Flood Rescue Vehicle

Overview:

The project started with a strong motivation based on the catastrophic effect of 2014 floods in Assam and Kashmir. It was realized that there are very limited ways by which people can be rescued and relieved in such situations. Especially in places like Kashmir, where people are not at all ready for natural calamities like floods, both physically and mentally.

Initialization:

In any design process, the environment of the product/service where it is going to get used is very essential. Since the project brief mentioned the term ‘vehicle’, it was highly recommended to meet people who have had real life flood rescue experiences. Hence, visits were made to NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) battalion camps to develop in-depth know-hows of floods situations and rescue equipment.

Generation of design brief:

During field visits, NDRF responders elaborated about their equipment, their usages, equipment design problems, and challenges faced while dealing with victims stuck in floods. Based on these, a design brief was generated focusing on the immediate requirement of a fail-proof saving equipment.

Design brief:

“To design a powered, victim centric, portable boat to be operated by NDRF personnel in urban flood scenario which can be manually set up under 20 minutes and is having a capacity of at least 10 people”

Final Design:

Overview: The final design is a stackable structure for easy portability with inflatables for good buoyancy. Central stackable structure houses collapsible roof-frame, life-jackets, pedals, first-aid and encloses the tubes in such a way so that they get protected from floating debris or side impact.

Capacity: 14-16 people (Incudes driver)

Main Features:

Roof: The soft roof is transparent to avoid blind view and is inflatable, and acts like a cushion during hailstorm protecting the passengers.

Side step: The side surface offers a step for easy ingress of elderly and women.

Side sliding ladder: The side surfaces house expandable ladder which slides down to a length of 1000 mm to allow assistance to victims stuck in deep water.

Integrated Ladder: Rescuing people stuck on house roofs and on higher storeys is a tricky task and is currently done manually by responders. The integrated ladder in the boat expands, elevates and arrests itself on roofs to allow people to get on board.

Wheels: The main structure is attached with wheels on the bottom side to diminish the possibility of getting stuck, even when water recedes. Wheels also allows easy stacking of boats on top of each other.

Teachnical data:

Dry weight of boat including collapsed rubber tube: 230 Kgs.

Motor power: 40 hp

Transportaion:

Four boats along with their motors can be transferred in one TATA 1613 (Currently used by NDRF) truck.