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Drones and AI Improve 'EMILY' Lifesaver Robot for Large-Scale Water Rescues

The Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard, or EMILY, is called into action by lifeguards and emergency response teams around the world for water rescues. With support from the National Science Foundation  , researchers from Texas A&M University are developing some software upgrades to make EMILY and other rescue robots 'smarter' for large-scale water rescues, such as coming to the aid of a capsized ferry or water taxi. They are working with tethered drones to create an 'eye in the sky' combined with onboard thermal sensing to autonomously navigate EMILY to a cluster of people.

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    Transcript

    00:00:00 Miles O’Brien: This is EMILY - the Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard. It’s a jet-powered water rescue robot used by lifeguards around the world. Robin Murphy: A couple things they use EMILY for is that you throw it in the water and you can run out to a person with a line, all right, so you can pull them off the rocks. You can also, you know, run that boat out to them

    00:00:25 and they can hang on. Miles O’Brien: With support from the National Science Foundation, computer scientist Robin Murphy and a team from Texas A&M University are creating new software tools designed to make this robot, and others, a whole lot smarter. Robin Murphy: We typically don’t build the robots, we add to them. Miles O’Brien: To do it,

    00:00:48 she picks the brains of the best lifeguards in the business, like the “Baywatch” team from Los Angeles County in California. Today they are in Marina del Rey, but they safeguard more than 70 miles of coastline. And they’re always on the lookout for better tools, like a smarter EMILY, that can help them do their jobs better. Chief Boiteux: What I think it will do is it will make us more efficient.

    00:01:10 What I mean by that is it will reduce the time for certain tasks that we do that, you know, right now take a long time. Miles O’Brien: On this day, Murphy and her team are getting feedback from the lifeguards on some new EMILY upgrades designed to help it steer itself more autonomously. Robin Murphy: When you try to game it yourself, you often go too fast, too slow, this and this,

    00:01:34 and that’s wasting both energy and time to getting out to that person. So, you want the computers to get better, the algorithms just start learning the patterns. Miles O’Brien: They’re testing out a new user interface, and navigating using thermal sensors to locate people in the water, and fine-tuning a system that automatically slows the robot down

    00:01:56 as it approaches its target. Robin Murphy: You want that robot boat not to just blindly zoom over there and run the victim down, but now we use artificial intelligence to slow down. Miles O’Brien: They’re customizing these new programs for large-scale water rescues. Imagine a capsized ferry, or water taxi. Murphy’s team developed their upgrade plans

    00:02:17 during field research in the Mediterranean, where the Greek coast guard used EMILY to rescue hundreds of refugees from the water. She says without advances in robot intelligence, tools like EMILY won’t scale up to handle large disasters. Robin Murphy: So now, if we can give them an EMILY that they point and say “there!” Or just get it started over there, or enter in the, go that direction

    00:02:43 and it can go over there and they don’t have to worry, they know that those group of people look like they’re okay if they can just hang on for a while we’ll get to them, let me jump in the water and deal with that guy. Miles O’Brien: They’re also working with tethered drones. Murphy says the new “smart EMILY” can navigate even better by accessing an “eye in the sky.” Robin Murphy: If it just had some sort of feedback,

    00:03:07 it could slow down and go straighter, better, faster. Well if you’ve got a camera in the air, whoa, now you can start looking at EMILY because she’s bright orange, and you can start slowing her down, making her go faster, making her optimal. Miles O’Brien: Saving lives with smarter robots. For Science Nation, I’m Miles O’Brien.