Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) Platform Development with Nav2 & LiDAR SLAM

Objectives

What the project needed to achieve

• Design a rigid welded chassis fitting within a 700 x 550 mm footprint with 80 kg payload capacity
• Integrate closed-loop differential drive motors with optical encoder feedback and CAN-bus control
• Deploy ROS 2 Humble with Cartographer 2D LiDAR SLAM and Nav2 autonomous path planning
• Evaluate terminal docking accuracy using fiducial markers in controlled test runs
• Establish an open modular hardware/software baseline for custom client AMR projects

Challenge

Engineering constraint

Commercial industrial AMRs are predominantly closed, expensive platforms that restrict access to low-level motor controllers, custom navigation algorithms, and hardware expansion ports. YantriX undertook this in-house R&D program to develop a fully accessible, robust research and validation platform capable of transporting up to 80 kg payloads while negotiating narrow 1.2 m aisles and achieving consistent docking alignment.

Approach

How YantriX approached the work

1. 01

   Engineered a low center-of-gravity structural steel chassis with modular payload mounting rails in SolidWorks.

2. 02

   Calculated motor torque requirements for accelerating an 80 kg payload up 5° inclines with 1.2 m/s top velocity.

3. 03

   Developed custom ESP32-S3 firmware converting ROS 2 Twist velocity commands into PID closed-loop motor drive signals over CAN.

4. 04

   Integrated 2D LiDAR with Cartographer SLAM to generate occupancy grid maps of the test environment.

5. 05

   Configured Nav2 costmaps with inflation layers, recovery behaviors, and TEB local trajectory planners for dynamic obstacle avoidance.