3-Wheel Swerve
Path Planner

Differential drives are constrained by heading-dependent translation — any positional change requires the robot to first orient toward the goal, creating stop-and-turn mechanics that are catastrophically slow in competition scenarios requiring continuous repositioning.

Developed a custom path planner leveraging the holonomic kinematics of a 3-Wheel Omnidirectional (Swerve) drive — a platform capable of simultaneous independent translation and rotation. The planner fully decouples heading control from translational motion, allowing the robot to translate in any field-relative direction while maintaining an arbitrary orientation. This is critical for competition tasks requiring precise positioning while facing a fixed target.

C++ Nav2 plugin translating global Twist commands (Vx, Vy, Vθ) into independent wheel speeds and orientations via the inverse kinematic model of the 3WD geometry. The planner computes heading-independent trajectories — the robot can translate in any direction while concurrently reorienting, maximising task efficiency. Integrates with Nav2's lifecycle management and Costmap2D without changes to the broader navigation stack.

Robot translates freely in any direction while concurrently reorienting to face targets, drastically improving competition task efficiency. The decoupled heading control eliminates time lost to stop-and-turn mechanics entirely, enabling continuous smooth repositioning in complex field environments.