Mobile Robotics Navigation

ROS 2 and MATLAB implementation of an autonomous TurtleBot3 navigation pipeline developed during my master's work in mobile robotics. The project combines sampling-based global planning, path optimization, and Time Elastic Band (TEB) path following in a Gazebo/RViz simulation environment.

Project Overview

The repository contains two connected parts:

• matlab/: MATLAB Robotics System Toolbox workflow for receiving robot odometry and RViz goals, generating a global plan, optimizing the path, and publishing velocity commands.
• ros2_ws/: TurtleBot3/Nav2/Gazebo assets for the indoor map, custom world, and launch files used to run the simulation and localization stack.

Features

• ROS 2 MATLAB node setup with /odom, /goal_pose, and /cmd_vel integration.
• Occupancy-map based path planning with PRM, RRT, and BiRRT variants.
• Path optimization before trajectory tracking.
• TEB local planner for velocity command generation and obstacle-aware path following.
• Gazebo world, model, and Nav2 map assets for the indoor environment.

Environment

The navigation stack is configured around the included indoor occupancy map:

Results

The figures below show the main stages produced by the MATLAB navigation pipeline.

Scenario setup	BiRRT global plan

Optimized path	TEB tracking path

Repository Layout

.
|-- media/
|   |-- scenario_start_goal.png
|   |-- birrt_global_plan.png
|   |-- optimized_path.png
|   `-- teb_tracking_path.png
|-- matlab/
|   |-- turtlebot3_navigation.m
|   |-- +mobile_robotics/
|   |-- PoseHandle.m
|   `-- indoor_map.pgm
|-- ros2_ws/
|   `-- src/
|       |-- turtlebot3/
|       |   `-- turtlebot3_navigation2/
|       |       |-- launch/
|       |       `-- map/
|       `-- turtlebot3_simulations/
|           `-- turtlebot3_gazebo/
|               |-- launch/
|               |-- models/
|               `-- worlds/
|-- docs/
|   |-- project_report.rst
|   `-- project_report.pdf
`-- NOTICE.md

Requirements

• ROS 2 with TurtleBot3, Nav2, Gazebo, and RViz packages available.
• MATLAB with Robotics System Toolbox and Navigation Toolbox.
• TurtleBot3 model environment variable, for example:

export TURTLEBOT3_MODEL=burger

Running The Simulation

These files are ROS package additions for an existing TurtleBot3/Nav2 workspace. Copy or symlink the contents of ros2_ws/src/ into the matching upstream TurtleBot3 package folders, then build and source your workspace:

cd <your-existing-ros2-workspace>
colcon build --symlink-install
source install/setup.bash

Launch the indoor Gazebo world:

ros2 launch turtlebot3_gazebo turtlebot3_indoor.launch.py

Launch Nav2 localization with the custom map:

ros2 launch turtlebot3_navigation2 navigation2_indoor.launch.py use_sim_time:=true

Run matlab/turtlebot3_navigation.m from MATLAB after ROS 2 discovery is configured. This is the main project script; helper functions live under matlab/+mobile_robotics/.

Notes

This project originated from robotics project work and was cleaned up for portfolio use. Upstream TurtleBot3/Nav2 launch files retain their original notices and licenses. See NOTICE.md for attribution details.