Warsaw University of Technology students Michał Karelus and Michał Niedzielczyk have invented a device to help drowning people. The project by the students of the Warsaw University of Technology’s Faculty of Automobiles and Working Machines consists of an inflatable rescue dart and an ejection system. Its advantage is that providing assistance does not require direct contact with the victim.

The system is made up of two pneumatic cushions with a pumping mechanism that activates on contact with water. The cushions are enclosed in a capsule, which is launched towards the drowning person. The capsule has a range of up to 60 metres.

Michal Niedzielczyk emphasises that a person undertaking rescue operations using the PW students’ device does not need to have special qualifications or rescue skills.

‘The rescue capsule is the size of a 1.5-litre water bottle, while the inflatable cushions are metre-long cylinders providing the buoyancy of modern pneumatic waistcoats’, explains Michał Karelus. The prototype was made using 3D printing using the FDM method.