Falling overboard from a ship is one of the most dangerous emergencies at sea.
Every minute matters, and the chances of survival can quickly decrease as people become exhausted, suffer from cold water exposure, or drift far away from the vessel.
Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) are developing a new autonomous rescue drone that could dramatically improve the chances of finding and helping people who fall into the water.
According to industry data, more than 70% of people who fell overboard from cruise ships between 2009 and 2019 died.
One reason is that rescue operations often take too long. A large ship cannot stop immediately, and by the time a rescue boat is launched, the person may already be far from where they entered the water.
The new drone is designed to respond automatically as soon as an overboard incident is confirmed. It can launch directly from a moving ship and begin searching for the missing person without waiting for human operators.
The drone uses three different types of cameras, including standard, infrared, and thermal imaging cameras.
This allows it to search during the day or night and detect body heat in the water. Once it finds a person, the future version of the drone will be able to drop an inflatable life jacket equipped with a GPS transmitter.
The life jacket serves two important purposes. First, it helps keep the person afloat, greatly increasing their chances of survival. Second, the GPS signal makes it much easier for rescuers to locate the person. In cold water between 4 and 10 degrees Celsius, wearing a life jacket can extend survival time from less than an hour to as much as three hours.
The drone’s intelligence is one of its most important features. Instead of following traditional search methods, which often involve rescue boats moving in large search patterns, the drone uses advanced computer algorithms to predict where a person is likely to drift. The system takes into account factors such as wind, ocean currents, and the amount of time that has passed since the person fell overboard.
By combining this information, the drone can focus on the most likely locations and avoid searching the same area twice. Researchers say this approach greatly improves the chances of a successful rescue.
The current drone weighs about 25 kilograms, has a diameter of 2.4 meters, and can fly for around 30 minutes. It can search an area of up to one square kilometer, depending on weather conditions and payload weight.
Researchers have also developed a new landing system that allows the drone to return to a moving ship in just a few seconds. Traditional systems can take several minutes to land because they must carefully calculate how the ship is moving. The new method relies on real-time camera images, saving valuable battery power and search time.
Tests have already been carried out on land and at sea using a heated mannequin to simulate a person in distress. So far, results suggest the drone could successfully locate more than 80% of people who fall overboard.
The researchers hope that one day rescue drones will become standard equipment on passenger ships and other vessels. Even before then, they believe coast guards could use the technology to deliver life-saving flotation devices much faster than current rescue methods.
As project researcher Dimosthenis Angelis explains, reaching a person within minutes instead of tens of minutes could make the difference between life and death.
