LiteVLoc: Map-Lite Visual Localization for Image Goal Navigation

This paper presents LiteVLoc, a hierarchical visual localization framework that uses a lightweight topo-metric map to represent the environment. The method consists of three sequential modules that estimate camera poses in a coarse-to-fine manner. Unlike mainstream approaches relying on detailed 3D representations, LiteVLoc reduces storage overhead by leveraging learning-based feature matching and geometric solvers for metric pose estimation. A novel dataset for the map-free relocalization task is also introduced. Extensive experiments including localization and navigation in both simulated and real-world scenarios have validate the system's performance and demonstrated its precision and efficiency for large-scale deployment. Code and data will be made publicly available.

Heterogeneous LiDAR Dataset for Benchmarking Robust Localization in Diverse Degenerate Scenarios

The ability to estimate pose and generate maps using 3D LiDAR significantly enhances robotic system autonomy. However, existing open-source datasets lack representation of geometrically degenerate environments, limiting the development and benchmarking of robust LiDAR SLAM algorithms. To address this gap, we introduce GEODE, a comprehensive multi-LiDAR, multi-scenario dataset specifically designed to include real-world geometrically degenerate environments. GEODE comprises 64 trajectories spanning over 64 kilometers across seven diverse settings with varying degrees of degeneracy. The data was meticulously collected to promote the development of versatile algorithms by incorporating various LiDAR sensors, stereo cameras, IMUs, and diverse motion conditions. We evaluate state-of-the-art SLAM approaches using the GEODE dataset to highlight current limitations in LiDAR SLAM techniques. This extensive dataset will be publicly available at https://geode.github.io, supporting further advancements in LiDAR-based SLAM.

MS-Mapping: An Uncertainty-Aware Large-Scale Multi-Session LiDAR Mapping System

Large-scale multi-session LiDAR mapping is essential for a wide range of applications, including surveying, autonomous driving, crowdsourced mapping, and multi-agent navigation. However, existing approaches often struggle with data redundancy, robustness, and accuracy in complex environments. To address these challenges, we present MS-Mapping, an novel multi-session LiDAR mapping system that employs an incremental mapping scheme for robust and accurate map assembly in large-scale environments. Our approach introduces three key innovations: 1) A distribution-aware keyframe selection method that captures the subtle contributions of each point cloud frame to the map by analyzing the similarity of map distributions. This method effectively reduces data redundancy and pose graph size, while enhancing graph optimization speed; 2) An uncertainty model that automatically performs least-squares adjustments according to the covariance matrix during graph optimization, improving mapping precision, robustness, and flexibility without the need for scene-specific parameter tuning. This uncertainty model enables our system to monitor pose uncertainty and avoid ill-posed optimizations, thereby increasing adaptability to diverse and challenging environments. 3) To ensure fair evaluation, we redesign baseline comparisons and the evaluation benchmark. Direct assessment of map accuracy demonstrates the superiority of the proposed MS-Mapping algorithm compared to state-of-the-art methods. In addition to employing public datasets such as Urban-Nav, FusionPortable, and Newer College, we conducted extensive experiments on such a large \SI{855}{m}$\times$\SI{636}{m} ground truth map, collecting over \SI{20}{km} of indoor and outdoor data across more than ten sequences...

MS-Mapping: Multi-session LiDAR Mapping with Wasserstein-based Keyframe Selection

Large-scale multi-session LiDAR mapping plays a crucial role in various applications but faces significant challenges in data redundancy and pose graph scalability. This paper present MS-Mapping, a novel multi-session LiDAR mapping system that combines an incremental mapping scheme with support for various LiDAR-based odometry, enabling high-precision and consistent map assembly in large-scale environments. Our approach introduces a real-time keyframe selection method based on the Wasserstein distance, which effectively reduces data redundancy and pose graph complexity. We formulate the LiDAR point cloud keyframe selection problem using a similarity method based on Gaussian mixture models (GMM) and tackle the real-time challenge by employing an incremental voxel update method. Extensive experiments on large-scale campus scenes and over \SI{12.8}{km} of public and self-collected datasets demonstrate the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of our map assembly approach. To facilitate further research and development in the community, we make our code https://github.com/JokerJohn/MS-Mapping and datasets publicly available.

FusionPortableV2: A Unified Multi-Sensor Dataset for Generalized SLAM Across Diverse Platforms and Scalable Environments

Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) technology has been widely applied in various robotic scenarios, from rescue operations to autonomous driving. However, the generalization of SLAM algorithms remains a significant challenge, as current datasets often lack scalability in terms of platforms and environments. To address this limitation, we present FusionPortableV2, a multi-sensor SLAM dataset featuring notable sensor diversity, varied motion patterns, and a wide range of environmental scenarios. Our dataset comprises $27$ sequences, spanning over $2.5$ hours and collected from four distinct platforms: a handheld suite, wheeled and legged robots, and vehicles. These sequences cover diverse settings, including buildings, campuses, and urban areas, with a total length of $38.7km$. Additionally, the dataset includes ground-truth (GT) trajectories and RGB point cloud maps covering approximately $0.3km^2$. To validate the utility of our dataset in advancing SLAM research, we assess several state-of-the-art (SOTA) SLAM algorithms. Furthermore, we demonstrate the dataset's broad applicability beyond traditional SLAM tasks by investigating its potential for monocular depth estimation. The complete dataset, including sensor data, GT, and calibration details, is accessible at https://fusionportable.github.io/dataset/fusionportable_v2.

PALoc: Advancing SLAM Benchmarking with Prior-Assisted 6-DoF Trajectory Generation and Uncertainty Estimation

Accurately generating ground truth (GT) trajectories is essential for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) evaluation, particularly under varying environmental conditions. This study introduces a systematic approach employing a prior map-assisted framework for generating dense six-degree-of-freedom (6-DoF) GT poses for the first time, enhancing the fidelity of both indoor and outdoor SLAM datasets. Our method excels in handling degenerate and stationary conditions frequently encountered in SLAM datasets, thereby increasing robustness and precision. A significant aspect of our approach is the detailed derivation of covariances within the factor graph, enabling an in-depth analysis of pose uncertainty propagation. This analysis crucially contributes to demonstrating specific pose uncertainties and enhancing trajectory reliability from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Additionally, we provide an open-source toolbox (https://github.com/JokerJohn/Cloud_Map_Evaluation) for map evaluation criteria, facilitating the indirect assessment of overall trajectory precision. Experimental results show at least a 30\% improvement in map accuracy and a 20\% increase in direct trajectory accuracy compared to the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) \cite{sharp2002icp} algorithm across diverse campus environments, with substantially enhanced robustness. Our open-source solution (https://github.com/JokerJohn/PALoc), extensively applied in the FusionPortable\cite{Jiao2022Mar} dataset, is geared towards SLAM benchmark dataset augmentation and represents a significant advancement in SLAM evaluations.

PALoc: Robust Prior-assisted Trajectory Generation for Benchmarking

Evaluating simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms necessitates high-precision and dense ground truth (GT) trajectories. But obtaining desirable GT trajectories is sometimes challenging without GT tracking sensors. As an alternative, in this paper, we propose a novel prior-assisted SLAM system to generate a full six-degree-of-freedom ($6$-DOF) trajectory at around $10$Hz for benchmarking under the framework of the factor graph. Our degeneracy-aware map factor utilizes a prior point cloud map and LiDAR frame for point-to-plane optimization, simultaneously detecting degeneration cases to reduce drift and enhancing the consistency of pose estimation. Our system is seamlessly integrated with cutting-edge odometry via a loosely coupled scheme to generate high-rate and precise trajectories. Moreover, we propose a norm-constrained gravity factor for stationary cases, optimizing pose and gravity to boost performance. Extensive evaluations demonstrate our algorithm's superiority over existing SLAM or map-based methods in diverse scenarios in terms of precision, smoothness, and robustness. Our approach substantially advances reliable and accurate SLAM evaluation methods, fostering progress in robotics research.

FAST-LIO, Then Bayesian ICP, Then GTSFM

For the Hilti Challenge 2022, we created two systems, one building upon the other. The first system is FL2BIPS which utilizes the iEKF algorithm FAST-LIO2 and Bayesian ICP PoseSLAM, whereas the second system is GTSFM, a structure from motion pipeline with factor graph backend optimization powered by GTSAM

FusionPortable: A Multi-Sensor Campus-Scene Dataset for Evaluation of Localization and Mapping Accuracy on Diverse Platforms

Combining multiple sensors enables a robot to maximize its perceptual awareness of environments and enhance its robustness to external disturbance, crucial to robotic navigation. This paper proposes the FusionPortable benchmark, a complete multi-sensor dataset with a diverse set of sequences for mobile robots. This paper presents three contributions. We first advance a portable and versatile multi-sensor suite that offers rich sensory measurements: 10Hz LiDAR point clouds, 20Hz stereo frame images, high-rate and asynchronous events from stereo event cameras, 200Hz inertial readings from an IMU, and 10Hz GPS signal. Sensors are already temporally synchronized in hardware. This device is lightweight, self-contained, and has plug-and-play support for mobile robots. Second, we construct a dataset by collecting 17 sequences that cover a variety of environments on the campus by exploiting multiple robot platforms for data collection. Some sequences are challenging to existing SLAM algorithms. Third, we provide ground truth for the decouple localization and mapping performance evaluation. We additionally evaluate state-of-the-art SLAM approaches and identify their limitations. The dataset, consisting of raw sensor easurements, ground truth, calibration data, and evaluated algorithms, will be released: https://ram-lab.com/file/site/multi-sensor-dataset.

csBoundary: City-scale Road-boundary Detection in Aerial Images for High-definition Maps

High-Definition (HD) maps can provide precise geometric and semantic information of static traffic environments for autonomous driving. Road-boundary is one of the most important information contained in HD maps since it distinguishes between road areas and off-road areas, which can guide vehicles to drive within road areas. But it is labor-intensive to annotate road boundaries for HD maps at the city scale. To enable automatic HD map annotation, current work uses semantic segmentation or iterative graph growing for road-boundary detection. However, the former could not ensure topological correctness since it works at the pixel level, while the latter suffers from inefficiency and drifting issues. To provide a solution to the aforementioned problems, in this letter, we propose a novel system termed csBoundary to automatically detect road boundaries at the city scale for HD map annotation. Our network takes as input an aerial image patch, and directly infers the continuous road-boundary graph (i.e., vertices and edges) from this image. To generate the city-scale road-boundary graph, we stitch the obtained graphs from all the image patches. Our csBoundary is evaluated and compared on a public benchmark dataset. The results demonstrate our superiority. The accompanied demonstration video is available at our project page \url{https://sites.google.com/view/csboundary/}.