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FusionCore

ROS 2 UKF sensor fusion. IMU + wheel encoders + GPS → one position estimate. No manual noise tuning. Apache 2.0.

CI DOI

What it does

FusionCore is a 22-state UKF that fuses IMU, wheel encoders, and GPS into a single clean odometry output at 100 Hz. It runs as a single ROS 2 lifecycle node: no navsat_transform, no coordinate projection node, no feedback loop between two filters.

It publishes /fusion/odom and the full odom → base_link TF. Nav2 consumes it directly.

GPS is optional. FusionCore runs fine on IMU + wheel odometry alone for indoor robots.

How FusionCore differs from robot_localization

robot_localization is a solid, well-maintained package used on tens of thousands of robots. FusionCore makes different architectural choices:

Capability robot_localization FusionCore
GPS fusion navsat_transform node required; ECEF TF frame added in rolling-devel Filter state runs natively in ECEF: no UTM projection
IMU bias estimation Not in state vector Gyro + accel bias as filter states
Outlier rejection Single global Mahalanobis threshold Chi-squared gating per sensor
Adaptive noise Fixed config values Auto from innovation sequence
ZUPT Not built-in Auto when stationary
Delay compensation smooth_lagged_data + history_length IMU ring buffer replay
GPS fix quality gating Not built-in HDOP, satellite count, fix type
Dual antenna heading Not built-in Yes
Inertial coast mode Not built-in Auto on sustained GPS dropout
ROS 2 Jazzy / Humble Ported from ROS 1 Native, from scratch

Install

Humble users

Replace jazzy with humble in the commands below (Ubuntu 22.04).

mkdir -p ~/ros2_ws/src
cd ~/ros2_ws/src
git clone https://github.com/manankharwar/fusioncore.git
cd ~/ros2_ws
source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash
rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y
colcon build
source install/setup.bash

Headless / Raspberry Pi users

Add a COLCON_IGNORE file before building to skip the Gazebo package: 

touch ~/ros2_ws/src/fusioncore/fusioncore_gazebo/COLCON_IGNORE

Quick start

ros2 launch fusioncore_ros fusioncore_nav2.launch.py \
  fusioncore_config:=/path/to/your_robot.yaml

That's the full stack: FusionCore + Nav2, lifecycle managed automatically.

No Nav2? Use fusioncore.launch.py instead:

ros2 launch fusioncore_ros fusioncore.launch.py \
  fusioncore_config:=/path/to/your_robot.yaml

Where to go next