How does ROS support navigation?
One of the main advantages of ROS is that it offers a rich collection of packages for navigation, which are modules that implement common functionalities for mobile robots. For example, some of the most widely used packages are:
- tf : This package handles the transformation of coordinates between different frames of reference, such as the robot's base, its sensors, and the map.
- nav_msgs : This package defines the standard messages for navigation, such as odometry, path, and map.
- sensor_msgs : This package defines the standard messages for sensors, such as laser scans, images, and point clouds.
- gmapping : This package performs simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), which means that it creates a map of the environment and estimates the robot's pose within it.
- amcl : This package performs adaptive Monte Carlo localization (AMCL), which means that it updates the robot's pose based on the map and the sensor data.
- move_base : This package coordinates the motion planning and control of the robot, using a global planner to generate a path to a goal and a local planner to avoid obstacles.