Australia's Little Ripper search and rescue drone goes looking for sharks

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By Matthew Griffin Security and Privacy 24th October 2016

Australia trials search and rescue drones to help protect people – and sharks

Although the chance of dying from a shark attack in your lifetime is just one in 3.7 million, it doesn’t hurt to be a little vigilant in areas frequently visited by sharks. With this in mind, the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), which just suffered its fourteenth shark attack this year, and, following on from an unofficial unveiling in February of this year, has announced that it will be rolling out a $250,000 shark attack-spotting rescue drone to the beaches in its territory.

New high-tech eyes in the sky: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) trial w/ Westpac LifeSaver Rescue Helicopter Service pic.twitter.com/apMOd50Bef

— Westpac Bank (@Westpac) February 28, 2016

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the state’s premier Mike Baird declared that the drone will be the “future of rescue,” predicting that every surf club in NSW will eventually have access to this technology. Dubbed the “Little Ripper,” the Australian drone, manufactured by WestPac, is designed to withstand powerful crosswinds and will be far more agile than standard, similar-sized consumer drones, furthermore, it can fly without charge for up to two and a half hours.

Its on board high resolution camera, aided by machine vision an in-development surveillance algorithm, will be able to spot potentially troublesome activity in the shark-filled waters off the coast of NSW and in addition, a rescue pod – containing an inflatable three-person life raft and a locator beacon – will also be attached in the event that a shark attack is spotted.

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This new drone follows on from the NSW government’s 2015 shark-tracking initiative. Trials have already taken place with drones exclusively designed to track sharks’ movement through the water; there are even plans to tag sharks with trackers so coastguards will know where they are 24/7.

With a lack of evidence for the more controversial approach of shark culling, it’s good to see that innovative techniques that don’t harm the animals are being trialled in a bid to reduce human-shark conflicts, and if the project continues to be successful then the Australian Government have promised to shell out another $12 million buying another 40 drones for beaches up and down their East coast.

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Matthew Griffin, described as “The Adviser behind the Advisers” and a “Young Kurzweil,” is the founder and CEO of the World Futures Forum and the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures consultancy working across the next 50 years, and is an award winning futurist, and author of “Codex of the Future” series.

Regularly featured in the global media, including AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, RT, Viacom, and WIRED, Matthew’s ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of revolutionary emerging technologies on global culture, industry and society, is unparalleled. Recognised for the past six years as one of the world’s foremost futurists, innovation and strategy experts Matthew is an international speaker who helps governments, investors, multi-nationals and regulators around the world envision, build and lead an inclusive, sustainable future.

A rare talent Matthew’s recent work includes mentoring Lunar XPrize teams, re-envisioning global education and training with the G20, and helping the world’s largest organisations envision and ideate the future of their products and services, industries, and countries.

Matthew's clients include three Prime Ministers and several governments, including the G7, Accenture, Aon, Bain & Co, BCG, Credit Suisse, Dell EMC, Dentons, Deloitte, E&Y, GEMS, Huawei, JPMorgan Chase, KPMG, Lego, McKinsey, PWC, Qualcomm, SAP, Samsung, Sopra Steria, T-Mobile, and many more.