Nav2 Waypoint Follower and Patrol Routes

Source: ros2-copilot-skills waypoint follower skill

Why This Matters

Many robots need to visit multiple places in sequence long before they need a sophisticated autonomy system. The waypoint follower covers that middle ground well, but only if you understand its limits and task-executor model.

Distilled Takeaways

• Waypoint following is a good fit for patrols, inspections, and multi-room traversal.
• It is sequential, not route-optimizing.
• Task executors let each waypoint do a little more than just “arrive and continue.”
• stop_on_failure changes the operational character of the patrol significantly.
• Once route logic starts depending on robot state, failures, or mission context, a BT-based autonomy layer often becomes the better abstraction.

Practical Guidance

• Decide whether your robot should stop the mission on one blocked waypoint or continue the route.
• Set action timeouts to match the longest realistic leg, not a happy-path demo run.
• Use waypoint following for structured repetitive routes before investing in a larger autonomy framework.
• Treat patrol looping logic as application code unless you intentionally move it into a BT.

Corroborating References

• Nav2 waypoint follower documentation
• Nav2 Simple Commander API docs

When to Read the Original Source

Go to the original skill when you want Python examples, task-executor plugin descriptions, patrol-loop patterns, and the operational differences between FollowWaypoints and NavigateThroughPoses.