This is a quick summary of major changes and additions we'd like to make to the navigation 2 codebase in rough priority order. This represents current plans but not commitments.

Major Features

Eloquent

• ROS 1 Use Case Parity
  • SLAM compatibility(Nav2 should work with Cartographer, other SLAM packages #595)
  • Multi-robot compatibility (Support multiple robots navigating simultaneously #971, Problem of using namespace  #746) - @orduno
  • Better recovery actions (Recovery Behaviors Roadmap #953) - @mhpanah
  • Better obstacle avoidance ( if set goal from A to B, navigate will auto stop and robot not arrive expect point #926 and Characterize the navigation reliability - The Office Marathon 2 #929)
  • Support for Realsense with voxel layer ([Costmap 2D] Add a system test that includes the voxel layer #955)
  • Reenable some form of dynamic reconfigure (Re-enable runtime configuration of key parameters #956)
  • Facilitate porting TEB algorithm to Nav 2. (Pluginlib adaptors for Local/Global planning, recoveries, BT nodes #943)
  • Support for holonomic robots (Create system test with a holonomic robot #954)
• Quality Improvements
  • Usability improvements
    • Better documentation
    • Fix / mitigate usability problems related to new architecture
    • Backward compatibilty / nav_core adapters (Pluginlib adaptors for Local/Global planning, recoveries, BT nodes #943)
  • Reliable and robust networking (Reliable and robust networking #985)
  • Fix CI stability problems
  • Better test coverage (Need more extensive system tests #539)
  • Better development processes - helps to include community
    • Discuss and review designs in separate issues prior to submitting PR
    • Review tests and docs for each PR
  • Break out generic BT packages from navigation 2 and put them in a separate repo
• Performance/Determinism Improvements @mlherd
  • Determine network performance limits for topics and services (latency and jitter)
  • Investigate ROS and DDS layer performance bottlenecks
  • Determine nav 2 hotspots and latencies
  • Get navigation 2 running on VxWorks

Future

• Improve error detection and recovery
• Add support for system health monitoring
• Add more output data and logging to support debugging and future quality improvements
• Ackermann robot compatiblity
• Run the nav2 stack on an additional robot @mlherd
• Create real world use cases in Gazebo
• Develop new world model and costmap representation @mlherd
• Multi-robot orchestration
• Update core algorithms and provide guidelines
• Map server enhancements
• Outdoor navigation
• Zone support
• Add test capability to enhance interaction with gazebo
  • Update model and world state
  • Dynamically alter world
• Support for maps with elevation, such as ramps
• Support for use cases with elevators
• Optimize Auto Localization
• Add support for a safety monitor that can run on an RTOS
• Investigate machine learning approaches to navigation
• Provide an example for launching nav2 using composed nodes.