Homemade AI Drone Software Finds People When Search and Rescue Teams Can't

Re:Homemade AI Drone Software Finds People When Search and R... by zero_k on Tuesday October 08, 2024 @11:53AM (#41778745)

Search And Rescue (SAR) is sometimes VERY political. We build long-range RC airplanes to help find boats in distress at sea on the Mediterranean [1]. As you might expect, we could do 10x better, with less resources, if the powers that be wouldn't make it impossible to e.g. launch from an island and return to an island. So we launch from a boat, because it's not national territory and they can't make it impossible.

Shameless Plug: If you wanna join, let us know. We definitely would benefit from better on&off-board image recognition. But there are many, less buzzword-y, challenges as well: designing, building & testing airplanes, training pilots, delivering planes & batteries (challenging due to Watt-Hour restrictions), remote issue debugging, etc.

[1] https://tha.de/searchwing/

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Re:Homemade AI Drone Software Finds People When Search and R... by JumpCrisscross on Tuesday October 08, 2024 @12:32PM (#41779138)

In case it needs to be spelled out, the problem is Europe has a maritime duty to rescue [1]. Once rescued, it has a duty to consider asylum and take care of the migrants/refugees [2]. Essentially, once SAR identifies a migrant vessel in distress, the closest country is forced to admit them.

The duty to rescue means "a state cannot legally prohibit its vessels from rescuing persons at sea." This technically covers search. But some Mediterranean governments have taken the view that if they don't see the migrant vessel sink they don't have a duty to rescue.

[1] https://blogs.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-cr...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_Relating_to_the_Sta...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Homemade AI Drone Software Finds People When Search and R... by ljsprague on Tuesday October 08, 2024 @05:30PM (#41782016)

Start sinking the vessels intentionally and they'll stop coming. You might save lives in the long run.

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Re:Homemade AI Drone Software Finds People When Search and R... by zero_k on Wednesday October 09, 2024 @05:21AM (#41785960)

You are actively advocating for the death of people. This must be deleted by the OPs ASAP. What is even going on.

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Re:Homemade AI Drone Software Finds People When Search and R... by ljsprague on Wednesday October 09, 2024 @05:28PM (#41792856)

It's a thought experiment. And my end goal would be to save lives in the long run.

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Re:Homemade AI Drone Software Finds People When Search and R... by edgineer on Thursday October 10, 2024 @12:40AM (#41795570)

Rafts leaving Libya are incapable of reaching Italy on their own and are scuttled when they see a ship that could rescue them.

The expected value of this gamble is higher when search efforts are high. Migrants would not take this gamble if they were sure it would not work, right?

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Re:Homemade AI Drone Software Finds People When Search and R... by tacticalDonut on Tuesday October 08, 2024 @09:46PM (#41783669)

What email should I reach you folks at? I'm an ML engineer and have specialized in computer vision, both on edge and at hyperscale.

I'd like to help how I can.

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Re:Homemade AI Drone Software Finds People When Search and R... by zero_k on Wednesday October 09, 2024 @05:19AM (#41785947)

It's hard to find, sorry. The contact info is here: https://www.hs-augsburg.de/searchwing/de/standorte/

Best to contact: [email protected]

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Re:Homemade AI Drone Software Finds People When Search and R... by tacticalDonut on Wednesday October 09, 2024 @11:26AM (#41788896)

Great thanks! Sent an email. Second child being born soon so I'll have some (sleep deprived) time to work on this for the next 6 months!

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