Drones may employed to save lives of swimmers who find themselves in distress.
A trial has begun to test the effectiveness of dropping inflatables by the unmanned craft.
In certain circumstances, it is thought drones could be faster than a traditional lifeguard swimming to the person needing to be rescued.
The trial is being carried out in South Wales by the Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS) using SwellPro craft.
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Rescue service RNLI were called out 3,000 times last year but 100 people died in swimming tragedies.
Daniel Spence sales director of SwellPro told the BBC that the IP67 can reach a distressed swimmer and drop a variety bouyancy aids directly to them using a “payload release mechanism”.
A RLSS spokesman said the technology would “enhance” traditional life-saving methods and would allow lifeguards “to do their jobs better”.