Manual Driving#

Drive the differential-drive base manually with keyboard teleop, publishing velocity commands through the collision-aware /cmd_vel_safe topic. This is the simplest navigation scenario and a good way to confirm the base, odometry (EKF), and robot state publisher (RSP) are wired up before mapping or autonomous navigation. See Example Applications for the shared navigation setup. All commands run through nros.

  1. Open the scene:

    Open ~/workspaces/movensys-simulation/<NAVIGATION_MODEL>/navigation_simulation.usd

    nros ros2 launch movensys_navigation_description gazebo_navigation_simulation.launch.py

  2. Run the simulator bridge:

    nros ros2 launch movensys_navigation_nav2_config sim_bridge.launch.py use_sim_time:=true

  3. Run the EKF + robot state publisher:

    nros ros2 launch movensys_navigation_nav2_config base.launch.py use_sim_time:=true

    Add rsp:=false if using Gazebo or ros2_control – both already publish /robot_description.

  4. Drive with the teleop keyboard:

    nros ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard --ros-args \
     -p turn:=0.5 \
     -p stamped:=true \
     -p frame_id:=base_link \
     -p use_sim_time:=true \
     -r cmd_vel:=/cmd_vel_safe

    Keep this terminal focused to send keystrokes to the base.

  1. Open the scene:

    Open ~/workspaces/movensys-simulation/<NAVIGATION_MODEL>/navigation_hil.usd

    Not applicable for HIL.

  2. Start WMX R2 for the navigation base (real WMX runtime) with use_sim_time:=true (see ~/workspaces/movensys_ws/src/wmx-r2/doc/launch_differential.md).

  3. Run the EKF + robot state publisher:

    nros ros2 launch movensys_navigation_nav2_config base.launch.py use_sim_time:=true

    Add rsp:=false if using Gazebo or ros2_control – both already publish /robot_description.

  4. Drive with the teleop keyboard:

    nros ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard --ros-args \
     -p turn:=0.5 \
     -p stamped:=true \
     -p frame_id:=base_link \
     -p use_sim_time:=true \
     -r cmd_vel:=/cmd_vel_safe

Danger

This drives the physical base.

Complete Try Your Robot first, keep the area clear, and keep a hand on the emergency stop. Start at the lowest speed the teleop allows.

  1. Start WMX R2 for the differential base (see ~/workspaces/movensys_ws/src/wmx-r2/doc/launch_differential.md). No use_sim_time on real hardware.

  2. Run the EKF + robot state publisher:

    nros ros2 launch movensys_navigation_nav2_config base.launch.py

    Add rsp:=false if using ros2_control, which already publishes /robot_description. Add use_cuvslam:=true to use cuVSLAM.

  3. Drive with the teleop keyboard:

    nros ros2 run teleop_twist_keyboard teleop_twist_keyboard --ros-args \
     -p turn:=0.5 \
     -p stamped:=true \
     -p frame_id:=base_link \
     -r cmd_vel:=/cmd_vel_safe

    Keep this terminal focused to send keystrokes to the base. Releasing the keys stops the base: differential_drive_controller forces the wheel target to zero after cmd_vel_timeout (0.25 s) without a command.