A draft prototype of a smart lifejacket designed for people working in the marine industry was recently unveiled at the University of New Brunswick’s Engineering Design Symposium.
The LifeTrack Outlast lifejacket, which is an automatically inflating, low-profile life vest with a built-in tracking device, was designed by fourth-year engineering students Amy Andrews, Bridget McCloskey, Kaitlin MacIsaac and Phoenix Bard-Cavers through UNB’s Technology Management and Entrepreneurship (TME) program.
“Our goal is to make something people want to wear,” said McCloskey. “We want to develop a lifejacket that doesn’t get in the way, that can be put on like a regular piece of clothing and forgotten about.”
The Outlast lifejacket is designed to inflate when the wearer enters the water, which in turn triggers the tracking features. The distress signal can be cancelled manually by the wearer within 30 seconds if they are in a situation where they can be picked up. In emergency situations, the signal transmits to marine radio where nearby vessels or the Coast Guard will be notified.
McCloskey said the Fisheries Safety Association of Nova Scotia (FSANS) “has been an amazing resource” throughout the project. The students, who all come from coastal communities, also reached out to fishermen on social media for input. They’ve also had input and cooperation with their prototyping from marine suppliers DSS Marine and Fitz Right Survival.
“They’ve reached out to us quite a few times and we’ve shared what we’ve heard from industry, what they like and don’t like,” said Matthew Duffy, safety advisor with the FSANS, calling the personal flotation device with a built-in tracking beacon “an incredibly great idea. We’re hoping something positive comes out of it.”
Photos courtesy Cameron Fitch/UNB.
Going forward, McCloskey said after the symposium, the team still has a little bit of work to do on the prototype to create a more refined design.
“It’s not sophisticated enough to move to a product yet. Basically, our next goal is to design a more sophisticated prototype and move into exploring if we can get any sort of intellectual property on it.”
The team is also exploring potential assistance and manufacturing relationships. “We want to see what is around us that we can benefit from,” said McCloskey. “We’re very excited.”
The team says that while regulations have tightened in provinces like Nova Scotia, lifejackets simply have not been keeping pace with the needs of industry workers. While tracking beacons can be purchased separately from lifejackets, the team believe that by combining the two, more lives will be saved.
“The LifeTrack team recognized that excessive drowning incidents point to shortcomings in current equipment and are deeply committed to act on it,” says Linda Bulmer, the team’s TME industrial mentor.
“Their lifejacket design aims to expedite retrieval, save more lives, prevent family suffering and sustain maritime community livelihoods. They are true believers that lives are precious and safety priceless.”
