The Marathon 2: A Navigation System
This work addresses the need for updated navigation systems in mobile robots for applications like warehouses and pedestrian areas, though it is incremental as it builds on the legacy of ROS Navigation.
The paper tackles the outdated ROS Navigation system by proposing Navigation2, a new navigation solution built on ROS2 that uses behavior trees and modern methods for dynamic environments, and demonstrates its safe operation alongside students in a campus setting over a marathon.
Developments in mobile robot navigation have enabled robots to operate in warehouses, retail stores, and on sidewalks around pedestrians. Various navigation solutions have been proposed, though few as widely adopted as ROS Navigation. 10 years on, it is still one of the most popular navigation solutions. Yet, ROS Navigation has failed to keep up with modern trends. We propose the new navigation solution, Navigation2, which builds on the successful legacy of ROS Navigation. Navigation2 uses a behavior tree for navigator task orchestration and employs new methods designed for dynamic environments applicable to a wider variety of modern sensors. It is built on top of ROS2, a secure message passing framework suitable for safety critical applications and program lifecycle management. We present experiments in a campus setting utilizing Navigation2 to operate safely alongside students over a marathon as an extension of the experiment proposed in Eppstein et al. The Navigation2 system is freely available at https://github.com/ros-planning/navigation2 with a rich community and instructions.