Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) Platform Development with Nav2 & LiDAR SLAM

Objectives

What the project needed to achieve

• Design an 80 kg payload skid-steer chassis fitting within a 700 x 550 mm footprint
• Implement autonomous LiDAR SLAM mapping and Nav2 path planning with dynamic obstacle avoidance
• Build custom embedded motor controller firmware with closed-loop optical encoder feedback
• Achieve ±3 cm docking precision at charging and drop-off stations
• Design within target bill-of-materials boundaries using standard industrial components

Challenge

Engineering constraint

The client needed to automate pallet and bin movement across a 20,000 sq ft factory floor with tight aisles (1.2 m) and dynamic human traffic. Off-the-shelf commercial AMRs were priced at High-cost commercial AGVs with closed proprietary software stacks that could not be customized. They needed an open, ROS 2-native AMR capable of transporting 80 kg payloads safely with Target docking precision.

Approach

How YantriX approached the work

1. 01

   Engineered a welded steel-plate chassis with powder-coated sheet metal enclosure, sized for 80 kg payload with a low center of gravity.

2. 02

   Selected high-torque planetary BLDC hub motors and designed an ESP32-S3 CAN-bus motor controller board with dual quadrature encoder feedback for PID speed control.

3. 03

   Integrated Slamtec RPLiDAR S2 (30m range) with depth-camera floor obstacle detection feeding into a ROS 2 Humble Nav2 costmap on a Jetson Orin Nano.

4. 04

   Tuned the DWB local planner and TEB local planner for tight-corridor navigation, dynamic human-yield maneuvers, and AprilTag optical docking for ±2.5 cm terminal positioning.

5. 05

   Conducted Extensive bench and laboratory endurance testing with full battery telemetry and automated return-to-charge behavior.