Flying balloon for avalanche research

Student involved:
  • Manuel Zuloaga

The project
To date, there are two systems widely used in avalanche safety: the DVA system (transceiver) and the ABS-Airbag system (airbag inflating on the victim’s back and allowing him to float on the avalanche). As part of the SKIL at EPFL, I propose a third system to complement these first two. It is a system for detecting avalanche victims by means of a balloon flying over the missing person. The objective is to considerably reduce the search area and thus save time.
The goal
As part of the SKIL I will propose a prototype for this project and present it to some avalanche safety organisations as well as to some specialised brands for feedback.