NuRF: Nudging the Particle Filter in Radiance Fields for Robot Visual Localization

Can we localize a robot in radiance fields only using monocular vision? This study presents NuRF, a nudged particle filter framework for 6-DoF robot visual localization in radiance fields. NuRF sets anchors in SE(3) to leverage visual place recognition, which provides image comparisons to guide the sampling process. This guidance could improve the convergence and robustness of particle filters for robot localization. Additionally, an adaptive scheme is designed to enhance the performance of NuRF, thus enabling both global visual localization and local pose tracking. Real-world experiments are conducted with comprehensive tests to demonstrate the effectiveness of NuRF. The results showcase the advantages of NuRF in terms of accuracy and efficiency, including comparisons with alternative approaches. Furthermore, we report our findings for future studies and advancements in robot navigation in radiance fields.