The problem
Search and rescue is a life and death matter. It’s like finding a needle in a haystack, but with a life on the line.
35% of call-outs involve a death or a life-threatening injury, so time is of the essence. Identifying an accident location however is slow. On average it takes 42 hours for a search and rescue (SAR) team to resolve a callout. The is because there’s no efficient way to find accident victims. Current methods rely on tired rescuers, who must search vast and rugged terrain. The helicopters are scarce, expensive to run and dangerous to operate in certain conditions and standard drone cameras can’t withstand extreme weather conditions.
The solution
We think a more rugged, advanced drone is the answer and have developed a custom-built drone technology that can fly over an area of interest. It uses advanced computer vision to identify the missing person and alert the emergency services to their location. It can endure different weather conditions and still perform effectively and is fully equipped with visual recognition, person detection and autonomous flight planning.
Why did you apply to the Summer Accelerator Programme?
We wanted to move Haalo beyond a creation in our heads! To do Haalo justice we knew we needed to move quickly and recognised that the support, guidance and wisdom of Imperial College Enterprise Lab would help us do just that. Imperial College is known internationally for its Engineering and Computer Science expertise, and we’d like to tap into this too. The support provided by the Summer Accelerator Programme is also hugely valuable, for its mentoring, coaching and experts in residence.
What are you looking to achieve through the Summer Accelerator?
At the end of the Accelerator programme, we’d like to have tested our prototype, gotten our first investor, secured commitment from our first paying customer and confirmed market opportunities for expansion into adjacent markets.
