The Company
Over the last two years AWS and the RNLI have developed this ground breaking automatic alerting system to enhance the RNLI’s search and rescue operation.
This includes a GPS position course and speed and vessel identification that is relayed to the RNLI's operations room should a vessel be in difficulty or if there is a man over board.
Background
The fishing industry continues to be one of the most dangerous occupations with one of the highest fatality rates. On average, about 24 fishermen a year lose their lives in UK and Irish waters.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a charity that provides a 24-hour lifesaving service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The RNLI wants to improve safety on small fishing vessels by introducing a new automatic system that will quickly alert the search and rescue authorities that a vessel is in serious difficulties. Often, fishermen from small craft are not registered as missing until family or friends contact the Coastguard and report that a boat has failed to return to shore. This could be many hours after an incident, by which time the crew could be lost.
The RNLI needed a system that would provide their Search and Rescue (SAR) operations with an accurate location of vessels at sea and an automatic alerting system that would notify them when a crew member falls overboard. The RNLI turned to Active Web Solutions (AWS) having worked previously with them on other projects. Working together, a new system was developed from scratch to satisfy the demanding requirements.
Benefits
- Quicker search and rescue response time
- The prevention of deaths at sea
- Taking the 'search' out of 'search and rescue'
- Rapid application development with Microsoft tools
- Potential to save more lives globally
What is innovative about the system?
The system is the first of its kind to combine a man overboard function, vessel overdue monitoring and two way communications with the search and rescue services. The system provides a wireless personal safety device that has been developed to be worn by crew members. Coupled with a low cost satellite communications system, when a crew member goes overboard, the search and rescue services are alerted typically within 1 minute. In addition, the system regularly reports the vessel’s position, course and speed. The two way communications allows the search and rescue services to communicate back with the vessel in distress to let them know that help is on its way.
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