The gmapping node is the package to perform SLAM (http://wiki.ros.org/gmapping).
The gmapping node inside this package mainly subscribes and publishes the following topics.
The following are the subscribed topics:
- tf (tf/tfMessage): The robot transform that relates to Kinect, robot base, and odometry
- scan (sensor_msgs/LaserScan): The laser scan data that is required to create the map
The following are the published topics:
- map (nav_msgs/OccupancyGrid): Publishes the occupancy grid map data
- map_metadata (nav_msgs/MapMetaData): Basic information about the occupancy grid
The gmapping node is highly configurable, using various parameters. The gmapping node parameters are defined inside the chefbot_bringup/launch/include/gmapping.launch.xml ...