AmphiReach: An Autonomous Long-Range Amphibious Rescue Vessel for Open-Water Casualty Retrieval and Shore Handoff

What the paper does

It proposes a twin-hull amphibious vessel that completes an open-water rescue without a crew, and tests the parts of that idea that can be tested without building the vessel: whether the energy budget closes over 10–40 km in Beaufort 3–5, day and night; whether the hull floats and rights itself; and whether a thermal camera can confirm a person before it confirms a bird, a log or a patch of foam.

The answers come from a resistance-based energy model, a hydrostatic float check reproduced in Gazebo, 1,152 seeded mission trials across 48 cases, and a statistical model of the thermal scene. Of the trials, 1,145 complete with at least 15 % energy in reserve; the seven that do not all run out of energy. The person is confirmed before any distractor in 751 of 1,152 trials.

What it does not do

It does not render a camera, simulate control loops or test hardware. The earlier visual Gazebo demo in the repository is not a source of any number in the paper.

Presented

UchIMI, the student institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, student conference, January 2026. Certificate for very good performance.