This paper presents the design and test of an autopilot control system of quadrotor helicopters for collecting aerial
images in agriculture applications. The designed system is built based on the Naza-M Lite flight control system with a GPS
module. A Texas Instruments Stellaris EK-LM4F120XL module is employed as the main control unit for managing the
autopilot mode and other vital functions. This system also includes a ground station playing a key role to transmit/receive
the airplane’s GPS coordinates via RF links. Initial experimental results show that the quadcopter can fly along the planned
flight routes on the Google Maps. The designed quadcopter is equipped with a 5-Mpixels camera capable of taking aerial
photos of rice fields at specified locations. Taken aerial images processed using the Normalised Difference Vegetation
Index (NDVI) technique can provide farmers with information about photosynthesis status of plants. Optimizing
performance of the control system to improve stability and increase flight times of the quadcopter will be the main topic of
our future work. The system is expected to be a suitable solution for taking aerial photography to assess growth and
development status of large-scale rice fields and fruit plantations.