Open Navigation · Nav2 · Technical tutorial

First-Time Robot Setup Guide

An ordered navigation setup guide covering robot descriptions, transforms, odometry, sensing and navigation components.

Source text reviewed October 27, 2026. Study notes and exercises are written by botstest.

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Where to start

Follow transforms and robot descriptions before odometry, perception, footprint and navigation configuration.

Use it in your project

Build a dependency map and verify each input before attempting a complete navigation task.

Scope and limitations

This link is rolling documentation. Select the version matching your system; first bring-up and thorough tuning are different activities.

Follow a related roadmap

Build navigation, mapping and localization · Beginner →

Read: Follow transforms and robot descriptions before odometry, perception, footprint and navigation configuration.

Use the setup dependency order to locate whether a failure begins in frames, sensing, localization or navigation.

Produce: Verify transform and robot-description inputs before odometry, sensing and map/localization behavior.

Deploy warehouse transport and handling robots · Intermediate →

Read: Follow transforms and robot descriptions before odometry, perception, footprint and navigation configuration.

Use the setup dependency order to locate whether a failure begins in frames, sensing, localization or navigation.

Produce: Audit the navigation inputs and footprint assumptions for the proposed carrier and environment.