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This thesis describes the design，implementation and testing of a fullyautonomous and programmable autopilot system for small scaleautonomous unmanned aerial vehicle．All aspects of the autopilot designare considered，from modeling to flight tests．
A mathematical aircraR model，as a function of the aircraft’S physicalparameters alone is also presented．Controller architecture capable ofregulating the motion variables required for conventional flight using lowcost，off-the—shelf sensors is developed．The controller designcomplements the aircraft model development technique used，by reducingthe sensitivity of the controller performance to the model accuracy．
The controller is a custom PCB with an embedded processor(ATmega 1 68)combined with circuitry to switch control between the RCcontrol and the autopilot contr01．It controls navigation and altitude bycontrolling the rudder and throttle．It uses flight stabilization system，asensor pack，Global positioning System(GPS)and an RF transceiver tomonitor and report crucial parameters such as altitude，speed，pitch，rolland position．An embedded software algorithm has been developed toenable the aerial vehicle accomplish the required autonomy and maintainsatisfactory flight operation．
The design of aerial video system is also outlined，the aerial videosystem includes a camera which is linked to a 1 000m wireless transceiverand a ground based receiver．Results from several days of flight testsdemonstrate the design Success．The rapid success can largely beattributed to extensive simulations of the entire autopilot．
These features allow the autopilot to be operated by a wide spectrumof skilled and unskilled users．Innovative control techniques implementedin software，coupled with light weight，robust，and inexpensive hardwarecomponents were used in the design of the autopilot．