Hi all,
I've been trying to troubleshoot the robot and running navigation stack on
it. Earlier atleast the path was being planed and published, but we decided
to migrate to a different laptop with a graphics card.
Now, our files are  the same, the tf's are also same, I've attached the
file. ROS installation on the new laptop was done through svn, and that's
the only change.
The odometry is transformed as follows:
odom_broadcaster.sendTransform((odom.pose.pose.position.x,
odom.pose.pose.position.y ,
odom.pose.pose.position.z),tf.transformations.quaternion_from_euler(0,0,float(odo_returned[2]*0.001534)),rospy.Time.now(),"base_link","odom")


odo_returned[2] here is an element of a python list, and contains the
odometry data with yaw values, that have a conversion factor of .001534.

The laser is being transformed as follows:
broadcaster.sendTransform(tf::StampedTransform(tf::Transform(tf::Quaternion(0,
0, 0, 1), tf::Vector3(0.0, 0.0, 0.2)),ros::Time::now(),"/base_link",
"/laser"));

The values for move_base parameters are also shown below:
base_local_planner_params.yaml:
TrajectoryPlannerROS:
  transform_tolerance: 0.3
  sim_time: 1.7
  sim_granularity: 0.05
# dwa: true
  vx_samples: 3
  vtheta_samples: 20
  max_vel_x: 1
  min_vel_x: 0.2
  max_rotational_vel: 1.0
  min_in_place_rotational_vel: 0.4
  xy_goal_tolerance: 0.2
  yaw_goal_tolerance: 0.05
  goal_distance_bias: 0.8
  path_distance_bias: 0.6
  occdist_scale: 0.5
# occdist_scale: 0.05
  heading_lookahead: 0.325
  oscillation_reset_dist: 0.05
  acc_limit_th: 3.2
  acc_limit_x: 2.5
  acc_limit_y: 2.5
  holonomic_robot: false

costmap_common_params.yaml:
obstacle_range: 2.5
raytrace_range: 1.0
footprint: [[-0.2, -0.2], [0.2, -0.2], [0.2, 0.2], [-0.2, 0.2]]
#robot_radius: 0.4
inflation_radius: 0.2

observation_sources: laser_scan_sensor

laser_scan_sensor: {sensor_frame: laser, data_type: LaserScan, topic: /scan
, marking: true, clearing: true}

global_costmap_params.yaml:
global_costmap:
  global_frame: /odom
  robot_base_frame: /base_link
  update_frequency: 5.0
  publish_frequency: 2.0
  static_map: false

local_costmap_params.yaml:
local_costmap:
  global_frame: /odom
  robot_base_frame: /base_link
  update_frequency: 5.0
  publish_frequency: 2.0
  static_map: false
  rolling_window: true
  width: 6.0
  height: 6.0
  resolution: 0.05

I'm using simple_navigation_goals, and giving a goal of x=2 m and w = 1 in
/odom frame.

On passing the goal, the robot starts rotating about the centre, and gives
the following in the status:
Failed to find a valid plan. Even after executing recovery behaviors.
No messages for any global or local plan are being published. We also tried
to start with running the robot straight, and then giving it a goal to see
if anything works. But the velocity commands were still being pulished as (x
=0, theta = 57), which means it still wants to rotate.
The action server reports that the The base failed to move forward 2 meter
for some reason.

The test is being done in a corridor, approx 8-10 feet wide with no
obstacles, so there is no reason why the plan should fail.

Any help or hints would be greatly appreciated. I've out all the possible
problems i thought could exist, but no luck so far.
-- 
Regards,
Hitesh Dhiman
Electrical Engineering
National University of Singapore