Robot lifeguard wins 15th International BraunPrize - full details of finalists

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Robot lifeguard wins 15th International BraunPrize - full details of finalists

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September 19, 2005 The BraunPrize for 2005 has been awarded to Jens Andersson from Sweden for his design “Rescue Buoy” - a swimming robot in the form of a lifebuoy. The other four International BraunPrize finalists were Australian Greg Scott’s ingenious Yolk headgear for skiers and snowboarders, Canadian Lynn Borneman Animal Factor which monitors the health of a horse during strenuous activity, Chinese Wa Yao’s Mesh Editor, a mobile space-planning tool to facilitate the rapid creation of light and safe large-span structures and Brazilian Adriano Galvao’s Easy-XM which simplifies and reduces the amount of time required to take blood from patients.

Awarded every second year in the area of Technical Design, this year marks the 15th BraunPrize since Erwin Braun launched the “Braun Prize for Technical Design” in 1968 to stimulate public debate about design. The event has been held every other year since. The international design competition was created not only to encourage young talented designers by promoting their work, but also to give the public an insight into the criteria which constitutes good design.

Rescue Buoy concept

Rescue Buoy is a swimming robot in the form of a lifebuoy. It assists lifeguards by monitoring a stretch of water in order to identify potential rescue situations early on.

How it works: Lifeguards are able to spot when someone is in trouble from the shore, but once they are in the water often have difficulty finding the right location. The lifebuoy solves this problem by capturing the situation and contacting the lifeguard on the shore, enabling him to plan an appropriate course of action. If necessary, it will swim to the relevant spot and serve as a buoyancy aid until further help arrives. The buoy is designed to be used as part of a team of buoys covering a whole beach, each one monitoring a 150-metre section. In addition to danger from drowning, the buoy also helps protect beach users from coastal winds and shark attacks.

The benefits: The lifebuoy represents a new phase in robot applications: it locates the danger, clarifies the situation and solves the problem at hand, thereby saving human life.

What the jury said: The Jury sees this project as belonging to a very interesting category of lifesaving systems based on robot technology. Numerous projects are currently underway within the field of robot development, but lifesaving robots are still rather unusual and naturally have a particularly high social value. "Rescue Buoy" is a swimming robot designed to monitor the beach and locate and rescue a drowning person under the direction of the lifeguard.

A few challenges clearly remain: the minimum depth requirement, which prevents use of the robot in shallow water; the wash generated by the robot’s drive mechanism as it heads towards a person in danger and the energy issue. Ultimately, there are still issues to be tackled before the project can become a product.

Yolk protective headgear concept

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