Inventor Vinny !b.L/G9LmHQ started this discussion 1 year ago#120,531
I was recently watching a video on cruise ship Man Overboard (MOB) situations. I learned that only 25% of MOBs are recovered alive, and a cruise ship can expect on average one MOB per month.
Thus, I invented SWARM. I have a backronym for it which is Smart Waterborne Assisted Rescue Machinery, but mostly I chose the name for the marketing appeal, which I hope you'll come to understand.
Existing cruise liners have automatic MOB detection systems, which alert crews to what is called an Oscar Oscar. The protocol is that when an Oscar Oscar is declared, the ship will come to a stop, execute a turn, return to the location of the MOB event and commence a search and rescue.
Limitations to this are:
1. That the MOB is only visible from the neck up. At night or in inclement weather, they can be impossible to spot. Even in good clear weather it is difficult to spot a tiny human head in the ocean.
2. A steaming cruise liner will take a relatively long time to come to a stop. Due to this, she will be some considerable distance away when she is able to execute the turn.
SWARM technology is a drone-based solution intended to bridge this gap between detection of the MOB event and the ship's return and deployment of rescue operations. It would facilitate rapid location and recovery of the fallen individual.
The drones are stored within sealed chambers (which I call "pods") in the ship. These chambers are weatherproof and climate controlled. When deployed, the drones are released through a burst mechanism. Pods are one-time-use, which is to simplify maintenance and ensure that there can be no degradation of the machines due to saltwater etc causing failure.
Multiple pods are launched simultaneously, causing the "swarm" as the drones cover a large area in a co-ordinated way. This approach ensures a high likelihood of locating the person in the water.
Equipped with thermal imaging and infrared, the drones will autonomously locate the person in the water and land close by. They will be designed to be easy to grab and sturdy enough to float with a person hanging on, even in rough seas. In my head, they're designed like a floatation ring that a person can put over them or otherwise climb onto. It could also have straps that a person can attach themselves with in the event they fall off in very hard waves.
Once the MOB is tracked and the drones land, they transmit GPS location data to the ships bridge. This will give the cruise liner a very accurate idea of where to look for the person when it returns to the area.
Cruise ship operators of Minichan, what do you think of SWARM?