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Planner

The Planner mode lets you design robot missions and compute planned paths directly in the browser, using the same algorithms as the map_data_plan CLI tool.

Workflow

  1. Load a .mapdata file, then switch to PLANNER using the tab in the top-right corner (the tab stays grayed out until a map is loaded).
  2. Click on the map to place waypoints. Drag any waypoint to adjust it. With Start at robot ticked the first waypoint is the robot itself, so you only click the goals.
  3. Select a planning mode and configure parameters in the sidebar.
  4. Click Replan Path to compute the path between the placed waypoints.
  5. Download the result as a GPX file or send it directly to the robot via Wormhole.

Import and export

Button Description
Import GPX Load an existing GPX track as the initial set of waypoints
Download Export the planned path as a .gpx file
Wormhole Send the planned path directly to the robot over the network
Delete All Remove all placed waypoints
Keep Endpoints Remove intermediate waypoints, keeping only start and end
Start at robot Pin the first waypoint to the robot's live position and plan from there

Start at robot

The toggle requires a robot position, staying disabled until the tracker reports one (telemetry arrives in all modes, so the Robot layer does not need to be active). While enabled, waypoint 0 follows the robot and Replan Path refreshes it before planning.

Planning mode

Mode Description
All terrain — A* Grid-based A* that finds the optimal path while avoiding OSM barriers and manual annotations. Recommended for most off-road scenarios.
All terrain — RRT* Sampling-based planner. Suited for large open areas; falls back to Grid A* if no path is found within the iteration budget.
Paths only Constrains the route to the OSM road and footway network, including manually annotated paths. Produces on-network routes.

Path priority

OSM ways and annotated paths take priority over obstacles. A path overlapping a barrier polygon is treated as traversable, allowing you to route through obstacles (such as a gate in a fence).

Routing options

  • Plan on Footways — include pedestrian footways as traversable ways (default: enabled).
  • Plan on Roads — include vehicle roads as traversable ways.

Planner parameters

When the viewer runs under ROS 2 and the tracker's planner_node parameter is active (default: /route_planner), initial toggles and parameter values are synchronized from the running /route_planner node's current parameters. In this case, the UI displays "defaults from /route_planner". When running standalone without ROS 2 or when planner_node is set to "", defaults are loaded from config/planner_defaults.yaml.

Parameter Default Description
Cell Size (m) 0.25 Grid resolution for all-terrain planning
Obstacle Inflation (m) 0.25 Safety buffer added around barrier polygons
Simplify Path on Drop vertices whose shortcut stays collision-free (Douglas-Peucker)
Smooth Path off Apply gradient-descent smoothing to the planned path
Grid Cost Weight 5.0 How strongly the cell cost weighs against path length in all-terrain planning
Show Cost Grid off Overlay the traversal cost grid of the current view on the map for debugging

Highway costs

The Highway Costs button opens a configuration dialog where you can assign base traversal costs (0.0 = preferred, 1.0 = costly) to each OSM highway type and additional penalties per surface material. These costs are taken into account during both Paths only graph planning (where edge costs are weighted by way costs) and all-terrain grid planning.

Traversability rules

The Traversability Rules button opens config/traversability.yaml in an editor. See Traversability rules for rule syntax and synchronization requirements with other nodes.

  • Apply checks the rules and applies them for Paths only planning in the current browser session.
  • Save to file writes the edited rules to disk. route_planner picks up the saved file on its next goal; osm_cloud reads the file only at startup and requires a restart.
  • Reload from file discards unsaved edits and reloads the file from disk.
  • Show only plannable ways hides ways that Paths only will not route over (refused by rules, stairs, or unselected way types).