This book systematically explains the theoretical issues related to the dynamic characteristics, performance calculations, and flight control system design of multirotor aircraft, drawing on theories and methods from flight (dynamic) mechanics and flight control. It aims to equip readers with foundational flight dynamics knowledge and practical methods for theoretical design and mathematical simulation of flight control systems, while addressing unresolved questions—such as why PID control is necessary for attitude control and its relationship to vehicle dynamics. Although this book is not a specialized treatise on multirotor flight dynamics, the knowledge it provides is sufficient for general design. From the standpoint of force, torque balance, and control, using fixed-pitch blades requires at least four rotors arranged symmetrically around the center of mass; the quadrotor is the most fundamental configuration. More generally, as long as rotors are arranged around the center of mass and symmetrically with respect to the body's longitudinal symmetry plane (i.e., the plane of the body coordinate system), the configuration can be considered a generalized quadrotor aircraft, which serves as the subject of this book under the assumption that it does not fall into the low-Reynolds-number small-scale category. For convenience, this generalized quadrotor is simply referred to as a quadrotor, and the results can be extended to any even-numbered rotor layouts (e.g., six-rotor, eight-rotor) with symmetric arrangements about the center of mass or the body coordinate system plane.

Dr. Xu Jun is actively working as a researcher and educator in aircraft relatd majors both at Beijing Institute of Technology since 2002 and West Yunnan University since 2024, has developed a course titled “Flight Control System Prototype Technology”. He graduated from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1983, then worked as an aircraft engineer in Shanxi Aircraft Corp until 1991. In 1997 he obtained a doctorate degree from Beihang University, then worked as a post-doc fellow in Tsinghua University until 2002. He has been engaged in research on flight dynamics and control for a long time and has successively led the research project on “active aircraft control, boundary protection, and flutter suppression”, as well as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's research project on “low-cost avionics technology” for civil aircraft, and has undertaken design, calculation, and simulation projects for the flight control systems and dynamic performance of various types of aircrafts. He has published several books including "Automatic Flight Control System for Transport Aircraft", "Aircraft fly-by-wire control system", "Flight Control System - Design, Prototype System and Semi-Physical Simulation Experiment" etc.

Dr Weizhong Zhang is an associate professor at the School of Aerospace Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology. He graduated from the School of Automation of Harbin Engineering University in 2002, Shanghai Jiao Tong University with a master's degree in control theory and control engineering in 2005, and a doctorate from the University of Louisville in 2009 in electrical and computer engineering. Since 2010, he has been engaged in teaching and scientific research at Beijing Institute of Technology. The main courses include "Computer Control Principles", "Automatic Control Principles", and "Adaptive and Robust Control" for graduate students. He has presided over projects such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Project, and participated in projects including major projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has published the textbook "Adaptive Control Theory and Application", the monograph "Optimal Trajectory Realization Technology of Discrete Mechanics", and the translation of "Aircraft Control Distribution".

Manman Du is the director of unmanned and aeronautics system engineering major in Western Yunnan University. She graduated from the School of Automation, Beijing Institute of Technology in 2012, majoring in Control Science and Engineering From 2012 to 2014, she worked as a hardware engineer at Risconda Technology, then from 2014 to 2017, as a hardware engineer at Peking University Founder Electronics. She has been in charge of several projects including industry-university cooperation collaborative education project of the Ministry of Education, and projects funded by the Yunnan Provincial Department of Education. She is a key member of the China-Thailand Intelligent Heavy-Duty Agricultural UAV International Joint Laboratory.