Supported platforms: Ubuntu 24.04 · macOS 26.5 Tahoe
A full-stack mobile robotics simulation project built on ROS 2 Jazzy, Gazebo Sim (Harmonic), and Genesis — from a single URDF to a fleet of 100 robots navigating in parallel.
| Capability | Stack |
|---|---|
| Robot modelling | URDF / xacro, IMU, 2D LiDAR, interactive dimensions editor |
| Physics simulation | Gazebo Sim Harmonic (ODE / TPE / Bullet / DART), MuJoCo, Genesis |
| Autonomous mapping | slam_toolbox (online async) |
| Autonomous navigation | Nav2 — AMCL, NavFn planner, DWB controller |
| Custom navigation | Hand-written go-to-goal action server (no Nav2) |
| Motion control | Proportional controller · Cascaded P(pos)→P(vel) controller |
| Multi-robot | N robots sharing one map, independent Nav2 stacks |
| Teleoperation | Keyboard teleop (incremental) · Trapezoidal velocity profiler |
| Velocity monitoring | Real-time cmd_vel vs odom plotter (PyQtGraph) |
| Web dashboard | rosbridge + roslibjs / ros2djs / ros3djs — map, LiDAR, teleop in the browser |
| Fleet simulation | Genesis (Apple Metal / CUDA) — 100+ robots, batched physics, task-assignment fleet manager |
| Benchmarking | RTF measurement across physics engines, real-time factor analysis |
| Package | Description |
|---|---|
mobile_robot_description |
URDF/xacro robot models (Rooster & YuHou). Includes a PyQt5 GUI editor (robot_dimensions_config_editor) for live-editing robot dimensions. |
mobile_robot_gazebo |
Launch files for spawning the robot in Gazebo (10×10 and AWS small-warehouse worlds) and bridging topics. |
mobile_robot_slam |
slam_toolbox bring-up (online async) + RViz for mapping. |
mobile_robot_navigation2 |
Nav2 bring-up against a saved map (AMCL, DWB controller, NavFn planner). |
mobile_robot_custom_nav |
Custom go-to-goal action server/client and RViz goal bridge. Nav2-free alternative — drives the robot to a (x, y, yaw) pose using the cascaded controller. |
mobile_robot_interfaces |
Custom ROS 2 interfaces: GoToGoal.action (used by mobile_robot_custom_nav). |
mobile_robot_control |
Interchangeable velocity controllers (Proportional, Cascaded), incremental keyboard teleop node, shared math utilities (yaw_from_quaternion, normalize_angle, clamp), and unit/integration tests. |
mobile_robot_multi |
Multi-robot Gazebo + Nav2 bring-up (N robots in one world). |
mobile_robot_teleop |
Python nodes for teleoperation (keyboard control, trapezoidal velocity controller). |
mobile_robot_monitor |
Real-time velocity monitor: plots cmd_vel setpoint vs odom actual in a rolling 10-second window (PyQtGraph + PyQt5). |
mobile_robot_web |
Browser dashboard via rosbridge + roslibjs / ros2djs / ros3djs (map, lidar scan, pose, goal, teleop). |
mobile_robot_genesis |
Genesis physics scripts for batched fleet simulation (100+ robots in parallel envs, fleet manager with task assignment). |
mobile_robot_mujoco |
Standalone MuJoCo / Gymnasium scratch scripts. |
mobile_robot |
Meta-package depending on description, gazebo, navigation2, and teleop. |
- AWS small-warehouse world — SLAM + Nav2 tested in a realistic warehouse layout, not just an empty box
- Genesis fleet manager — 100 differential-drive robots in a single batched physics step; nearest-task assignment, completion metrics, Apple M-series Metal GPU support
- Browser dashboard — control and monitor the robot from any browser, no RViz needed; same-origin HTTP server eliminates CORS issues
- Physics engine benchmarking — reproducible RTF measurement script to compare ODE vs TPE vs Bullet vs DART on the same world
- Custom navigation stack — hand-written go-to-goal action server with a cascaded P(position)→P(velocity) controller as an alternative to Nav2
- Interchangeable controllers — swap between Proportional and Cascaded controllers at launch time without changing the navigation code
| Topic | Link |
|---|---|
| Environment setup | docs/setup.md |
| Robot description | docs/robot-description.md |
| Kinematics | docs/kinematics.md |
| SLAM & Gazebo worlds | docs/slam.md |
| Navigation (Nav2 + custom go-to-goal) | docs/navigation.md |
| Simulation (RTF benchmarking + Genesis fleet) | docs/simulation.md |
| Web dashboard | docs/web-dashboard.md |
gz simrequires separate server/GUI processes — upstream issue.- OGRE-Next (
ogre2) fails on macOS arm64; uses OGRE 1.x instead. - DDS multicast must be restricted to localhost via
GZ_IPandROS_AUTOMATIC_DISCOVERY_RANGE.