The invention relates to the technical field of four-rotor aircrafts, in particular to a small four-rotor aircraft control system and method based on an airborne sensor. The small four-rotor aircraft control system based on the airborne sensor comprises an inertia measurement unit module, a microprocessor, an electronic speed controller, an ultrasonic sensor, an optical flow sensor, a camera, a wireless module and a DC brushless motor. By merging the information of a light and low-cost airborne sensor system, the six-DOF flight attitude of the aircraft is estimated in real time, and a closed-loop control strategy comprising inner-loop attitude control and outer-ring position control is designed. Under the environment without a GPS or an indoor positioning system, flight path control and aircraft formation control based on the leader followed strategy over the rotorcraft are achieved through the airborne sensor system and the microprocessor, wherein the flight path control comprises autonomous vertical take-off and landing, indoor accurate positioning, autonomous hovering and autonomous flight path point tracking. According to the small four-rotor aircraft control system and method, a reliable, accurate and low-cost control strategy is provided for achieving autonomous flight of the rotorcraft.