TurtleBot3

ROS packages for TurtleBot3 — the standard educational mobile robot platform

License

Apache-2.0

Overview

TurtleBot3 is the third generation of the reference ROS educational robot, developed by ROBOTIS with Open Robotics. This repository contains the official ROS 1 and ROS 2 packages that bring up the robot, publish its sensors, drive its Dynamixel wheel actuators and expose it to the SLAM, Nav2 and simulation stacks. The Burger and Waffle Pi models are small, affordable differential-drive robots with a 360° lidar, IMU and camera options, and the open packages here are the canonical starting point for learning robot navigation with ROS.

This repository provides the complete TurtleBot3 software stack: robot bringup, URDF descriptions for the Burger, Waffle and Waffle Pi models, teleoperation, diagnostic and example nodes, and the glue between the OpenCR embedded controller and the ROS graph. Together with the companion turtlebot3_msgs and turtlebot3_simulations repositories it supports both ROS 1 (Noetic) and modern ROS 2 releases (Humble/Jazzy). The packages integrate directly with slam_toolbox and Nav2, so a stock robot can map a room and navigate autonomously out of the box, and the same launch files drive the Gazebo simulation when no hardware is present — which is why TurtleBot3 is the platform used by most university ROS courses and the official ROS tutorials.

Why it matters

TurtleBot3 is the robot on which a large share of the world's roboticists learned ROS: it is the official reference platform for ROS tutorials and university courses, and its fully open software, URDFs and hardware designs made low-cost, reproducible robotics education mainstream.

Problem it solves

Learning ROS navigation used to require an expensive research platform or fragile custom hardware. TurtleBot3's open packages give students and labs a documented, simulator-backed, affordable robot where SLAM and autonomous navigation work out of the box.

Key takeaways

• Official ROS 1 and ROS 2 packages for the Burger, Waffle and Waffle Pi models
• Out-of-the-box SLAM and Nav2 autonomous navigation with the built-in 360° lidar
• URDFs and Gazebo simulation mirror the physical robots for hardware-free learning
• OpenCR embedded board and Dynamixel actuators are fully documented and open
• The reference platform for official ROS tutorials and countless university courses

Who it is for

• Robotics students and educators
• ROS beginners learning SLAM and navigation
• Labs standardizing on a low-cost research base
• Developers prototyping mobile-robot applications

Limitations

• Designed for indoor, flat-floor environments — small wheels and modest payload
• Compute on the stock Raspberry Pi is limited for heavy perception workloads
• Hardware must be purchased from ROBOTIS resellers (only the designs and software are open)