The shock of seeing his loved one falling into a swimming pool during a family outing many years ago is something Mr Murugan Siva Kumar will never forget.
So much so that, later in life, he embarked on a mission to use drones to save people from drowning.
As a maritime engineering student with Singapore Polytechnic, he wanted to use his technical skills to find a faster way to reach those drowning in the sea.
Together with his Final Year Project team, he worked on a drone that would race to the location of the drowning person and drop a lifebuoy.
The life vest would come with a GPS tag to help the drone find its target. An inflatable boat would be sent to complete the rescue.
At the moment, the team has built a model with a scaled-down 3D printed version of the lifebuoy.
Said Mr Murugan: “We would need to scale it up and adapt it to carry a standard-sized lifebuoy amid stronger wind conditions. We also plan to integrate AI for better detection of the victim using cameras, communicate with the victim using a voice alert system and improve the battery life.
“In future, we could use these drones to deliver the likes of fire extinguishers for other emergency operations.”
Operating the drone is a skill, Mr Murugan added.
“The first time, when we operated the drone based on a video we watched online, the propeller broke. We had to be very stable when landing.”
Mr Murugan hopes to carry his project into the industry, specifically the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN).
In April, he enlisted as a regular with the RSN.
“I did not want this project to just remain as a hobbyist project,” he said. “I want it to solve real-world problems. That’s why we persevered on throughout multiple failures over these past few months.”
