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New Zealand designer Andre Harley is attracting attention in water safety circles overseas with a plan for a rescue robot to save lives in dangerous waters.
He has built a model of the Seascout, which can be programmed to locate and scoop up a swimmer, deployed manually or even guided via a GPS tracker integrated into a watch or clothing.
It features internal lighting and a two-way radio system to help a victim communicate with human rescuers.
Mr Harley said it simply applied existing technologies available off the shelf.
