Study into the Development of a Light Weight Smart Life Buoy Prototype (LWSLB)

Suresh Thanakodi,Muhammad Izham Bin Ahmad Zahari,Syarifah Aishah Syed Ali,Norshahriah Abdul Wahab,Norshaheeda Mohd Noor,Mohd Arif Ahmad,Muhamad Lazim Talib,Amalina Farhi Ahmad

doi:10.7225/toms.v10.n02.008

Suresh Thanakodi, Muhammad Izham Bin Ahmad Zahari + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.7225/toms.v10.n02.008

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Abstract

Life Buoy, also known as a life preserver, is a crucial safety tool on board any marine ships. The most common and conventional lifesaver is operated manually to save people from drowning, yet this method poses a risk for both the victim and rescuer. Hence, with the help of current technology, a smart lifebuoy has been developed, whereby the rescuer just operates the lifebuoy using remote control. Yet, the existing smart life buoy system has been found heavy and hard to be operated, especially for women, children, and other people with disabilities.This paper focuses on the development of a lightweight smart life buoy system and its characteristics. Arduino Uno R3, Arduino Nano, DC motor 775, Transmitter and Receiver kit were the main components used in the development of the lightweight smart life buoy system (LWSLB). The developed LWSLB system was tested at the National Defence University of Malaysia’ swimming pool due to Covid-19 lockdown, and data such as speed, range of remote connection and battery endurance were obtained. It has been found out that the developed LWSLB weighs just 3.5kg overall compared to Brand S which weighs 13.75kg. However, in terms of speed, Brand S proves to be faster at 4.17m/s compared to LWSLB which exhibits a speed of 1.25m/s.

Highlights

Drowning is rather common (Zhu, Jiang, Li and Chen, 2015) and, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), drowning fatalities are a neglected public health issue, ranked as the third most frequent cause of unintentional death by injury (Nyitrai, Edwards and Dwyer, 2019)
The manual life buoy and the developed Prototype Y can be categorized as light weight lifebuoy compared to the existing smart life buoy
The existing smart lifebuoy (Brand S) and the developed Prototype Y exhibit more ability compared to the life-ring in terms of rescuing range

Summary

Introduction

Drowning is rather common (Zhu, Jiang, Li and Chen, 2015) and, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), drowning fatalities are a neglected public health issue, ranked as the third most frequent cause of unintentional death by injury (Nyitrai, Edwards and Dwyer, 2019). Unintentional drowning occurs in diverse locations such as lakes, rivers, and coastlines (Celia et al, 2018). It happens in various weather conditions and affects both adults and children (Celia et al, 2018). Drowning is referred to as the process of submersion or immersion in liquid to experience respiratory impairment (Zhu, Jiang, Li and Chen, 2015). Flotation has become a device that plays an important role in saving lives. Personal flotation devices and life preservers, such as lifebuoys, have been used on various watercraft for many years during emergencies (Mitev, 2020). A lifebuoy may be released from the watercraft into the water towards the person overboard during a man overboard (MOB) situation in which a person has unintentionally fallen out of the watercraft and into

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