Divers Alert Network often reminds its members to dive with buddies and never alone. But because many divers ignore those instructions, DAN apparently finds it worth investing in some heavy-duty technology to make solo diving safer.
DAN Europe is working on an underwater drone system that would accompany a lone diver and be able to detect if that person is in distress. The Cognitive Autonomous Diving Buddy, CADDY for short, is a collaborative effort between DAN Europe and the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7, which focuses on cognitive systems and robotics research. It may be a while before it’s available on your local liveaboard, but you can keep up with CADDY’s progress at www.caddy-fp7.eu
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