hcdiekmann / pathfinder

A differential wheeled robot simulation with ROS 2 and Gazebo Classic

Pathfinder

A ROS 2 Gazebo simulation of a differential drive robot.

Features

• SLAM thanks to slam_toolbox
• Autonmous navigation thanks to nav2
• Autonmous exploration thanks to m_explore
• Multi-robot simulation

Requirements

• Gazebo Classic 11.10.2

ROS Version	Ubuntu Version	Branch	Multi-Robot Support
ROS 2 Foxy	20.04	main	☐ No
ROS 2 Humble	22.04	Humble	☑ Yes

Install

• Clone this repository into your ROS 2 workspace src directory

cd ~/ros2_ws/src 
git clone https://github.com/hcdiekmann/pathfinder.git

• Build the package and source the underlay installation

cd ~/ros2_ws
colcon build
. install/setup.bash

Run

• Launch the simulation with optional Gazebo world file argument

ros2 launch pathfinder single_bot_sim.launch.py world:=~/ros2_ws/src/pathfinder/worlds/test.world

• Control the robot with the teleop_twist_keyboard node

ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard

• View the LiDAR scan and odometry in RViz

cd ~/ros2_ws
rviz2 -d src/pathfinder/config/view_lidar_sim.rviz                               

• View and save the map created by SLAM and navigate the robot autonomously with Nav2 in RViz

cd ~/ros2_ws
rviz2 -d src/pathfinder/config/view_nav2_slam.rviz                               

• Spawn multiple robot instances in separate namespaces

This has currently only been tested on ROS 2 Humble

ros2 launch pathfinder multi_bot_sim.launch.py

Launching the simulation with multiple robots automatically starts RViz for each robot.

NOTE: Spawning multiple robots with online SLAM and the full navigation stack in each namespace requires a capable dev machine.