Simultaneous Localization and Mapping

Also known as SLAM

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Overview

SLAM estimates a robot’s changing position and a consistent map at the same time, enabling navigation where GPS or prior maps are unavailable. Systems combine camera, LiDAR, radar, sonar, and inertial measurements using feature or scan matching, sensor-fusion filters, and factor-graph optimization with loop closure to limit accumulated drift. Dense mapping increasingly uses neural fields, semantic scene graphs, and 3D Gaussian splatting, evaluated on indoor RGB-D benchmarks as well as outdoor driving and field-robot datasets. A central challenge is balancing accuracy, dense and useful maps, and real-time resource limits while remaining reliable in dynamic, low-texture, or changing environments.

Latest papers

CardsList

198 papers20 papers in the last four weeks, down 5% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. SKiD-SLAM: Resource-Aware Distributed Multi-Robot LiDAR SLAM for Planetary Missions with Field Deployments at Analog Sites

    Oct 28, 2026Hogyun Kim, Juwon Kim, Dongjin Cho +7Simultaneous Localization and MappingMulti-Robot Exploration

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Inha University, Incheon 22212, Republic of Korea · Laboratory for Information & Decision Systems (LIDS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

  2. RAVEN: A Unified Active SLAM System for Rapid Autonomous Visual Exploration with Aerial Robots under Localization Uncertainty

    Oct 27, 2026Xinyi Chen, Yichen Zhang, Chenxing Jiang +1Simultaneous Localization and MappingAutonomous Robot Exploration

    Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

  3. Consistent Distributed Invariant EKF SLAM with Point and Object Features

    Oct 22, 2026Mengya Xu, Xianjia Yu, Ha Sier +2Simultaneous Localization and MappingInvariant EKF

  4. Reading the Room: Scale-ambiguous Semantic Registration of Sparse VSLAM Maps to Floor Plans in Partially Built Environments

    Oct 21, 2026Bjorn Stragier, Emilia Szymańska, J. Micah Prendergast +1Floor-Plan-Based Visual LocalizationMap-Based Localization

    Cognitive Robotics Department, TU Delft, Delft, The Netherlands. · Hilti AG, Schaan, Liechtenstein. · Machine Intelligence Group, University of Technology Nuremberg UTN, Nuremberg, Germany.

  5. SpaRV: Sparse Radiance Voxels for Scalable Geometrically Consistent LiDAR-Visual Mapping and Rendering

    Oct 19, 2026Jianheng Liu, Yunfei Wan, Fangming Cheng +73D MappingLarge-Scale 3D Reconstruction

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong.

  6. RTISSLAM-3D: Full 6-DoF SLAM With an In-Air 3D Imaging Sonar

    Oct 15, 2026Jan Steckel, Vincent Katter, Wouter JansenSimultaneous Localization and MappingRobot Localization

    Cosys-Lab, Faculty of Applied Engineering, University of Antwerp, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium · Flanders Make Strategic Research Centre, 3920 Lommel, Belgium

  7. LIN-SLAM: Lightweight LiDAR--Inertial Neural SLAM for Real-Time Onboard Navigation

    Oct 15, 2026Shiqi Che, Yijie Liu, Shuo Wang +1Simultaneous Localization and MappingRobot Localization

    School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China

  8. Line-Augmented cuVSLAM: Robust Visual Odometry in Low-Texture Environments

    Oct 14, 2026Dara Molloy, Terry Wu, Wonju Lee +4Visual OdometrySimultaneous Localization and Mapping

    ∗Analog Devices · †NVIDIA

  9. Tiered-Resolution Volumetric Mapping for Real-Time Simultaneous Planning and Mapping on Natural Outdoor Environments

    Oct 14, 2026Afonso E. Carvalho, David Portugal, Paulo Peixoto +13D MappingRobot Navigation

    Institute of Systems and Robotics, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal · Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

  10. Remember, Revisit, Revise: Scaffold Memory for Long-Horizon 3D Geometry

    Oct 14, 2026Soumick Sarker, Mengmi Zhang3D ReconstructionStreaming 3D Reconstruction

    Deep NeuroCognition Lab, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

  11. RTISSLAM: In-air Imaging Sonar SLAM using a Robust Pose Graph and Occupancy Grid Mapping

    Oct 13, 2026Jan SteckelOccupancy Grid MappingSimultaneous Localization and Mapping

    Cosys-Lab, Faculty of Applied Engineering, University of Antwerp, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium · Flanders Make Strategic Research Centre, 3920 Lommel, Belgium

  12. Dense Endoluminal Mapping and Localisation from Monocular Bronchoscopy

    Oct 12, 2026Salvatore Esposito, Matias Mattamala, Daniel Rebain +4Simultaneous Localization and MappingEndoscopic 3D Reconstruction

    University of Edinburgh · University of British Columbia

  13. GLIO2: A GPU-Parallelized Tightly-Coupled LiDAR-Inertial-GNSS System for Robust and Real-Time Global Localization and Mapping

    Oct 8, 2026Qi Zhang, Xikun Liu, Qijun Qin +5Simultaneous Localization and MappingLiDAR Localization

    Department of Aeronautical and Aviation Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China

  14. RAGNAROK: Radar-Aided Gravity-Normalized Alignment for Robust Open Keyframe-based Radar-Visual-Kinematic-Inertial SLAM

    Oct 8, 2026Hanjun Kim, Chiyun Noh, Sangwoo Jung +5Simultaneous Localization and MappingRobot State Estimation

    Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, SNU, Seoul, S. Korea · Mobile Robotics Lab, School of Computation, Information and Technology (CIT) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), 80333 Munich, Germany, and with the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI) · Mobile Robotics Lab, ETH Zurich, 80892 Zurich, Switzerland

  15. Human-in-the-Loop Neuro-Symbolic Drift Anticipation for Reliable Visual SLAM

    Oct 5, 2026Junhyun Nam, Wonse JoSimultaneous Localization and MappingHuman-in-the-Loop AI

    Department of Information and Telecommunication Engineering, Incheon National University, Incheon, South Korea 22012.

  16. F2^2 SLAM: Turning Feed-Forward Geometry into Persistent Factors for SLAM

    Oct 4, 2026Zhisong Xu, Fan Zhu, Jiawei Qian +3Simultaneous Localization and MappingFactor Graph Optimization

    The University of Tokyo · Tohoku University · University of Science and Technology of China +1

  17. BatSLAM 2.0: Sequence-Verified Sonar Place Recognition in a Robust Pose Graph

    Sep 30, 2026Jan SteckelSimultaneous Localization and MappingLoop Closure Detection

    Cosys-Lab, Faculty of Applied Engineering, University of Antwerp, 2020 Antwerp, Belgium · Flanders Make Strategic Research Centre, 3920 Lommel, Belgium

  18. Pow3R-SLAM: Real-Time RGB-D SLAM with 3D Reconstruction Priors

    Sep 29, 2026Christopher Kolios, Ishaan Mehta, Sasa Janjic +2Simultaneous Localization and Mapping3D Reconstruction

    Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada. · University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada. · University College London, London, United Kingdom.

  19. Degeneracy-Orthogonal Geometric Constraints for LiDAR SLAM

    Sep 29, 2026Minseo Kim, Yina Kim, Jinhwa Hwang +1Simultaneous Localization and MappingLiDAR Odometry

    Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering, Sookmyung Women’s University, 100 Cheongpa-ro 47-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul 04310, Republic of Korea

  20. MarsLab: A Martian Rover Simulator for Planetary Rover Autonomous Navigation

    Sep 28, 2026Hoyun Kim, Beomsu Kim, Giseop KimSimultaneous Localization and MappingOff-Road Robot Navigation

    Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering, DGIST, Daegu, Republic of Korea

  21. RRG-SLAM: Real-time Reflection-aware Gaussian SLAM for Indoor Scenes

    Sep 28, 2026Yong Liu, Keyang Ye, Zhexi Peng +3Simultaneous Localization and Mapping3DGS SLAM

    State Key Laboratory of CAD&CG, Zhejiang University, China

  22. MonoEgo: Monocular Metric Egocentric Demonstration Capture with Passive Wrist Constellations and Sparse Workstation Anchors

    Sep 28, 2026Jie Xu, Kangjin Yu, Ziyi Jin +2Simultaneous Localization and MappingVisual Object Tracking

    Anyverse Dynamics

  23. World SLAM Model: Joint World Modeling for SLAM and Navigation

    Sep 26, 2026Minghui Qin, Yijun Yuan, Weicheng Zheng +7World Models for RoboticsRobot Navigation

    Shanghai Qi Zhi Institute · Shanghai Jiao Tong University · IIIS, Tsinghua University

  24. Range-Aided SLAM Initialization Exploiting Accurate Heading Information

    Sep 21, 2026Isabel Lougheed, James Richard ForbesSimultaneous Localization and MappingAutonomous Underwater Navigation

    Department of Mechanical Engineering McGill University Montreal, QC, Canada

  25. BayesianGS-SLAM: Uncertainty-Aware Neural Rendering SLAM via Probabilistic Formulation

    Sep 21, 2026Kyeongsu Kang, Seongbo Ha, Sibaek Lee +1Simultaneous Localization and Mapping3DGS SLAM

    Department of Intelligent Robotics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, South Korea

  26. Elevator-VIGS: Separating Elevator Motion from Robot Motion in Visual-Inertial Gaussian Splatting SLAM

    Sep 20, 2026Rui Zhou, Zihan Zhu, Wei Zhang +3Simultaneous Localization and Mapping3DGS SLAM

    University of Zürich · ETH Zürich · University of Stuttgart +1

  27. Adaptive World Memory 3D Foundation Model for Scalable 3D Mapping, Localization, and Rendering

    Sep 18, 2026Tianchen Deng, Guole Shen, Yilin Shen +73D Mapping3D Foundation Models

    School of Automation and Intelligent Sensing, Shanghai Jiao Tong university and State Key Laboratory of Avionics Integration and Aviation System-of-Systems Synthesis, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Navigation and Location Based Services, Shanghai 200240, China · Nanyang Technological University, Singapore · University of Technology Nuremberg, Germany

  28. Noctif3R: Feed-Forward Monocular Real-Time SLAM for Photon-Limited Scenes on Embedded Hardware

    Sep 17, 2026Mihir Chauhan, Aditya Uday Abhang, Kevin Biju Mathew +1Simultaneous Localization and MappingVisual SLAM

    IDEAS Lab, Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

  29. Semantic SLAM in Precision Agriculture using Bayesian Inference

    Sep 17, 2026Ruben Beumer, Sander Doodeman, René van de Molengraft +1Simultaneous Localization and MappingSemantic Mapping

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

  30. SLAMSqueezeBench: Comparing SLAM Systems under Resource Constraints

    Sep 17, 2026Mohamed Hefny, Karthik Dantu, Steven Y. KoSimultaneous Localization and Mapping

    Simon Fraser University. · University at Buffalo.