I have a simulated autonomous base running in ROS1, Melodic, Gazebo with movebase, gmapping and robotpose_ekf for the odom. When I move my robot straight forward, with the environment remaining unchanged for the entire path, then I get a bad map > odom transformation, making the robot perceive the straight path much shorter than how it actually is in reality.

I suppose this won't be a problem with a good wheel odom encoder on a real robot, but the simulation is problematic. This is similar to this question, however the answers didn't really help.

I checked the launch files of many autonomous robots (pr2, turtlebot, husky, jackal etc) to compare, but I couldn't identify the culprit. Below I post the rviz image with the map - odom error.

I tried with hector mapping but it doesn't work neither with pubmapodom_transform = true or false since it mostly relies on lidar (not odom), and since the environment is unchanged.

I also tried changing the false of my gazebo plugin: differentialdrivecontroller (libgazeborosdiff_drive.so) to true, but it doesn't work (I think because it has many broadcasters of odom tf).

I also upload some important files for your reference:

global_costmap.yaml

global_costmap:
  global_frame: map #map
  robot_base_frame: base_link
  update_frequency: 5 # Set this as high as the cpu resources allow
  publish_frequency: 5 #2.5
  static_map: true
  rolling_window: false
  track_unknown_space: true
  width: 1024
  height: 1024
  origin_x: -51.25
  origin_y: -51.25
  resolution: 0.1
  transform_tolerance: 1.0

  plugins:
    - {name: static_layer,            type: "costmap_2d::StaticLayer"}

local_costmap.yaml

local_costmap:
  global_frame: odom # odom_combined
  robot_base_frame: base_link
  update_frequency: 10 # 5.0
  publish_frequency: 10 # 5.0
  static_map: false
  rolling_window: true
  width: 4.0
  height: 4.0
  resolution: 0.05
  transform_tolerance: 1.0

  plugins:
   - {name: static_layer,        type: "costmap_2d::StaticLayer"}
   - {name: obstacle_layer,      type: "costmap_2d::VoxelLayer"}
   - {name: inflation_layer,         type: "costmap_2d::InflationLayer"}

gmapping.launch

<launch>
  <arg name="scan_topic" default="scan"/> <!--scan_filtered-->

  <node pkg="gmapping" type="slam_gmapping" name="slam_gmapping" output="screen">

    <param name="odom_frame" value="odom"/>
    <param name="base_frame" value="base_link"/>
    <param name="map_frame" value="map"/>
    <param name="throttle_scans" value="1"/>
    <param name="map_update_interval" value="0.1"/> <!-- default: 5.0 -->
    <param name="maxUrange" value="10.0"/>
    <param name="maxRange" value="10.0"/>
    <param name="sigma" value="0.05"/>
    <param name="kernelSize" value="1"/>
    <param name="lstep" value="0.05"/>
    <param name="astep" value="0.05"/>
    <param name="iterations" value="5"/>
    <param name="lsigma" value="0.075"/>
    <param name="ogain" value="3.0"/>
    <param name="minimumScore" value="150.0"/>
    <param name="lskip" value="0"/>
    <param name="srr" value="0.01"/>
    <param name="srt" value="0.02"/>
    <param name="str" value="0.01"/>
    <param name="stt" value="0.02"/>
    <param name="linearUpdate" value="0.1"/>
    <param name="angularUpdate" value="0.05"/>
    <param name="temporalUpdate" value="-1.0"/>
    <param name="resampleThreshold" value="0.5"/>
    <param name="particles" value="20"/>
    <param name="xmin" value="-10.0"/>
    <param name="ymin" value="-10.0"/>
    <param name="xmax" value="10.0"/>
    <param name="ymax" value="10.0"/>
    <param name="delta" value="0.03"/>
    <param name="occ_thresh" value="0.5"/> -->
    <param name="llsamplerange" value="0.01"/>
    <param name="llsamplestep" value="0.01"/>
    <param name="lasamplerange" value="0.005"/>
    <param name="lasamplestep" value="0.005"/>
    <remap from="scan" to="$(arg scan_topic)"/>
  </node>

</launch>

robotposeekf:

  <node pkg="robot_pose_ekf" type="robot_pose_ekf" name="robot_pose_ekf">
    <param name="output_frame" value="odom"/> <!-- odom_combined -->
    <param name="base_footprint_frame" value="base_link"/>
    <param name="freq" value="10.0"/>
    <param name="sensor_timeout" value="1.0"/>
    <param name="odom_used" value="true"/>
    <param name="imu_used" value="true"/>
    <param name="vo_used" value="false"/>
    <param name="debug" value="false"/>
    <param name="self_diagnose" value="false"/>

    <remap from="imu_data" to="imu"/>
  </node> 

Also the alternative hector_slam:

<launch>
  <arg name="tf_map_scanmatch_transform_frame_name" default="scanmatcher_frame"/>
  <arg name="base_frame" default="base_link"/>
  <arg name="odom_frame" default="odom"/>
  <arg name="pub_map_odom_transform" default="true"/>
  <arg name="scan_subscriber_queue_size" default="5"/>
  <arg name="scan_topic" default="scan"/> <!--scan_filtered-->
  <arg name="map_size" default="1024"/>

  <node pkg="hector_mapping" type="hector_mapping" name="hector_mapping" output="screen">

    <!-- Frame names -->
    <param name="map_frame" value="map" />
    <param name="base_frame" value="$(arg base_frame)" />
    <param name="odom_frame" value="$(arg odom_frame)" />

    <param name="use_tf_scan_transformation" value="true"/>
    <param name="use_tf_pose_start_estimate" value="false"/>
    <param name="pub_map_odom_transform" value="$(arg pub_map_odom_transform)"/>

    <param name="map_resolution" value="0.1"/>
    <param name="map_size" value="$(arg map_size)"/>
    <param name="map_start_x" value="0.5"/>
    <param name="map_start_y" value="0.5" />
    <param name="map_multi_res_levels" value="2" />

    <param name="update_factor_free" value="0.4"/>
    <param name="update_factor_occupied" value="0.9" />    
    <param name="map_update_distance_thresh" value="0.05"/>
    <param name="map_update_angle_thresh" value="0.06" />
    <param name="laser_z_min_value" value = "-1.0" />
    <param name="laser_z_max_value" value = "1.0" />
    <param name="map_pub_period" value="1.0"/>

    <param name="advertise_map_service" value="true"/>
    <param name="scan_subscriber_queue_size" value="$(arg scan_subscriber_queue_size)"/>
    <param name="scan_topic" value="$(arg scan_topic)"/>

    <param name="tf_map_scanmatch_transform_frame_name" value="$(arg tf_map_scanmatch_transform_frame_name)" />
  </node>

</launch>

Any help is highly appreciated!