo]

If we're honest, this is one of the best uses of drones that I can think of except pizza delivery. Our emergency saving service has numerous cases every year with people getting lost in the mountains which are really hard to search by foot.

I also really really really like your comparison. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

Hopefully things like this will see more use of drones as (relatively) inexpensive rescue and monitoring tools. Being able to send out a drone that can get to people in hard to reach areas quickly in order to drop off payloads to help people survive until appropriate rescue arrives is a big deal. I hope it eventually becomes standard to have a fleet of drones that are ready to go so that when an emergency arrives, help can be there in minutes.

[GDRRiley]

27 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

for some reason I had the image of a multirotor airlifting two boys off the sea in my head ._.

a little crazy but it may not be long till it happens 

[RyomaSJibenG]

BRAVO!! Finally something positive

[leadeater]

That was an extremely fast locate and assist though, 70 seconds any other way is impossible.

[Master Disaster]

[Bananasplit_00]

thats pretty awesome, great use of a drone! 

[Sauron]

25k is pretty cheap all things considered. Well done!

[mynameisjuan]

27 minutes ago, Sauron said:

25k is pretty cheap all things considered. Well done!

25k for even AUD is still too expensive for what it is. But then again the 2 1/2 hours run time is fucking impressive as shit. 

[Sauron]

12 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

25k for even AUD is still too expensive for what it is. But then again the 2 1/2 hours run time is fucking impressive as shit. 

Well, if you take the size, run time, functionality, range and speed it sounds like a fair price given what a much smaller consumer drone would cost.

[AlTech]

inb4 some comment calling out OP for being sexist with the photo of the lifeguards....

[mynameisjuan]

2 hours ago, Sauron said:

Well, if you take the size, run time, functionality, range and speed it sounds like a fair price given what a much smaller consumer drone would cost.

Everything but run times is on par with DJI inspire 2 and Matrice 600 which is what, like $5k and $7k AUD? I mean the 2 1/2 hours run time makes me wet my pants a little but that is a $20k extra feature. An important feature non the less though 

[I_AM_JOERY]

Wow. At first I thought the drone was only used for locating the victims. I thought they would still have to swim or float to them, still losing allot of precious time.
But seeing it deploy the raft for the surfer to grab on is actually a great idea.
Good to see a test turn into a great success and looks like this concept hes proven what it is worth.

~Joery

[Tam3n]

Cool demonstration, though it all looks planned to me...

[zanduh]

Absolutely a fantastic use case for the technology. Makes me think about other situations where a rescue team would have a difficult time getting to someone quickly but a drone could give immediate, albeit temporary, support

 

[Ertman]

On 1/18/2018 at 11:48 PM, VegetableStu said:

for some reason I had the image of a multirotor airlifting two boys off the sea in my head ._.

Given the title of the post, I can see why you’d think that, or at least pulling them via rope back to shore.

[RagnarokDel]

That looks a lot like a staged video... They didnt look like they were struggling at all.

[Okjoek]

A very practical use for the devices!