Mechanism Development of Catamaran-type Rescue Robot with Life-saving Ring Launcher

In recent years, the need for surface life-saving is gradually increasing as a response to accidents such as ship collisions in the marine environment. To solve this problem, there were approaches that launched life-saving rings or approached humans closely using rescue robots. However, they had limitations in terms of stability, safety and rapidity. To resolve this problem, a catamaran-type rescue robot with a life-saving ring launcher is proposed and its mechanism is developed. Straightness, turning, and launching tests were performed to verify the validity of the proposed rescue robot mechanism. Experimental results show that the proposed rescue robot mechanism enables stable and rapid surface life-saving. Therefore, it shows that the mechanism has meaningful components in surface life-saving and has the possibility of real system application. © ICROS 2022.