All Out To Sea – How Drones Can Transform Coastal Rescue

All Out To Sea – How Drones Can Transform Coastal Rescue

Her Majesty ’ sulfur Coastguard ( HMCG ) is responsible for maintaining safety on the coast and at ocean, coordinating nautical search and rescue ( SAR ) operations .
In the UK, the Coastguard employs over 1,000 staff with 3,500 coastal Rescue Officers ( CROs ), many of them amateur volunteers, who patrol the coastline, cliffs and seas around the british Isles .
coastal rescue teams around the shores of Great Britain – and abroad – have been trialling the use of drones to assist them in their operations. Unmanned aerial Vehicles ( UAVs ) are increasingly being added to the Coastguard ’ s air evanesce to aid in SAR natural process. In 2019, the UK Coastguard performed seven SAR helicopter missions a day, saving the lives of 1,600 people .

In This Blog You Will Learn;

• History of the Coastguard
• Development of Coastguard’s Equipment
• Current Drone usage by HMCG
• Case Studies
• Future Drone Usage

If you ’ re matter to into incorporating drones into your operations you can speak to one our experts here.

Blocking the parson’s brandy

The origins of HM Coastguard ( HMCG ) lie in the days of black-sailed ships, burning beacons and barrels of brandy. Formed in 1822, the HMCG amalgamated a number of harbinger bodies with its primary purpose being to assist shipwrecks and prevent smuggling activities .
Smuggling was a trouble for the authorities from the thirteenth hundred and reached a zenith during the 1700s and early 1800s. “ Brandy for the Parson and ‘ tobacco for the Clerk ” – as Rudyard Kipling put it – were smuggled into the nation in huge volumes .
Though we may romanticise the days of the smuggler, the ever-present threat of violence and vengeance on informers and officials lingered in every cove. An occupation as a coastguard was not one for those of a weak disposition. And the undertaking of rescuing those in peril off the coast or on the cliffs is exhausting and dangerous. It hush is .

The coastguard’s developing armoury

The character of the british Coastguard increasingly turned to populace base hit and hands-on rescue as smuggling waned during the late 19th and twentieth hundred .
Her Majesty ’ second Coastguard supported the lifeboats of the RNLI and kept lookout over the seas and shipping lanes and as coastal pursuits grew during the twentieth hundred, sol did the character of saving lives .
The early coastguard officers were equipped with little more than ropes, telescopes and binoculars. communication was enabled with signal lamps, megaphones, foghorns, morse code bespeak, semaphores and late telegraphy .
From the 1930s, the function of radio aided the Coastguard in preventing tragedy. Officers could warn ships of impending danger and communicate with lifeboats launched to assist vessels in distress .
In the 1960s, the introduction of grating terrain vehicles increased mobility and approachability to challenging areas. And the Coastguard started using their own SAR helicopters from 1971, taking responsibilities from the military .
Those incremental leaps in technology transformed both the role of the Coastguard and the potency of its operations. immediately in the twenty-first century, it is the drone which will move things on yet further .

The current picture of Coastguard drone use in the UK

The UK Coastguard is distillery largely in the trial and test stage of drones to support its operations. In the summer of 2019, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency ( MCA ) announced the launching of the groundbreaking Pathfinder project and invite bids from specialist drone providers to offer solutions to coastal SAR activities .
The aim of the ongoing project is to assess whether drones could “ help with search and rescue by visiting the scene ahead of air, ocean or land-based recovery teams. ”
aboard this, there is detailed work afoot to assess how current regulations need to be changed to enable SAR UAVs to be quickly launched in a response situation. The UK ’ s Civil Aviation Authority prevents BVLOS ( Beyond Line of Visual Sight ) flights in non-segregated airspace which limits the application of drones to search for those in danger .
The MCA is keen to integrate the manipulation of drones to aid Coastguard SAR operations in its new compress which is expected to be awarded in March 2025 .
Trials of drones by coastal rescue services in the UK have been afoot in several localities, including in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and in the South West of England .
elsewhere, the RNLI has been working in conjunction with the Coastguard in Wales off the coast of Llantwit Major. The collaboration has been testing drone use in four specific – and coarse – scenarios for the lifesaving organisations .
The drones have been used in an open water offshore search ; a shoreline search along cliffs ; a mud rescue using high gear backbone dunes ; and a communications scenario, where a fatal accident is unable to be contacted either because of their injuries or location. other scenarios will be added as the trials develop .
The potential benefits of using UAVs to aid the work of the Coastguard is enormous. But there remain very practical and regulative matters which have to be overcome before drones are regularly launched above our beaches, dunes and cliffs to perform SAR operations.

Coastal rescue drones – case study in Australia

The mental picture around the ball varies quite wide as early countries push ahead with either trialling the use of drones for coastal rescue scenarios or actually having reached a point where they can be – and are being – deployed in real-life missions .
Hailed as a “ world-first ”, a drone rescued two swimmers off an australian beach in January 2018. fortunately for the pair, who had found themselves in trouble at a popular spot for surfers, a team was taking character in a train seance at the time to use drones to pull people to safety. Lifeguards deployed the drone and were able to drop a rescue pod into the sea, where it expanded, enabling the swimmers to reach the beach unharmed. The rescue took fair over a moment .
Since then, Australia – a nation of ocean, surf and sand lovers – has been at the vanguard of pushing ahead with testing the use of UAVs in coastal operations. In February 2020, Australia ’ s civil aviation guard assurance cleared the use of drones for lifeguard operations .
That regulative change allowed the coastguard in New South Wales to deploy a new team of “ dry ” lifeguards piloting drones. The pilots don ’ triiodothyronine require any advance swim ability and go on patrol wearing distinctive red-and-yellow uniforms. Each operator is required to undergo a two-day training broadcast in UAV operations and condom .
elsewhere Down Under, in another “ first ”, trials launched in June 2020 have begun flying drones equipped with artificial Intelligence ( AI ) to detect the presence of sharks near beaches. Video footage is analysed by sophisticated algorithm to identify the species of shark in the water system .
The real-time information can then be used to alert swimmers and close beaches if required. Drones can dramatically improve the potency and efficiency of shark detection techniques. presently, the job is labor-intensive with a team of human observers scouring the water for the presence of potentially deadly sharks .

Coastal rescue drones – case study in the USA

In the summer of 2019, US Coastguards began using drones to inspect a net of newly installed Aids to Navigation ( ATON ) structures. ATONs are steel towers used as situate distribution channel markers in oceans, rivers and waterways .
The inspection UAV was piloted from a small boat assigned to the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bollard. The operations are estimated to have saved 30 hours of human inspection work which can be parlous when climbing and working at height .
Smuggling has never died. In modern times, it has plainly changed its focus. Drug traffic is big clientele and a big problem for authorities around the world. The US Coastguard monitors some six million square miles of ocean. The massive tax of halting the passage of narcotics into the nation falls to equitable five cutters stationed around the coast. Since 2017, that operation has increasingly been aided by UAVs .
Drones are launched from the deck of coastguard cutters to scan the surround waters for distrust transport. The engineering assesses factors such as a vessel ’ s size, cargo and movement. When a leery target is identified by the drone, a “ go-fast ” boat is launched to chase down and intercept the likely traffickers .
For 30 years, the US Coastguard has partnered with the Menlo Park Fire Department to conduct SAR missions above San Francisco ’ second congested South Bay. In 2019, the collaboration moved ahead with integrating drones into their aerial operations – a challenge in one of the busiest air corridors in the world .
The beginning respondent drones are used to complement traditional aircraft and helicopter operations. The expansive navigable waterways of the area are patrolled by rescue boats supported by the UAVs. Parts of the terrain can be a especial challenge for vehicles and specialist flat-bottomed boats with marsh areas, mire and tidal bay waters. arsenic well as supporting SAR operations, the drones are besides used for post-incident mapping and imaging .

Drone use in the future of coastguard operations

Drones have a big future in supporting the work of coastguards. Almost every aspect of the operations undertaken by coastal rescue services can be complimented or led on by UAV applications. Worldwide, agencies are deploying drones on an ever-increasing footing .
The electric potential to unlock the technology to help those indistress on the coastline will undoubtedly make SAR activities safer and more efficient. But there remain barriers to overcome .
not least is the necessity to adapt regulations to in full unleash the likely for dawdler use – but of run with safety overriding and with esteem to the protection of privacy.

But it may not be precisely airborne drones which patrol our coasts. Parrot has been busy working on a range of loanblend drones. The Hydrofoil drones transform from a high-performance boat to an airborne vehicle with a wiretap of a button. The electric potential to launch and land drones on the sea – possibly alongside a smitten vessel or swimmer – could be huge for coastal rescue .
If the development of telegraphy, radio communications and the practice of helicopters were all milestones in the development of coastguard operations in the 19th and twentieth hundred, it is certain that drones will be the adjacent boastfully advance as the second decade of the twenty-first hundred progresses. UAVs are indeed the game-changer in maritime surveillance, search and rescue .
once again, If you ’ re concern into incorporating drones into your operations you can speak to one our experts here .