Successful Search and Rescue Test with Police Geneva

When operating in lakes and rivers, the search can take several days to thoroughly inspect large areas, resulting in large personnel and equipment costs. Or even impossible when operating in confined spaces. Again there are multiple human hazardous diver risks like decompression sickness or carbon dioxide toxicity and challenges such as poor visibilty and high currents. In cooperation with the water police station in Geneva, we were able to put our system to the test in a real-life test involving the search and rescue of a person in a specific area.

There, an accident was simulated in which a ship and a wax dummy sank in the lake to ground. After the exercise began, our compact ROV was carried onto the police boat by two police officers and driven to the vicinity of the accident site. The robot was then lowered into the water and the autonomous search for the desired area was started. Thanks to the precise real-time mapping, the frack was found and its position determined within few minutes. The operator then explored the ship manually via the controll station which shows all the live data transmitted by the robot. At the moment, where no body could be seen in the boat, the area was searched further in the direction of the current and the wax figure was successfully found. This trial mission has shown that the rapid deployment, the accurate 3D mapping capability with its recognition and the possibility to manually intervene enabled the mission to be completed efficiently, reliably and riskfree.