Project description
Saving human lives without imperiling rescuers
Rising growth in shipping and leisure sailing has seen a spike in staff or passengers falling overboard, leading to drownings. The situation, otherwise known as Man Overboard (MOB), has also increased risks in rescue operations in seas and rivers. The product being developed, ‘iLifebuoy’, is a robotised lifebuoy that drastically minimises the dangers involved in traditional rescue operations. Like St. Bernard dogs, iLifebuoy locates and reaches the person in distress, providing safe support. The novelty in the project is not a remote controlled device; rather, an automated tracer acting on data received by video input. Modest estimates indicate a potential demand for at least 1.3 million units, creating scores of new jobs.
Objective
The objective of our business project is to help save human lives by entering the aquatic lifesaving equipment market for
lifebuoys. The recent growth of the shipping and leisure sailing (wider seafaring) industry has in turn increased the risks and
number of Man Overboard (MOB) situations leading to drowning at sea and rivers. Expected product - ‘iLifebuoy’ is an
autonomous robotized lifebuoy that eliminates the challenges associated with the traditional life saving devices. Like the St.
Bernard dogs, iLifebuoy autonomously finds & reaches the person and provides them first support.
The novelty - it is not a remote-controlled lifebuoy- it is a collaborative robot. iLifebuoy is a fully autonomous tracer, but it receives (video) input from a human. It uses three different built-in sensors (audio, video and sonar) to pin-point the location of MOB in water, then activates a waterjet propulsion to reach and provide support to the MOB within less than a 2 minutes! iLifebuoy further sends a MAYDAY signal to channel 16 and emits the GPS coordinates of the MOB.
The advantages over all competitors – iLifebuoy saves crucial time in a MOB situation since: a) it does not require a qualified lifeguard to be around - the first person who identifies the MOB can directly deploy the iLifebuoy in the water; b) it effectively eliminates the need for lifeguards to enter the water and reach the person in distress. Our Primary market for product introduction will be watercrafts.
Conservative estimates of the ‘addressable/obtainable market’ (only 6.3% of the Total Available Market (TAM) indicate potential demand for 1.3M units growing at a CARG 5.7% YoY until 2024. Based on very conservative assumptions for production and market penetration we expect to reach 2.03% of the ‘obtainable market’, create 87 new jobs and realise £27M of EBITDA by our 3rd year of trading. We estimate to break even after 1.5 years.
Fields of science
- agricultural sciencesanimal and dairy sciencedomestic animals
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- social sciencessociologygovernancecrisis management
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringrobotics
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
SE10 0NS LONDON
United Kingdom
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.