What tf frames are required for autonomous navigation?

edit

what you have will work.

The essential transforms are the map to odom transform:

map -> odom

the odom to robot transform:

odom -> base_footprint

and then robot transform to the published frames of any sensor data, which in your case is just:

base_link -> laser

Most robots end up with a lot of static transforms, because their are usually many small parts seperating the transform from base_footprint to whatever sensors the robot has, so instead of base_link -> laser, you end up with transforms that have more degrees of seperation, like this:

base_link ->chassis->laser_mount->laser

But those degrees of seperation aren't necessary, all that matters is that navigation has a way to transform from the sensor frame to your robot's base frame.