# ROS Navigation Tuning Guide

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.09068 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.09068/

## Key facts

- Cited by 9 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 27 Jun 2017.

## Built on by (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [Learning Model Predictive Controllers with Real-Time Attention for Real-World Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.10780/) (2022)
- [APPLD: Adaptive Planner Parameter Learning from Demonstration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.00116/) (2020)
- [Towards Optimal Correlational Object Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.09991/) (2021)
- [Embodied Escaping: End-to-End Reinforcement Learning for Robot Navigation in Narrow Environment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.03208/) (2025)
- [Reinforcement Learning for Adaptive Planner Parameter Tuning: A Perspective on Hierarchical Architecture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.18366/) (2025)
- [RoboCup@Home Education 2020 Best Performance: RoboBreizh, a modular approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.02978/) (2021)
- [An implementation of ROS Autonomous Navigation on Parallax Eddie platform](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.12571/) (2021)
- [Robot Skill Learning Via Classical Robotics-Based Generated Datasets: Advantages, Disadvantages, and Future Improvement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.08794/) (2023)
- [APPLV: Adaptive Planner Parameter Learning from Vision-Language-Action Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.08862/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The ROS navigation stack is powerful for mobile robots to move from place to place reliably. The job of navigation stack is to produce a safe path for the robot to execute, by processing data from odometry, sensors and environment map. Maximizing the performance of this navigation stack requires some fine tuning of parameters, and this is not as simple as it looks. One who is sophomoric about the concepts and reasoning may try things randomly, and wastes a lot of time. This article intends to guide the reader through the process of fine tuning navigation parameters. It is the reference when someone need to know the "how" and "why" when setting the value of key parameters. This guide assumes that the reader has already set up the navigation stack and ready to optimize it. This is also a summary of my work with the ROS navigation stack.