# The Marathon 2: A Navigation System

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.00368 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.00368/

## Key facts

- Cited by 70 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 1 Mar 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 70)

- [NaVid: Video-based VLM Plans the Next Step for Vision-and-Language Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.15852/) (2024)
- [InstructNav: Zero-shot System for Generic Instruction Navigation in Unexplored Environment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.04882/) (2024)
- [Code as Agent Harness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.18747/) (2026)
- [Mem2Ego: Empowering Vision-Language Models with Global-to-Ego Memory for Long-Horizon Embodied Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.14254/) (2025)
- [Robot Behavior-Tree-Based Task Generation with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.12927/) (2023)
- [End-to-End (Instance)-Image Goal Navigation through Correspondence as an Emergent Phenomenon](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16634/) (2023)
- [Towards Optimal Correlational Object Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.09991/) (2021)
- [Motion Planning Transformers: A Motion Planning Framework for Mobile Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.02791/) (2021)
- [Maestro: Orchestrating Robotics Modules with Vision-Language Models for Zero-Shot Generalist Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.00917/) (2025)
- [NEUSIS: A Compositional Neuro-Symbolic Framework for Autonomous Perception, Reasoning, and Planning in Complex UAV Search Missions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.10196/) (2024)
- [PlanSys2: A Planning System Framework for ROS2](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.00376/) (2021)
- [Marvin: an Innovative Omni-Directional Robotic Assistant for Domestic Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05597/) (2021)
- [Learning with a Mole: Transferable latent spatial representations for navigation without reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03857/) (2023)
- [Learning to navigate efficiently and precisely in real environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.14349/) (2024)
- [TRIFFID: Autonomous Robotic Aid For Increasing First Responders Efficiency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.09379/) (2025)
- [RAI: Flexible Agent Framework for Embodied AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.07532/) (2025)
- [Reasoning in visual navigation of end-to-end trained agents: a dynamical systems approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.08306/) (2025)
- [cuVSLAM: CUDA accelerated visual odometry and mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.04359/) (2025)
- [Human-like Navigation in a World Built for Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.21189/) (2025)
- [ROSpace: Intrusion Detection Dataset for a ROS2-Based Cyber-Physical System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.08468/) (2024)
- [Mixed Strategy Nash Equilibrium for Crowd Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.01537/) (2024)
- [FASTNav: Fine-tuned Adaptive Small-language-models Trained for Multi-point Robot Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.13262/) (2024)
- [AnywhereVLA: Language-Conditioned Exploration and Mobile Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.21006/) (2025)
- [RoboNeuron: A Middle-Layer Infrastructure for Agent-Driven Orchestration in Embodied AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.10394/) (2025)
- [WildOS: Open-Vocabulary Object Search in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.19308/) (2026)
- [Verifying Safety of Behaviour Trees in Event-B](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14045/) (2022)
- [Enhancing Trust in Autonomous Agents: An Architecture for Accountability and Explainability through Blockchain and Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.09567/) (2024)
- [Learning Social Cost Functions for Human-Aware Path Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.10547/) (2024)
- [RANa: Retrieval-Augmented Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.03524/) (2025)
- [What does really matter in image goal navigation?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.01667/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Developments in mobile robot navigation have enabled robots to operate in warehouses, retail stores, and on sidewalks around pedestrians. Various navigation solutions have been proposed, though few as widely adopted as ROS Navigation. 10 years on, it is still one of the most popular navigation solutions. Yet, ROS Navigation has failed to keep up with modern trends. We propose the new navigation solution, Navigation2, which builds on the successful legacy of ROS Navigation. Navigation2 uses a behavior tree for navigator task orchestration and employs new methods designed for dynamic environments applicable to a wider variety of modern sensors. It is built on top of ROS2, a secure message passing framework suitable for safety critical applications and program lifecycle management. We present experiments in a campus setting utilizing Navigation2 to operate safely alongside students over a marathon as an extension of the experiment proposed in Eppstein et al. The Navigation2 system is freely available at https://github.com/ros-planning/navigation2 with a rich community and instructions.