It sounds like you don't have the proper goal topic configured in rviz.
In particular, you should set the 2D Nav Toal topic to /move_base_simple/goal in the Tool Properties window.
Take a look at http://ros.org/wiki/navigation/Tutorials/Using%20rviz%20with%20the%20Navigation%20Stack
Originally posted by ahendrix with karma: 47576 on 2012-09-12
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Original comments
Comment by Aroarus on 2012-09-13:
Unfortunately, I have that set properly already in rviz. When using rostopic echo to listen to the "move_base_simple/goal" topic however, nothing gets sent when I use the "2D Nav Goal" button in RViz. Also nothing gets sent when I hit the "2D Pose Estimate" button and listen to "initialpose"
Comment by ahendrix on 2012-09-13:
Are you running ROS over a network? Which machine are you running 'rostopic echo' on?
Comment by Aroarus on 2012-09-17:
I am running ROS between two computers over my lab wireless network. I have tried running rostopic echo on both the workstation and the mobile computer, with the same result.
Comment by ahendrix on 2012-09-17:
I would walk through the network setup and make sure everything there is in order: http://www.ros.org/wiki/ROS/NetworkSetup
Comment by Devasena Inupakutika on 2013-03-23:
Have you checked your frames.pdf file ? You can check the transforms that are published. Please type below command on another terminal and frames.pdf file will be generated: rosrun tf view_frames
Comment by Devasena Inupakutika on 2013-03-23:
You should get a tree like the following link --> /map -> /odom -> base_link -> openni_camera. If anyone link is missing, turtlebot won't move and you get warning that particular link is not found. Hope this helps !!