The positioning speed of the life buoys equipped on the ship in case of a shipwreck plays a great role in the efficiency and even the success rate of rescue. It is important to grasp the hydrodynamic characteristics of life buoys in waves for the positioning speed of the life saving. In this paper, in order to improve the navigation speed of life buoys, the hydrodynamic characteristics of self-develped integral self-propelled buoys are investigated with different trim angle and navigation speed under the still water and regular waves by numerical method. It is found that the drag force on self-propelled floats in still water and regular waves increases nearly linearly with the increase of sailing speed, and the drag force on regular waves is generally larger than that in still water. The motion response of a self-propelled float is further induced by the increase of the high-pressure region, the emergence of the low-pressure region, and the alternation of high- and low-pressure regions around the float by wave action. The motion response of the self-propelled floats is greatly affected by the draft, and the longitudinal oscillatory motion of the floats is more pronounced at smaller and larger initial drafts, while the vertical oscillatory motion of the self-propelled floats is more and more pronounced as the draft increases. The conclusions of the study can provide the necessary data support for the research and development of self-propelled floats.