How to create an action server for navigation?

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So you are stuck here I guess:

  while(!ac.waitForServer(ros::Duration(5.0))){
    ROS_INFO("Waiting for the move_base action server to come up");
  }

Is this message showing all the time? Also do you have move_base running?

You should look into the actionlib doc and also the action lib tutorials to understand the basics of it first.

@pavel92 Yes, it shows every 5 seconds. It is running.

@Delb I have read that tutorial, in Action Server CPP file, they have included chores::DoDishesGoalConstPtr& goal in void execute. What will be equivalentvent to that in move_base_msgs::MoveBaseAction ?

You should continue investigating the tutorials it's explained (here). For move_base that should be move_base_msgs::MoveBaseGoalConstPtr& goal

@stevemartin: what sort of robot do you have? A differential drive platform?

If so: unless you want to learn how to write your own action server for this, I would suggest to use one of the available diff drive packages or ros_control plugins. That will save you quite some time.

@gvdhoorn Yes, a mobile robot. I can see that the plugin is responsible for the movement and I believe it publishes to /cmd_vel topic. But I was looking for the navigation of my robot. I want to send a goal coordinates and let my robot to navigate to that point (in known map).

The navigation stack is typically responsible for consuming nav goals and then transforming those into Twist msgs published on cmd_vel topics that ultimately make the robot move.

It's rare for someone to write their own MoveBaseGoal consumer.