Lifeguard UAV System: Scout Quadcopter and Rescue Coaxial Hexacopter with In-Arm Pitch Axis for Extended and Symmetric Dual-Axis Tilt Rotor

An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) lifeguard system with scout and rescue UAVs is proposed and prototypes are demonstrated. For dynamic rescue operation, a novel symmetric in-arm pitch rotor tilt axis design is introduced for pitch angle extension by more than 65% over conventional end-arm pitch axis. The rescue UAV implements a coaxial hexacoptor with ±45 degree pitch angle and ±180 degree roll angle for dual-axis rotor tilt at each arm. The extended dual-tilt rotors will be able to adjust thrust to pull a victim to safety adaptively. The rescue UAV folds into itself three times to reduce its diameter by 45% for transportation in passenger vehicles. Its rotor tilting and initial flights were demonstrated. The scout UAV is a quadcopter that deploys an AI-capable mission controller, establishes triple radio channels for control redundancy, and increases payload capacity for a larger battery and a longer scout flight. Multiple autonomous beach flights were conducted to analyze beach hazards through image processing.