China's first unmanned lifeguard speedboat unveiled in Hefei

In China, lifeguards might soon join a growing list of professionals who will be replaced by robots or at least working with them in their jobs.

The Institute of Intelligent Machines (IIM) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced recently that it has launched the country's first unmanned speedboat designed to save people from drowning.

The craft made its debut in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, to monitor swimmers and tourists at the Swan Lake, where drownings often occur, said the IIM.

The speedboat is equipped with cameras, GPS and infrared sensors to detect "moving targets" in the water, said Yu Yangdao, who led the unmanned craft's development.

Once a swimmer crosses the danger line, the speedboat will locate him or her, calculate the risk of drowning, and send a signal to the command center.

The rescue team will then be alerted to take actions at once for the swimmer in danger.

A model of the China-developed unmanned survey vessel on display.

In fact, the use of driverless vessels in China has been restricted due to environmental factors for a long time.

Yu said the unmanned lifeguard speedboat marked a breakthrough in China, whose unmanned vessels have been technologically inferior to the ones manufactured in the United Stated and Israel in the past.

In the future, the unmanned speedboat will be used to patrol rivers, reservoirs, lakes, and seas.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)