Pods of life-sized robotic orcas will protect beach-goers from sharks under an award-winning plan created by a group of Australian primary school students.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 8 minutes 34 seconds 8 m iCode New Dawn design robot orca ( ABC North Coast: Samantha Turnbull ) Download 3.9 MB

The plan, known as Ocean's Angel, won the National Research Award at the First LEGO League Animal Allies Competition and will be presented by student team iCode New Dawn at the Asia Pacific International Grand Finals next month.

Nine students aged 11-13 from Holy Family Primary School at Skennars Head on the New South Wales north coast make up iCode New Dawn and are coached by teacher Nick Houghton.

Team member Carmen Stock, 13, said they were passionate about protecting human and marine life after several shark attacks in their region in recent years.

"For the past two years sharks have been coming closer to our beaches in search of food, causing more fatal shark attacks in our region than ever before, leading to losses in business and tourism," she said.

How will it work?

Benjamin Leigh, 12, said the orcas would be controlled manually, by GPS and the same technology as driverless cars.

He said the orcas would also emit electrical signals to deter sharks within at least a 20 metre radius.

"Scientists found after recent discoveries that you can interfere with a shark's ampullae (sensing organs) by using electrical fields produced by electrodes," Benjamin said.

Oliver Payne, 11, said the orcas would house ocean-powered engines.

"Batteries work by turning chemical reactions into electrical energy by using the reactions to push charges around a circuit," he said.

"Negative charges called electrons will flow from the anode to the cathode, think of this as the anode cooking the food and the cathode eating it.

"The saltwater will contain moving charges that will effectively close the gap in the circuit between the anode and the cathode."

Jack Kirwan, 12, said the orca would be monitored with on-board cameras, a tracking app and would include a black box like those used on airplanes.

Students from iCode New Dawn, with their coach Nick Houghton, have designed a robotic orca they say will repel sharks. ( ABC North Coast: Samantha Turnbull )

What is it made of?

Oliver said one orca would be about the weight of a small submarine.

"The orca will be made of carbon fibre, which is strong and lightweight, so the orca won't sink to the bottom of the ocean and it won't rust or break," he said.

"For power the orca will make use of the salt water all around."

The team has costed materials and gadgets to build one orca at $227,628, plus an extra $228,000 to hire marine engineers.

Is it really possible?

Bethany Boyd, 12, said they came up with the idea of building an orca because they are natural predators to sharks.

"We researched and found out there had been an animatronic orca made overseas that swims in a pool, so it is possible," she said.

The team said they already had the support of SeaWorld and the Ballina and Byron shire councils, and they planned to approach the NSW Department of Primary Industries with the idea.

"I reckon in a decade or two it will go worldwide after starting in our local area," Oliver said.

"All the things that have been tried so far have not been that efficient — nets might stop sharks but they harm other marine life and they have to be taken down in stormy weather.

"I think it will save a lot of lives."