Iranian engineers have tested a drone designed to rescue people at risk of drowning.
The Pars robot has eight propellers and can carry up to three life rings which it can drop within arms-length of potential victims.
The project's engineers said they were able to reach targets more quickly than a lifeguard in tests carried out near the shore of the Caspian Sea.
But they said more time and funds would be needed to carry out real rescues.
The early-stage experiments were carried out in August, but the details were only recently reported outside Iran by the Robots.net news site.
In them the robot raced against a human lifeguard to reach a person pretending to struggle 75m (247ft) out to sea.
At its fastest, the drone was able to release a life ring to the target within 22 seconds of launch, beating the lifeguard who took about 90 seconds to reach him.
Iran develops sea rescue drone prototype in Tehran by OptimisticPakistani
