Map Exploration

ROS2 meta-package for 2D-map exploration based on frontier searching

This meta-package is for 2D-map exploration for wheeled robots based on Nav2 stack. The exploration algorithm is based on frontier searching. For motion planning TEB local planner is used.

1. Prerequisites

You need to pull this docker image. After that, use run.bash script to run a container and run a new bash session by using into.bash

docker pull andrewfram/map_exploration:latest
cd map_exploration
bash docker/run.bash
bash docker/into.bash

Inside the docker container build the packages and source the environment:

cd workspace
colcon build
source ~/.bashrc

2. Launching

In two bash sessions run the following commands to launch the gazebo environment and exploration algorithm. The TB3 should start exploration:

ros2 launch survey maze_slam.launch.py
ros2 run frontier_discoverer discoverer

3. Configuration

In the survey package there are configuration files that set parameters for planning and mapping algorithms. The most important parameters to adjust are provided under controller_server tag in nav2_params_tb3.yaml. If the robot gets stuck you might need to change the mapping resolution in slam_toolbox_tb3.yaml.