simplifying jackal robot

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I just use default jackal simulation. Im completely new to ROS, so i dont even know where to begin. For starters, which topic writes the coordinates, velociry and angle etc? Because i dont know how to get a hold on that info

Thx anyway

So you are using the package jackal_gazebo ? Please tell us what commands you are using to run your simulation (the roslaunch/rosrun commands, custom launch/src files if you have ones etc...). You didn't answered my question : do you have a map or are you creating one (or neither of the two) ?

Im using roslaunch jackal_gazebo jackal_world.launch. im using the standard world. But i might change it in the future. Im also not customizing it for now. Im just learnig how to create a node that can read the coordinates and angle. And then ill try making a controller that just makes it go f&b

With this launch file you are only spawning a robot in Gazebo, the robot knows only information about itself but doesn't have informations relative to the world. In order to locate the robot you need a global frame that the robot will know how it's moving relatively. So you need a map...

... but if you don't have one (which is the case with your launch file) you need to create one so you need senors (like a laser) to do so. So you can't locate your robot like this you need to add a sensor and use gmapping to create the map and locate the robot inside it.