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Already posted this answer here, but it fits your question very well, so here goes:

You can try out the hector_exploration_planner package that we use with great success for exploration while participating in the RoboCup Rescue Robot League. There currently isn't an example available interacting with the navigation stack, but implementing a node that calls the service provided by the hector_exploration_node and feeds the provided goals to move_base should be straightforward.

Two examples of exploration in (gazebo) simulation:

Already posted this answer here, but it fits your question very well, so here goes:

You can try out the hector_exploration_planner package that we use with great success for exploration while participating in the RoboCup Rescue Robot League. There currently isn't an example available interacting with the navigation stack, but implementing a node that calls the service provided by the hector_exploration_node and feeds the provided goals to move_base should be straightforward.

Real world example (RoboCup Rescue 2012 final, note that the background checkerboard is on a 1m grid)

Two examples of exploration in (gazebo) simulation: