In this episode, Audrow Nash speaks to Steve Macenski, who is the Open Source Robotics Engineering Lead at Samsung Research America. Steve leads the Nav2 project, which is an open source robot navigation framework. In this conversation, they talk about the problem and challenges of robot navigation, how Nav2 works at a high level, hybrid planners, and about Steve’s experience working with the Nav2 community.

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EPISODE LINKS:
– Nav2’s Website: https://navigation.ros.org/}
– Steve’s Website: https://www.steve.macenski.com/}
– Steve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve–macenski–41a985101/}
– Samsung Research’s Website: https://research.samsung.com/}

PODCAST INFO:
– Podcast website: https://sensethinkact.com}
– Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sense–think–act/id1582090036}
– Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/52wK4oMDvgijRk6E82tC5d}
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– Full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/c/SenseThinkActPodcast}
– Clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChfnCpNwZzYtZ32J–pZvNDg}

OUTLINE:
– (0:00:00) Start
– (0:00:39) Introducing Steve and Nav2
– (0:01:07) History of the navigation stack and Nav2
– (0:06:10) What problems does Nav2 solve?
– (0:08:05) How Nav2, MoveIt, and ROS Control relate
– (0:10:59) Challenges in navigation
– (0:14:22) Working in a grid world
– (0:24:36) Motion primitives
– (0:40:26) Potential fields
– (0:46:12) Unknown maps
– (0:48:03) Relating paths to wheel velocities
– (0:50:55) When is Pathplanning used?
– (0:52:57) Hybrid planners
– (0:54:59) Changing environments
– (0:57:11) Behavior trees
– (1:01:42) Behavior tree example
– (1:06:16) Behavior trees versus alternatives
– (1:08:19) Nav2 and SLAM
– (1:10:41) Nav2 for different types of surface environments
– (1:13:27) Experience with the Nav2 community
– (1:18:02) Open Source as a business model
– (1:19:09) Getting involved
– (1:22:29) Career advice

SOCIAL:
– Twitter: https://twitter.com/sense_think_act}
– Discourse: https://discourse.ros.org/c/sensethinkact/71}