1. INTRODUCTION
Going overboard is one of the worst accidents at sea
with a substantial endangerment for the life of the person
overboard (POB) and the seamen taken part in the rescue
operation. Therefore the ship operators are obligated in
the context of the international convention to the protection
of the human life at sea to initiate all conceivable
activities to find and rescue the casualty. At sea, the crew
of the ship with reduced number is often relying on itself
alone. Furthermore the accident is determined mostly too
late. Further time is required for the return maneuvre of
the ship, the disembarkation of a rescue vessel and the
real rescue operation according to conventional methods.
The POB drowns very often within a few minutes because
of exhaustion or hypothermia. A faster rescue becomes an
essential significance especially with regard to the conquering
of the Northwest and the Northeast Passage through
the Arctic Ocean for the commercial shipping.
In order to solve this problem, different research groups of
the University of Rostock started together with different
scientific and industrial partners the interdisciplinary research
project AGaPaS. Main task of the project was to
reduce substantially the time interval between the acciden