Water Rescue Drone (Powered Buoy) Product

Overview

A water rescue drone, or powered rescue buoy, is a remote-controlled flotation device that replaces the first and most dangerous phase of a water rescue: getting buoyancy to the casualty. A trained lifeguard swims at roughly 1–1.5 m/s and arrives tired; the drone covers the same water at 4–5 m/s, arrives with around 150 N of reserve buoyancy, and puts no rescuer in the water. Lifeguard services, fire departments, coast guards, and offshore crews deploy them from beaches, bridges, piers, and vessels; the type became widely known through devices such as EMILY, the Dolphin 1, and the U-Safe self-righting buoy.

The operating concept is deliberately narrow. The drone is not a recovery vehicle — it is a fast buoy. It reaches the casualty, the casualty grabs on, and the operator either tows them to safety at 5–7 km/h or simply holds them afloat until a boat arrives.

Hull and flotation

The Hull is a U- or Y-shaped shell about 1.1 m long: high-visibility Upper Hull Shell and planing Lower Hull Shell moldings around a closed-cell Closed-cell Foam Core. The foam, not the air space, is the flotation budget — a holed or cracked shell still floats and still supports an adult. The open end of the U faces aft so a casualty can pull into the notch and be partly cradled while towed, with the Keel Strake ridges resisting sideways surf push. The shape is vertically near-symmetric and the control electronics tolerate inversion: if surf flips the craft, the Inertial Measurement Unit detects it and the Microcontroller remaps the jet commands, so the buoy keeps driving whichever way up it lands. The sealed Battery Hatch Cover gives tool-free access to the battery bay between sorties.

Propulsion

Each of the two Jet Thruster units is a fully ducted electric water jet: a ~1.5 kW sealed brushless Jet Motor spins a Jet Impeller inside a molded Jet Duct, drawing water through an Intake Grate and ejecting it from a fixed Jet Nozzle. The ducted layout is a safety requirement before it is a hydrodynamic one — the device runs directly against a panicking person's body and limbs, so no blade can be exposed and the grate spacing excludes fingers. Steering is differential: there are no rudders or vanes, the controller simply biases power between port and starboard jets, which also lets the craft pivot in place. A Shaft Seal Unit keeps water out of each motor bay, and duct flow carries away motor heat.

Power comes from the Battery Pack: twelve LiPo Cell units in 6S2P giving about 22 V, managed by a BMS Board with a Thermal Fuse backstop, in an IP67 Battery Case that blind-mates through the keyed Battery Connector. A pack sustains roughly 30 minutes of mixed running; crews carry charged spares because a rescue service cannot wait on a charger.

Control

The operator stands on the beach, deck, or bridge with the Remote Control — a buoyant IP67 Remote Case with a proportional Throttle Trigger and a Steering Control thumb input, powered by two Li-ion Cell, 18650 cells. The 2.4 GHz link to the RF Receiver holds 500–800 m over water; on signal loss the receiver fail-safes the jets to idle so the craft becomes an ordinary buoy where it sits, which is the correct failure mode for a device whose job is flotation. Models with a GPS Module add hold-position against current and a return-to-operator function for blind recovery.

Driving one is closer to flying a camera drone than steering a boat: at 300 m the operator can barely see heading, which is what the Bow LED Lamp lamps and the practice of aiming slightly upwind/upcurrent of the casualty are for. The Locator Strobe then marks the casualty's position for the follow-up boat — often the drone's most valuable contribution in open water at night.

The casualty interface

Everything the casualty touches is in the Grab System. Six recessed Grab Handle grips around the perimeter are sized for cold, exhausted hands; trailing Grab Rope floating lines give a second person something to hold, since multi-victim incidents (typically a rescuer-victim pair) are common. The Tow Point anchors a line or rescue sled for swift-water and ice work, where the drone ferries a tether across flow that no swimmer should enter, and the Bow Strap is simply how the 12 kg craft gets carried back up the beach.

Limits

The device assumes a conscious casualty who can grab and hold; an unconscious person still requires a swimmer, boat, or helicopter, with the drone holding station alongside as arriving buoyancy and a marker. Endurance, RF range, and surf size bound the envelope, and kelp or line ingestion through the intake grates is the main field failure. Within those limits it removes the rescuer from the water for the highest-risk minutes of the job.