Lifeguard Robot: Rescue Buoys, Drones and ABB

A lifeguard robot today is usually a remote-controlled buoy that races through the surf to a swimmer, or a drone that drops a float from the air, with a lifeguard or firefighter steering from shore. This post follows water rescue from the first humane societies and beach patrols to EMILY, the robotic buoy that helped pull migrants from the sea off Lesbos. Then it looks at the buoys and drones that New Jersey and New York crews took on this summer, and at where ABB fits. ABB makes no rescue robot, so that part covers related ABB technology and some possibilities.

An Oceanside lifeguard on a rescue jet ski waits while colleagues bring a rescued swimmer to shore, 2019. Photo: Chris Hunkeler / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

How beach patrols and rescue cans came before robots

Organized water rescue started with resuscitation. In 1774 two London doctors, William Hawes and Thomas Cogan, founded the society that became the Royal Humane Society, to promote the revival of people pulled from the water apparently drowned. Paid beach guards came later, as seaside resorts filled up. The first beach patrol in the United States was set up in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1891, and it is still the oldest active patrol in the country. In Australia, surf life saving emerged as an organized movement around 1907, and club teams like St Kilda's, photographed at a carnival in Manly in 1929, became a fixture of the beach.

The St Kilda Surf Life Saving Team on a visit to a carnival at Manly, Sydney, in 1929. Photo: Sam Hood, State Library of New South Wales via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

The work itself stayed physical for most of a century. A lifeguard watched from a stand or tower, ran into the water with a rescue can, tube or board, swam out and towed the swimmer back. A young Ronald Reagan did this job at Lowell Park in Illinois, where he was photographed in his lifeguard suit in 1927. Later decades added radios, rescue jet skis and inflatable boats, which made the approach faster. Someone still had to go into the water, though, often into the same rip current that had caught the swimmer.

Ronald Reagan as a lifeguard at Lowell Park, Illinois, in 1927. Photo: NARA via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

The first robot built for the job grew out of marine and military research. Tony Mulligan, founder and chief executive of the Arizona company Hydronalix, developed EMILY, short for Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard, over more than 15 years, starting from work on marine mammal research and unmanned aircraft. EMILY is a four-foot, 25-pound buoy pushed by a water jet at up to 22 mph, with two-way radio, a video camera and lights for night rescues. Off Lesbos it helped rescue nearly 300 Syrian migrants, while Robin Murphy's Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue at Texas A&M helped the Greek authorities, work we touched on in our post on search and rescue robots.

Hydronalix founder Anthony Mulligan explains the EMILY robotic lifeguard to the US Navy's chief of naval research in 2017. Photo: Office of Naval Research via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Rescue buoys and drones on US beaches in 2026

This summer the idea reached volunteer fire companies. In late August the High Point Volunteer Fire Company in Harvey Cedars, on New Jersey's Long Beach Island, bought a Dolphin 3, a remote-controlled lifebuoy made by OceanAlpha, for about $10,000. It is steered from shore at up to 15 mph, has a control range of about 800 meters, can support up to 1,000 pounds and sends 1080p video to a waterproof screen. A swimmer grabs it and is towed in. The timing was practical: after Labor Day on 7 September, Harvey Cedars kept lifeguards on only two beaches, one of them on weekends only, until 30 September.

An EMILY remote controlled rescue buoy and its handheld controller at a trade show in 2016. Photo: Rhk111 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Drones come at the problem from the air. On 17 July an Ocean County Sheriff's Office drone dropped a Restube flotation pack to a swimmer caught in a rip current off Surf City, New Jersey, and the swimmer held on until Surf City lifeguards completed the rescue. On 10 September the Nassau County Police Department in New York showed its water rescue drones near Island Park, with flotation gear and a beacon that switches on when it hits the water. Commissioner Patrick Ryder said marine units take 5 to 10 minutes to arrive, and officials expect the drones to help with many calls now handled by South Shore lifeguards.

An Oceanside lifeguard with rescue board, rescue tube and fins at a swim event in 2016. Photo: Chris Hunkeler / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

ABB does not build lifeguard robots or rescue drones, and no source links its robots to this work. Its closest technology is at sea. In November 2018 ABB and Helsinki City Transport steered the passenger ferry Suomenlinna II through a pre-selected area of Helsinki harbour from a control centre on shore, with no passengers on board. The ferry carried ABB Ability Marine Pilot Vision, which shows the crew the vessel's surroundings, and Marine Pilot Control for maneuvering. A rescue buoy steered from a beach has a much smaller version of the same problem, since the operator has to see the water around it and steer it remotely through waves.

The ferry Suomenlinna II in Helsinki, the vessel ABB steered remotely in a 2018 harbour trial. Photo: ExpressEditor / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Where lifeguard robots go next

On beaches, the next step is more autonomy. Robin Murphy's team has worked on giving EMILY thermal cameras that detect people in the water and slow it down automatically as it approaches, so a lifeguard can send it out without steering every meter. Police fleets are growing too: Nassau County has 8 drones and plans to have 24 by spring. More buoys and drones mean more motors, electronics and sealed housings to assemble, the kind of work covered in our post on drone manufacturing. ABB's IRB 930 SCARA, launched in 2023 for electronics and battery assembly, could do some of it, though no rescue device maker has announced an ABB line.

An engineer with an ABB IRB 930 SCARA robot, launched in 2023 for electronics and battery assembly. Photo: ABB

Cost comes first for small crews. A $10,000 buoy is cheap next to a boat but a real expense for a volunteer company, and the Harvey Cedars craft was paid for by the community. Someone still has to spot the swimmer, launch the device and finish the rescue, as the Surf City case showed. A float buys time, and it cannot give first aid or lift an unconscious person out of the water. Drones over crowded beaches need trained pilots and have to follow aviation rules, and a robot that mistakes floating debris for a swimmer wastes the minutes it is meant to save.

An ABB GoFa CRB 15000 cobot at a work table. Photo: ABB

For homes, the nearest relatives are pool robots. On 1 October 2026 Futura described a pool cleaning robot that sees dirt with a camera and goes to the dirtiest spots first. Sensors like that might one day also watch for a swimmer in trouble, though a safety device would need far more testing than a cleaner. In factories, the work is building the rescue gear. Dual-arm robots such as ABB's YuMi IRB 14000 already assemble small electronic parts next to people, and cobots like GoFa could test buoys and drones before they ship. The Harvey Cedars and Nassau County crews use their machines to get a float to a swimmer before a person can get there.

ABB's dual-arm YuMi IRB 14000 assembling small parts beside a lab worker. Photo: ABB

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