Voronoi Planner for Nav2

The Voronoi Planner is a global planner plugin for the Nav2 planner server. Its primary feature is the ability to generate global plans that ensure the robot navigates in the middle of a corridor, even while taking turns. This is achieved using Voronoi diagrams.

Features

• Generates paths that maximize clearance from obstacles.
• Ensures smooth navigation through narrow corridors.
• Integrates seamlessly with the Nav2 framework.

Future Goals

• Complete rewrite of dynamicVoronoi.
  • Modern CPP implementation
  • Better data structure implementation
• Make GVD generation multi-threaded on large maps.
• OpenMP integration maybe for parallelism?

Installation

1. Clone the repository into your ROS2 workspace:

   mkdir -p ros2_ws/src
   cd ros2_ws/
   git clone https://github.com/DhruvPotdar/voronoi_planner_nav2 src/voronoi_planner_nav2

2. Build the workspace:

   colcon build

3. Source the workspace:

   source install/setup.bash

Usage with Nav2

To use the Voronoi Planner as the global planner in Nav2, update your nav2_params.yaml file to include the following configuration:

planner_server:
  ros__parameters:
    expected_planner_frequency: 20.0
    planner_plugins: [ "VoronoiPlanner"]
    VoronoiPlanner:
      plugin: "voronoi_planner/VoronoiPlanner"

Ensure that the plugin field for VoronoiPlanner matches the class name defined in the voronoi_planner.xml file.

Code Overview

Core Components

1. VoronoiPlanner:

   • Implements the nav2_core::GlobalPlanner interface.
   • Provides methods for configuration, activation, deactivation, and cleanup.
   • Computes paths using Voronoi diagrams.

2. DynamicVoronoi:

   • Computes and updates a distance map and Voronoi diagram.
   • Provides methods to initialize maps, add/remove obstacles, and update the Voronoi diagram.

3. BucketPrioQueue:

   • A priority queue optimized for integer coordinates and squared distances.
   • Used internally by the Voronoi algorithm for efficient processing.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Credits

• Dynamic Voronoi
• Voronoi Planner For ROS1