Yes, there is a solution. You can use hector with a map_server and amcl. You can check out my launch file at [https://github.com/ne0h/hmmwv/blob/master/ros_workspace/src/hmmwv/launch/prebuildmap.launch] But there are still two problems: - You need to tell hector (I use rviz for that) where the robot is on the map. Must be the perfect position - You need to drive a little but around so that hector can find itself on the map

Hi neoh,

Do you implement any link between map and mapcurrent of your code?

Because I tried to do something only relying on static transform (and a perfectly known initial position). But when the map grows bigger, the maps drift from one another.

I thought of adding a ICP algo to create the transform between map (the known one in which amcl compute the pose) and the mapcurrent. But i never managed to implement it...

In case it is unclear, my motivation is the following: - a have partially known map of an environment - i want to create a map of the environment, including the bit not provided in my map - i want to perform efficient path planning, relying on as much info as possible: both the partially known map AND the elements gathered during the flight and stored in the new map

There is a hector branch with this functionality. You can find the discussion about it in this Pull Request. You can checkout the branch and then add the following in your hector launch file:

<node pkg="hector_mapping" type="hector_mapping" name="hector_mapping" output="screen">
   ...
   <param name="use_static_map" value="true" />
   ...
</node>