Autonomous drone system could save lives at sea

​In recent years, thousands of refugees and migrants have fled across the seas as a result of humanitarian crises around the world. A team from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, is now developing a fully autonomous drone system that can increase the efficiency and speed of response in rescue operations at sea.​

In the project ‘Quadcopter, fixed-wing and marine drones for search and rescue’, a team at Chalmers is developing a new kind of fully automated system for search and rescue operations. The system relies on water and air-based drones working together, using a communication system to independently search an area, alert authorities to people in distress and provide basic assistance before crewed rescue vehicles have arrived, so the university in a press release.

Save more lives

The drone system consists of three components working together: a marine catamaran drone called Seacat, which serves as a base for the other drones, a fleet of winged aerial drones…