Ice water rescue

[Lapeer20m]

I live in a state with a lot of lakes. These lakes freeze, then it warms up, and people fall through.

I like to experiment with my own tools, then present the proof of concept to the bosses

I am a firefighter and our department has a fledgling drone program. We currently have a mavic with plans to add a matrice 210.

Today I started expirementing with the concept of flying a rescue rope to a person who has fallen through the ice.

There is rope that weighs 1 pound per 300 feet that floats and is rated for up to 1,600 pounds. Not ideal rescue rope unless you plan to deliver it by drone.

I ordered parts to make a drop mechanism for mavic.

Today, I tied 15lb rated string to mavic, about 100 feet long, and flew this rope to the middle of the pond.

The safest method, I think, is to quickly use mavic to measure the distance from home point to the victim, let's use 150' as an example. then attach rope, and fly mavic straight up until it reaches 150' (plus a little extra) switch to tripod mode and carefully decend as mavic flys toward the victim, laying a rope from shore. When mavic gets close, the rope can be dropped, maybe with a small foam handle tied into the rope.

I shot a video of the concept but have not had the chance to upload.

 

[RayOZ]

I would think it'll be easier to have a remote controlled hovercraft sort of thing that would drag the rope to the victim. I think that would be a lot quicker to set up and deploy. If you have a struggling victim, as soon as they could reach the rope, they'll want to grab it immediately, so if the Mavic hasn't release release the rope yet, it'll drag the Mavic down, potentially injuring the victim. The hovercraft would be a bit more waterproof too.

 

[GerdS]

Consider switching to a SplashDrone for this application.
The SplashDrone is capable flying in rain or snow and also capable for landing on water. As an addon they offer a ready-made dropping mechanism and there are enough payload reserves for the rope.