Mapping and Navigation with a Mobile Robot

This tutorial covers:

• Launching a simulation of a quadruped with LiDAR and camera
• Starting Nav2 with SLAM
• Navigating the world to create a map
• Saving the map for later use

Prerequisite: Complete the Launching the simulator with a robot tutorial.

Steps

1. Log in to the OLO platform at https://app.olo-robotics.com/.

2. Click Launch Sim in the top navigation or on the centre panel of the dashboard.

3. Select the Office Environment world and click Next.

4. Select the DeepRobotics Lite3 quadruped and click Next.

5. Enable LiDAR on the DeepRobotics Lite3 and click Next.

6. On the review screen, confirm your configuration, then click Launch Simulation and approve any browser permissions. The simulation will load in a window on the OLO dashboard.

7. When the simulation has loaded, the main robot panel appears. Along the bottom are data feeds and control panels you can explore.

8. Click the Visualizer button to open it in a window on the dashboard.

   Think of the simulation as your real robot. The Visualizer shows the sensor data it sends to OLO. Note the icons on the right-hand side.

9. To create a map, start Nav2 and SLAM. Open the Navigation panel (arrow icon).

10. This panel shows navigation, waypoints, and mapping. Click Start Navigation Engine.

11. In the pop-up, choose SLAM or AMCL. AMCL needs a saved map. For this tutorial, select SLAM, Default RPP under Configuration, and click Start Navigation Engine. The engine may take a few moments to start.

12. Once the Navigation Engine is running, the visualizer will show an Overhead Map view. The map will build around the robot and a costmap will appear along edges detected by the LiDAR.

13. Drive the robot through the environment using the Teleoperation Control panel to build the map.

14. This panel lets you drive the robot around the simulation while SLAM builds the map in real time.

15. When you have explored the space and the map looks complete, click Save Map in the Nav2 control panel.

16. Enter a name and description (or keep the defaults) and click Save Map.

The next tutorial shows how to load a saved map and use it for navigation with AMCL.