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. MAGS-SLAM: Monocular Multi-Agent Gaussian Splatting SLAM for Geometrically and Photometrically Consistent Reconstruction

    May 11, 2026Zhihao Cao, Qi Shao, Shuhao Zhai +4Simultaneous Localization and Mapping3D Gaussian Splatting

    ETH Zurich, Switzerland · University of Liverpool, United Kingdom · Harbin Engineering University, China +4

  2. Above and Below: Heterogeneous Multi-robot SLAM Across Surface and Underwater Domains

    May 10, 2026John McConnell, Armon Shariati, Paul Szenher +1Simultaneous Localization and MappingMulti-Robot Systems

    United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, USA · Shield-AI, San Diego CA, USA · Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, USA

  3. Dr-BA: Separable Optimization for Direct Radar Bundle Adjustment & Localization

    May 7, 2026Daniil Lisus, Cedric Le Gentil, Timothy D. BarfootSimultaneous Localization and MappingMap-Based Localization

    Robotics Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

  4. Dr-PoGO: Direct Radar Pose-Graph Optimization

    May 6, 2026Cedric Le Gentil, Weican Li, Leonardo Brizi +1Simultaneous Localization and MappingRelative Pose Estimation

    Robotics Institute University of Toronto. · Department of Computer, Control, and Management Engineering “Antonio Ruberti”, Sapienza University of Rome.

  5. DynoSLAM: Dynamic SLAM with Generative Graph Neural Networks for Real-World Social Navigation

    May 4, 2026Danil Tokhchukov, Veronika Morozova, Gonzalo FerrerSimultaneous Localization and MappingDynamic SLAM

    Applied AI Institute, Moscow, Russia.

  6. Learning-Based Hierarchical Scene Graph Matching for Robot Localization Leveraging Prior Maps

    Apr 30, 2026Nimrod Millenium Ndulue, Jose Andres Millan-Romera, Matteo Giorgi +2Simultaneous Localization and MappingGraph Representation Learning

    Authors are with the Automation and Robotics Research Group, Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), University of Luxembourg. Holger Voos is also associated with the Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg. · Author is with the University of Pisa.

  7. Seamless Indoor-Outdoor Mapping for INGENIOUS First Responders

    Apr 29, 2026Jürgen Wohlfeil, Henry Meißner, Adrian Schischmanow +4Simultaneous Localization and Mapping3D Reconstruction

    Institute of Optical Systems (OS), German Aerospace Center (DLR) Berlin, Germany

  8. RADIO-ViPE: Online Tightly Coupled Multi-Modal Fusion for Open-Vocabulary Semantic SLAM in Dynamic Environments

    Apr 28, 2026Zaid Nasser, Mikhail Iumanov, Tianhao Li +3Simultaneous Localization and MappingVisual SLAM

    Biomechatronics and Energy-Efficient Robotics (BE2R) Lab, ITMO University, Saint Petersburg, Russia

  9. Robust Graph Matching through Semantic Relationship Generation for SLAM

    Apr 28, 2026David Perez-Saura, Jose Andres Millan-Romera, Miguel Fernandez-Cortizas +3Simultaneous Localization and MappingGraph Matching

    Automation and Robotics Research Group, Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust, University of Luxembourg, 1855 Luxembourg, Luxembourg · Computer Vision and Aerial Robotics Group at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040, Spain (CVAR-UPM) at the Centre for Automation and Robotics (UPM-CSIC)

  10. Flow4DGS-SLAM: Optical Flow-Guided 4D Gaussian Splatting SLAM

    Apr 24, 2026Yunsong Wang, Gim Hee LeeSimultaneous Localization and Mapping3D Gaussian Splatting

    School of Computing, National University of Singapore

  11. SNGR: Selective Non-Gaussian Refinement for Ambiguous SLAM Factor Graphs

    Apr 23, 2026Anushka Kulkarni, Sarthak DubeySimultaneous Localization and MappingFactor Graph Optimization

    Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

  12. SLAM as a Stochastic Control Problem with Partial Information: Optimal Solutions and Rigorous Approximations

    Apr 23, 2026Ilir Gusija, Fady Alajaji, Serdar YükselSimultaneous Localization and MappingStochastic Optimal Control

    Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada

  13. SL(C)AMma: Simultaneous Localisation, (Calibration) and Mapping With a Magnetometer Array

    Apr 21, 2026Thomas Edridge, Manon KokSimultaneous Localization and MappingRobot State Estimation

    1DCSC, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands.

  14. Localization-Guided Foreground Augmentation in Autonomous Driving

    Apr 21, 2026Jiawei Yong, Deyuan Qu, Qi Chen +2Simultaneous Localization and MappingAutonomous Driving Perception

    Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan · Toyota Motor North America, USA

  15. Environment-Adaptive Solid-State LiDAR-Inertial Odometry

    Apr 17, 2026Zhi Zhang, Chalermchon Satirapod, Bingtao Ma +1Simultaneous Localization and MappingLiDAR Odometry

    School of Automation Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications Chongqing, China · Department of Survey Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Chulalongkorn University Bangkok, Thailand · School of Cyberspace Security Hangzhou Dianzi University Hangzhou, China

  16. CAVERS: Multimodal SLAM Data from a Natural Karstic Cave with Ground Truth Motion Capture

    Apr 16, 2026Giacomo Franchini, David Rodríguez-Martínez, Alfonso Martínez-Petersen +2Simultaneous Localization and MappingVisual SLAM

    Polytechnic of Turin Interdepartmental Centre for Service Robotics (PIC4SeR), Corso Francesco Ferrucci 112, 10141 Turin, Italy · Systems Engineering and Automation Department, Universidad de M´alaga, Ortiz Ramos s/n, 29010, M´alaga, Spain

  17. Keep It CALM: Toward Calibration-Free Kilometer-Level SLAM with Visual Geometry Foundation Models via an Assistant Eye

    Apr 16, 2026Tianjun Zhang, Fengyi Zhang, Tianchen Deng +2Simultaneous Localization and MappingCamera Pose Estimation

    School of Automation and Intelligent Sensing, and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Navigation and Location Based Services, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China · School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4067, Australia · School of Computer Science and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China

  18. UMI-3D: Extending Universal Manipulation Interface from Vision-Limited to 3D Spatial Perception

    Apr 15, 2026Ziming WangRobotic Data CollectionRobotic Manipulation

    HKU · USTC

  19. RadarSplat-RIO: Indoor Radar-Inertial Odometry with Gaussian Splatting-Based Radar Bundle Adjustment

    Apr 15, 2026Pou-Chun Kung, Yuan Tian, Zhengqin Li +4Simultaneous Localization and MappingRadar-Inertial Odometry

    Meta Reality Labs, Redmond, WA 98052 · Department of Robotics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

  20. RMGS-SLAM: Real-time Multi-sensor Gaussian Splatting SLAM

    Apr 14, 2026Dongen Li, Yi Liu, Junqi Liu +8Simultaneous Localization and Mapping3DGS SLAM

    Dongen Li, Yi Liu, Zewen Sun, Zefan Huang, Chengran Yuan, Francis E.H. Tay, and Marcelo H. Ang Jr. are with the Advanced Robotics Centre, National University of Singapore. · Junqi Liu and Hongliang Guo are with the College of Computer Science, Sichuan University. · Shuo Sun is with Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology. +1

  21. D-BDM: A Direct and Efficient Boundary-Based Occupancy Grid Mapping Framework for LiDARs

    Apr 14, 2026Benxu Tang, Yixi Cai, Fanze Kong +2Occupancy Grid MappingSimultaneous Localization and Mapping

    Mechatronics and Robotic Systems (MaRS) Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong · Department of Robotics, Perception, and Learning, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

  22. ReefMapGS: Enabling Large-Scale Underwater Reconstruction by Closing the Loop Between Multimodal SLAM and Gaussian Splatting

    Apr 13, 2026Daniel Yang, Jungseok Hong, John J. Leonard +1Underwater 3D Reconstruction3DGS SLAM

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology · Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

  23. MR.ScaleMaster: Scale-Consistent Collaborative Mapping from Crowd-Sourced Monocular Videos

    Apr 13, 2026Hyoseok Ju, Giseop KimSimultaneous Localization and MappingMonocular 3D Reconstruction

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

  24. A Survey of Spatial Memory Representations for Efficient Robot Navigation

    Apr 13, 2026Ma. Madecheen S. Pangaliman, Steven S. Sison, Erwin P. Quilloy +1Robotic Spatial MemoryRobot Navigation

    University of the Philippines Diliman · University of Santo Tomas

  25. An RTK-SLAM Dataset for Absolute Accuracy Evaluation in GNSS-Degraded Environments

    Apr 8, 2026Wei Zhang, Vincent Ress, David Skuddis +2Simultaneous Localization and MappingWireless Localization

    Institute for Photogrammetry and Geoinformatics, University of Stuttgart, Germany

  26. Synchronous Observer Design for Landmark-Inertial SLAM with Magnetometer and Intermittent GNSS Measurements

    Apr 6, 2026Arkadeep Saha, Pieter van Goor, Ravi BanavarSimultaneous Localization and MappingMultimodal Sensor Fusion

    Centre for Systems and Control, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai-400076, India. · School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering (AMME), Faculty of Engineering, University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.

  27. CT-VoxelMap: Efficient Continuous-Time LiDAR-Inertial Odometry with Probabilistic Adaptive Voxel Mapping

    Apr 4, 2026Lei Zhao, Xingyi Li, Tianchen Deng +3B-Spline Trajectory RepresentationAdaptive Lidar-Inertial Odometry

  28. Geometrically-Constrained Radar-Inertial Odometry via Continuous Point-Pose Uncertainty Modeling

    Apr 3, 2026Wooseong Yang, Dongjae Lee, Minwoo Jung +1Simultaneous Localization and MappingInertial Odometry

    Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, SNU, Seoul, S. Korea

  29. VBGS-SLAM: Variational Bayesian Gaussian Splatting Simultaneous Localization and Mapping

    Apr 3, 2026Yuhan Zhu, Yanyu Zhang, Jie Xu +13DGS SLAMSimultaneous Localization and Mapping

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA.

  30. Hi-LOAM: Hierarchical Implicit Neural Fields for LiDAR Odometry and Mapping

    Apr 2, 2026Zhiliu Yang, Jianyuan Zhang, Lianhui Zhao +2Simultaneous Localization and MappingLiDAR Odometry

    School of Information Science and Engineering, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan 650500, China. · Yunnan Key Laboratory of Intelligent Systems and Computing, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan 650500, China. · School of Information and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.