ROS Navigation Stack is one of the most popular navigation solutions in mobile robots since 2010. It enables mobile robots to move around autonomously and address industry applications such as distributed delivery, security surveillance, autonomous cleaning, and several more. The ROS Navigation2 stack is a new and improved version compatible with the latest ROS2 distributions. It inherits a set of foundational implementations of algorithms, including A* and Dynamic Window Approach (DWA) for planning and control from Navigation1, and added features such as behavior tree navigator and task-specific asynchronous servers to achieve high modularity.

ROS2 provides real-time capabilities compared to ROS1 and utilizes the Data Distribution Service (DDS) as the communication protocol. DDS is used in real-time applications such as aircraft, missile systems, and financial systems. Industry-grade mobile robots navigating more than 2m/s in dynamic environments must adhere to stringent safety and security standards. Navigation2 is designed to sit on a higher application layer of ROS2 to address such safety standards and determinism, enabling robots to function in time-critical situations.

At the end of this course, participants will be able to understand Navigation2 and deploy robots on Navigation2. Participants will also be equipped with the knowledge to fully customise Navigation2 to suit their mobile base.

The course offers the following:

• An introduction of Navigation2
• Deploy behaviour trees in Navigation2
• Simulation of robots in Navigation2
• Setup and run a robot in simulation
• Setup and run SLAM and Navigation2 in ROS2
• Deploying a robot in Navigation2
• Setup and run a physical robot
• Setup and run SLAM and Navigation2 in ROS2
• Customisation of a robot in Navigation2
• Customise SLAM and Navigation parameters for both simulation and physical robots
• Creation of plugins for Navigation2
• Creation and integration of a custom recovery plugin for Navigation2