China constructed first AI robot lifeguard that can stand 24-hour watch over the river
History
In 2010 a remote-controlled robot known as Emily (Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard) was made by the US tech company Hydronalix. Having a top speed of 37km/h (23mph) it would help victims far more quickly than any lifeguard can.
Meanwhile, another remote-controlled has been developed by the Chinese firm JTT Technology rescue robot that can travel at 7 metres per second and has a range of 1,500 metres.
A report the following year said there are 59,000 deaths by drowning each year in China, more than 95 per cent of whom were children.
Device-based on
The device is based on an algorithm to tell when someone is in trouble and has been designed to work without any human involvement
Chinese scientists have designed the first AI-powered robot lifeguard, which is designed to operate without the need for any human involvement.
Researchers are trying the robot at a riverside site in Luohe city in the central province of Henan and it will be stationed there permanently.
ingredient device uses
The robot works on artificial intelligence, big data, and navigation and tracking technologies to operate 24 hours a day without any human control or presence, according to the team from the Hefei Institute of Physical Sciences, an affiliate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Drowning can be fast and silent and happen in time period of 5 or less than to rescue someone, which means that a robot that can reach the scene more quickly than any human could make the difference between life and death.
The robot lifeguard is made in such a way to operate within a designated stretch of water, and needs a network of 100 optical and thermal imaging cameras to provide 24-hour coverage of the whole area.
The camera footage is sent to a server that uses an algorithm to determine if someone is in trouble in the water, in which case it will deploy the lifeguard.
The robot is programmed to plan the rescue route based on the coordinates of the drowning person and has an intelligent vision system designed to automatically track the target.
Once the target is reached, it will release its emergency equipment and deploy its rescue arm if needed.
“Although an early warning platform for drowning accidents has been installed in some of China’s waters, the timeliness, accuracy, and coverage of these existing methods are insufficient, and emergency rescue operations are mainly manual, with delayed actions and a lack of rescue equipment,” the Hefei Institute said when announcing the project on Monday.
It is not the first robot lifeguard, but is the first to be fully automated and designed to need no human intervention to operate.
