An air quality detector based on a quadcopter comprises the quadcopter and control systems. The quadcopter mainly comprises a mechanical arm, a main engine body, a containing platform, a machine body cavity, a propeller, a foot stand, a camera pan-tilt and the like, the control systems comprise an onboard control system and a ground control system, the onboard control system comprises a posture measuring unit, an application measuring unit and an onboard microcontroller, and the ground control system comprises a manual control unit and an automatic driving control center. The quadcopter stable in flying and good in controllability is adopted to be carried with a camera and the detector, the quadcopter can be controlled by a ground remote control unit, meanwhile, automatic control can be achieved, the detecting range can be expanded, multi-index detection on air quality is carried out at different heights and different positions of the low altitude, the indexes are transmitted to the ground to be received, and the air quality detector has the advantages of being small in size, light, low in cost, low in requirement for the flying airspace, safe, reliable, flexible and efficient.