Aeron Systems has developed a dedicated ROS 2 driver for Pollux 3 (PLX3-N), a GNSS-aided Inertial Navigation System (INS) designed to support autonomous robots, UAVs and UGVs. The integration enables reliable, continuous navigation data for increasingly advanced autonomous platforms.
Autonomous systems depend on accurate and uninterrupted position, velocity and attitude data for localisation, path planning and control. While GNSS provides precise positioning, signal obstruction, interference and GNSS-denied environments can disrupt navigation. Pollux 3 addresses these challenges by combining inertial measurements with GNSS and other sensor inputs, enabling continuous navigation, dead reckoning during temporary GNSS outages, and sensor fusion with LiDAR, cameras and odometry.
With a low size, weight and power (SWaP) profile, Pollux 3 delivers high-performance estimation of attitude, heading, position and velocity. It supports navigation data output of up to 200 Hz and IMU data output of up to 1,000 Hz. Its integrated multi-constellation GNSS and EKF-based sensor fusion help maintain reliable navigation performance across demanding operating conditions.
The Pollux 3 ROS 2 driver is implemented as a managed lifecycle node and composable component, with support for REP-103, REP-105 and REP-145 compliant topics. It also offers raw Aeron data streams, configurable QoS settings, diagnostics, calibration services, TF support, automatic serial reconnection and external aiding capabilities.
Integration with established ROS 2 navigation frameworks, including robot_localization, Nav2 and navsat_transform_node, simplifies system development and removes the need for additional interface layers. Support for ROS 2 Humble and Jazzy, along with RViz and Gazebo demonstration packages, further accelerates development, testing and deployment.
By combining Pollux 3 as the navigation backbone with ROS 2 as the autonomy framework, Aeron Systems provides a streamlined, production-ready solution for integrating accurate and resilient navigation into UAVs, UGVs, AMRs, inspection robots, defence platforms and other next-generation autonomous systems.
Read INS-ROS2 Integration for Next-Generation Autonomous Robotic Platforms.