ABSTRACT
SUMMARY This chapter presents the mechatronics design of unmanned aircraft systems to deliver autonomous capabilities in various missions. The modular design approach and computer-aided hardware integration have been addressed to achieve cost-effective development of the hardware system. The multitask embedded software design has been presented in the software system development to tackle complex missions. The proposed design approaches are feasible and effective, which have been verified in two case studies including a coaxial rotorcraft GremLion developed for the DARPA UAVForge challenge and a cargo transportation system used in UAVGP 2013. Such design approaches can also be extended to different unmanned systems for autonomous missions.
