Autopilot design for a quadrotor

Nowadays, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) which have various areas of usage such as search and rescue operations, mapping, observation, cargo and target acquisition or tracking have been used more widely in more diversified fields due to the increasing developments day by day in the areas of materials science and production. UAVs with rotary wings easily carry out operations in hard-to reach places thanks to their capabilities of vertical take-off and landing, poising and aggressive maneuvering. The means of controlling the UAVs by a pilot in charge of the ground station via the autopilot-aided flight mode or by complete autonomous flight mode without a pilot instead of controlling them by a pilot with remote control during these operations not only hinders the pilot error and allows the pilot for controlling the UAV independently of the duty station but also enables the fulfillment of pre-defined duties without any need for a pilot. In this study, a novel autopilot system is developed for an UAV with four-rotary wings; the design, components and operation of the system are examined.