http://answers.ros.org/question/10718/dwa_planner-vs-base_local_planner/
The dwa_local_planner supports velocity constraints specified in X, Y, and Theta while the Base_local_planner only supports constraints specified in X and theta. There is some-y velocities, but the users are limited to a pre-specified list of valid y velocity commands. This makes the Dwa_local_planner a better choice for robots that is holonomic or pseudo-holonomic because it allows for B Etter sampling of the velocity space.
The Dwa_local_planner is essentially a re-write of the Base_local_planner ' s DWA (Dynamic Window approach) option. The code is, in my opinion, a lot cleaner and easier to understand, particularly in the the-that-trajectories is simulate D. I believe that much of the overlapping code between the both packages is factored out and shared. However, its true, this there is some more work, the could be-done-to-pull-out common functionality. For applications This use the DWA approach for local planning, the Dwa_local_planner are probaly the best choice.
Robots with low acceleration limits may wish to use trajectory Rollout over DWA. This option is a available through the Base_local_planner package. Documentation on the differences between trajectory Rollout and DWA are available here.
Both the Base_local_planner and Dwa_local_planner packages are actively maintained and stable though no new features is P Lanned for either at the moment. As of the electric release, both planners can be tuned via dynamic_reconfigure.
Base_local_planner vs. Dwa_planner