Crew safety is a key parameter for any seagoing mission. Although today’s standards are high, occasionally people go overboard while working on deck. In this case the probability of survival remains low. The joint research project “AGaPaS” [1] aims to significantly increase the chances of survival for a drifting person. Its main objective is to develop a self activating, partially autonomously operating rescue system, able to search, find and rescue people gone overboard. A crucial part of the system is a remotely operated vessel, which is released by free fall from a mother ship. This paper focuses on the hull optimization of this rescue vessel, considering various aspects. The rescue operability has first priority and leads to numerous system specifications such as main dimensions. In addition, adequate seakeeping behaviour is a prerequisite for the successful recovery of a person in distress. This includes small relative motions between the vessel and the drifting person. Moreover, the vessel’s free fall characteristics are to be analyzed. Here, particular interest has been laid on the reduction of the peak acceleration as well as on transferring the vertical velocity into a horizontal motion, in order to minimize the risk of a collision with the mother ship. Various hull geometries have been investigated by means of numerical methods as well as model tests leading to the final hull design of the unmanned AGaPaS rescue vessel.

The joint research project “AGaPaS” (Autonomous Galileo-supported Rescue Vessel for Persons overboard) aims to significantly raise the chances of survival for people who have gone overboard. Its main objective is to develop a self activating, partially autonomously operating rescue system, able to search, find and rescue a drifting person [1]. A crucial part of the system is a remotely operated vessel, which is released by free fall from a mother ship. This type of launch offers a minimum response time but comes with the disadvantage of high loads for the rescue vessel and its equipment. A particular challenge is posed by the catamaran shaped hull, being dropped from a cruising ship. The goal is to find an optimum in the occurring accelerations and pressure loads applied to the hull. While the pressure loads have a direct impact on the strength of the hull, the accelerations mainly affect the boat equipment and its mountings. The hull optimization has already been conducted [2], therefore, this publication focuses on the identification of favourable launch parameters. Within the scope of this investigation crucial parameters such as cruise speed, drop height and launch angle are varied. All free falls are analyzed by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), whereas selected cases are validated by experimental data.

For any seagoing mission such as rescue missions, coast guard or pilot duties, crew safety is a key parameter. However, in extreme situations there is always a residual risk for crew members to go overboard. In this case the probability of survival is relatively low until today. This paper presents the joint research project “AGaPaS”, which is aimed to significantly raise the chances of survival for a drifting person. The main objective is to develop a self activating, partially autonomously operating rescue system being able to search, find and rescue people gone overboard. The project accounts for all aspects of the rescue process including: • the life jacket equipped with various sensors and a radio transmitter; • the construction of the rescue vessel; • a real time positioning system for the rescue vessel based on Galileo; • a recovery unit for the person overboard; • a recovery system for the rescue vessel; and • the integration into a conventional bridge system. A crucial part of the rescue process is the recovery of the remotely operating vessel including the retrieved person by a mother ship. Similar problems have already been investigated by the Technical University Berlin before [1], [2]. Whereas launching operations are less critical, the recovery of a boat, especially in severe weather, is a challenging task. Therefore, strength analyses, as well as relative motions are to be systematically investigated using model tests and numerical simulations considering a coupled system consisting of the mother ship with an articulated recovery system and the rescue vessel. Furthermore, the manoeuvrability of the rescue system is evaluated at high sea states. As a result of the research project a fully operational testing model at full scale is designed and built.