<![CDATA[Manual route and coordinate determination in reconnaissance drone operations has limitations in navigation precision, flight-path consistency, and operational safety, particularly during payload delivery or logistics-dropping missions in densely built-up urban areas. This study aimed to implement Mission Planner software integrated with ArduPilot firmware to plan and execute an autonomous waypoint mission to the coordinates of the 711/Raksatama Infantry Battalion Headquarters in Palu City, Indonesia, using a multirotor reconnaissance drone (NRSM hexacopter) with a payload capacity of nine units. The mission consisted of 11 command points, comprising one TAKEOFF command, nine WAYPOINT commands, and one LAND command, using relative altitude mode and GPS RTK Fixed-based navigation. Ten flight tests were conducted along the same route to evaluate the accuracy of the actual flight distance relative to the planned distance. The results demonstrated an average flight-distance error of 0.55%, with errors ranging from 0.1% to 1.0%, and a waypoint completion success rate of 100% across all trials. These findings indicate that the implementation of Mission Planner can improve navigation precision, travel-time efficiency, and the reliability of payload delivery using reconnaissance drones compared with manual flight operations.]]>
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