Robust SLAM Systems: Are We There Yet?

Progress in the last decade has brought about significant improvements in the accuracy and speed of SLAM systems, broadening their mapping capabilities. Despite these advancements, long-term operation remains a major challenge, primarily due to the wide spectrum of perturbations robotic systems may encounter. Increasing the robustness of SLAM algorithms is an ongoing effort, however it usually addresses a specific perturbation. Generalisation of robustness across a large variety of challenging scenarios is not well-studied nor understood. This paper presents a systematic evaluation of the robustness of open-source state-of-the-art SLAM algorithms with respect to challenging conditions such as fast motion, non-uniform illumination, and dynamic scenes. The experiments are performed with perturbations present both independently of each other, as well as in combination in long-term deployment settings in unconstrained environments (lifelong operation).