A few years ago, a group of seniors in a robotics class from the King Low Heywood Thomas private school in Stamford, Connecticut were introduced to Bill Piedra. An entrepreneur who had launched 3 successful software startups and has a passion for aviation and drone technology. Bill became the perfect mentor to the King school students. He shared with them that drones were becoming one of the fastest growing fields of technology in the United States, with about half a million of them in the air already. One of the students said that Bill informed them “That the primary use for drones is photography. He then posed the question, what if they could do something more?”

This led the class to start thinking of alternate ways drones could benefit society. In their research and discussions, the students questioned how drones could be used to save lives. They learned that hundreds of millions of people visit beaches in the United States each year. While the vast majority of beachgoers have a safe trip to the beach, there are always accidents. The number one danger at any beach is a riptide, a strong stream of current that is formed by wave motions. It is easy to get caught in a riptide and quickly dragged away from the shore out into open water. Each year lifeguards in the United States put themselves at risk in an attempt to rescue upwards of 10,000 victims trapped in a riptide.

The students from King school decided to engineer a way that a drone could help minimize the risks lifeguards have to take and essentially, allow anyone with a drone to become a lifeguard. Their project became known as Ryptide, an attachment that can be used with any drone to deliver a life saving flotation device. Bill provided tips and insights while the students were responsible for the programming and production of Ryptide. Using a 3D printer and an array of drone models, the students began tinkering with options that would allow a flotation device to be quickly attached to a drone, and just as quickly deploy and inflate.

What they came up with is a small, lightweight flotation ring that is folded into a pack and has a sensor to initiate inflation. The entire weight of the payload is 385 grams. It is light enough to be carried by a small off the shelf drone, yet large enough to provide critical assistance to a victim stranded in the water until a safe rescue mission can be accomplished. On the package is a small Co2 canister with little holes in it. When the canister fills with water, a salt tab inside dissolves and instantly triggers a spring that pokes a hole in the gas cartridge, causing the flotation ring to inflate in 5 seconds. “Ryptide isn’t meant to replace lifeguards or other life saving equipment. But we think it can be used to augment the other life saving tools that are already in use. Now anyone with a drone can be a lifeguard,” said one of the students. “We are proud to say we can make a difference in the world at this young age.”