Business Opportunities Weblog

Cool Invention: Robot Lifeguard

By on October 29, 2012 in Inventions

Automating life-saving.

That’s the plan for one Arizona entrepreneur, Tony Mulligan, who designed a remote-controlled buoy named Emily to help rescue swimmers in distress. Emily — an acronym for Emergency Lifesaving Lanyard — can race through rippling waters at 24 miles per hour and rescue swimmers twelve times as fast as human lifeguards, according to CNN.

Mulligan got the idea after creating a small robotic boat for his last company to help the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration monitor marine mammals.

Months later he sold the company and funneled $250,000 into his new venture, Hydronalix, Emily’s manufacturer. With help from outside investments, Emily will be available next year at $3,500 a pop.

Human lifeguards have no fear, though: Emily can’t save unconscious swimmers, so she won’t put anyone out of work just yet.

Photo by Hydronalix.

robots safety tourism

Rich Whittle has added 6,226 posts to Business Opportunities Weblog.

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