Ground-breaking ‘shark drone’ could prevent deadly attacks

Ground-breaking drone technology with the capability to spot sharks and issue a warning to swimmers could help in preventing deadly attacks.

The Westpac Little Ripper Lifesaver can detect sharks in real time and distinguish them from other marine life.

If a shark is spotted, a warning is immediately issued to swimmers through an in-built megaphone.

“It tries to detect as many objects as possible and then it classifies if it’s a shark or a non-shark or whatever,” Dr Nabin Sharma from the University of Technology told 9NEWS.

The Little Ripper has a success rate of 90 percent, compared to the just 12 percent accuracy of aerial patrols and helicopter patrols with 19 percent.

“We believe this is something that will give us the capability of seeing sharks a lot more readily and we think it should be rolled out worldwide,” Little Ripper COO Ben Trollope said.

The drone will be rolled out to patrol main beaches next summer.