An innovative, satellite-guided search-and-rescue-system will be presented. This system utilises an autonomous rescue vessel to retrieve overboard personnel. The system acts instantaneously, which significantly increases the chance of survival. It was developed for use on special ships or offshore platforms, where workers are subject to adverse weather conditions and overboard personnel are often discovered too late. A substantial challenge is the automation of the autonomously acting rescue vehicle as well as its integration into the superior search-and-rescue-process. To ensure the fastest possible approach to the casualty without endangering the person, a cascaded control concept has been designed. Two-degree-of-freedom control concepts are used to separate the tracking performance from the disturbance rejection. The inner speed control structure is divided into two parts and consists of the control structure itself with an in-line allocation to the device configuration. The contribution mainly addresses the automation of the rescue vessel, the synthesis of the control system of the autonomously acting vehicle as well as the integration into the superior search-and-rescue-process. Finally, some test results of this complex system are shown.
