rbot: an open-source AMR simulation stack for ROS 2 Jazzy and Gazebo Harmonic

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Hi everyone,

We are releasing rbot, an open-source Autonomous Mobile Robot simulation stack built for ROS 2 Jazzy and Gazebo Harmonic.

The goal is simple: give ROS users, students, and robotics teams a practical AMR reference workspace they can run, inspect, and adapt without assembling the full stack from scattered examples.

The project brings together:

  • URDF/Xacro robot description with generated mesh assets
  • Gazebo Harmonic worlds and ROS-Gazebo bridge configuration
  • ros2_control with a differential-drive controller
  • 2-D LiDAR, IMU, depth camera, stereo camera, GPS, and optional 3-D LiDAR paths
  • EKF localization with robot_localization
  • SLAM Toolbox mapping and saved-map workflow
  • AMCL localization with Nav2
  • Nav2 configuration using MPPI and SMAC Hybrid-A*
  • Docker, Docker Compose, and VS Code Dev Container support

The quick path is meant to cover the full mapping-to-navigation loop:

bash scripts/run_sim.sh --headless --rviz-mapping
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml run --rm teleop
bash scripts/run_sim.sh --headless --rviz-nav --map /ros2_ws/maps/my_map.yaml

Gazebo Harmonic is the supported simulator today. Isaac Sim packages are present as scaffolding for planned future work.

We would especially welcome feedback from people who work with Nav2, SLAM Toolbox, ROS 2 control, Gazebo simulation, and educational robotics workflows. Good first contributions include reproducible simulation scenarios, navigation tuning notes with before/after evidence, launch validation, and documentation improvements.

Repository: GitHub - rlxai/rbot: An open-source Autonomous Mobile Robot simulation stack for ROS 2 Jazzy and Gazebo Harmonic. ยท GitHub
Demo video: YouTube Link

If you try it, we would appreciate issues, PRs, and blunt feedback on what would make this more useful as a ROS 2 AMR reference stack.

Thank you,

Nitish from Robolabs AI