Drones From Iran Actually Built to Save People – From Drowning

Another example of how a drone can be a lifesaver, rather than a killer, comes from a group of young engineers in Iran whose robotics expertise has been put to work developing an alternative to human lifeguards along the Caspian Sea coast, where more than a thousand people drown every year.

Their company in Tehran, RTS Labs, demonstrated a drone in August that can speedily fly to swimmers in trouble and drop up to three life preservers. A rescue that took a trained lifeguard 91 seconds to complete took the PARS drone 22 seconds.

The drones can collect solar power when not in use and use infrared camera and lights to locate people in trouble at night.  It can be driven via radio control by the lifeguard directing it towards the incident. It can also track its path by GPS positioning, and at the end of its mission it can return home without the need of user guidance. It has a 4.5 kilometer (2.7 mile) radius range, according to RTS Lab Director Amin Rigi.

The developers are looking for funding to further implement their lifeguard drone, called PARS, and are developing another to help clean up oil spills.

(WATCH the video below or READ more in Gizmag.com)

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