Zelim, the Edinburgh-based maritime safety and survival innovator, is cooperating with CASARA, Canada’s Civil Air Search and Rescue Association, following the successful demonstration of its ZOE Intelligent Detection and Tracking system. The trials took place in September, in British Columbia, Canada. during the National SAREX 24 Search and Rescue exercise.

CASARA, a volunteer organisation that participates in many of the county’s search and rescue missions at sea and on land, tested the AI-enabled ZOE system with its drone capability to better detect persons in the water during realistic ocean search scenarios.

Co-developed with the US Coast Guard, ZOE is an AI-powered search tool designed to autonomously detect and track people and objects in water, in real time. It is notoriously difficult to find people in the water given the vastness of the oceans and waterways, and the fact that casualties can drift quickly and often disappear behind waves, sea spray or light glare. The human eye gets tired, gets distracted and can sometimes miss things.

Since the development of the ZOE system, Zelim has been collecting data across a huge range of search scenarios and weather conditions to train artificial intelligence detection models. This was required to ensure the system would provide an accurate search performance across all types of incidents.

The technology was put to the test during SAREX 24, where drones were flown over a section of coastline that had mannequins floating on the sea surface. As the drone flew over the water on its search, ZOE spotted the mannequin in the water and raised an alarm, drawing the search operator’s attention to their whereabouts.

Other objects that were thought to be persons in the water detected by human searchers and other detection methods that rely on frame differencing were correctly ignored by ZOE. These other objects turned out to buoys, lobster pots and light reflections on the water.

Doug Lothian, Zelim’s Chief Technology Officer who developed ZOE, explained: “This is what makes ZOE special, the ability of the technology to not only detect but also discern the difference between a human and other objects on the sea surface. Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of search operations, where speed and precision are critical.”

Zelim CEO Sam Mayall added: “We’re thrilled to have been invited to participate in the Canadian National SAREX and to work with the teams from CASARA and the RCAF to demonstrate ZOE’s search capabilities in an operational search. The results of the exercise speak for themselves, and we can’t wait to see ZOE being used in a live search, doing what it does best and helping to save lives.”

For CASARA, whose SAR operations cover vast and challenging geographies, ZOE represents a potential game-changing addition to their toolkit.

Maj Claude Courcelles, National CASARA Liaison Officer, said: “CASARA is excited to collaborate with Zelim in showcasing our drone capability as well as to explore what AI technology can offer in the prosecution of searches. We look forward to continued collaboration as we both look to improve outcomes for subjects of SAR missions.”

Following the success of the trials, Zelim is now working with other organisations in Canda to optimise their search and rescue operations and hopes to deploy ZOE operationally with CASARA in the coming months.