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Comparison between Various SLAM Algorithms

LOAM: LIDAR Odometry and Mapping in Real-time

Paper Link: here

GitHub Repository Link: There is no direct implementation available online but an advanced version can be found at HKUST-Aerial-Robotics/A-LOAM

Sensor Suite

  • IMU
  • LIDAR

Cons

  • Suffers from the issues of ghosting based on LIDAR Scan Error resulting in reduced dimensional accuracy.
  • Pitch and Roll rotations tends to break the Mapping.
  • Close Loop Algorithm (non-existent) suffers an issue with distortion in low feature areas such as hallways. Results in incorrect geometry.

Pros

  • Real-Time implementation due to small sensor suite and higher approximations for reduced sampling.

LIOM: Tightly Coupled 3D LIDAR Inertial Odometry and Mapping

Paper Link: here

GitHub Repository Link: hyye/lio-mapping

Website: here

Sensor Suite

  • IMU
  • LIDAR

Cons

  • Improved dimensional accuracy than LOAM but still contains significant ghosting.
  • Improved Distortion in narrow hallways but still suffers from mapping error for long hallways which are featureless.

LIO-SAM: Tightly-coupled LIDAR Inertial Odometry via Smoothing and Mapping

Paper Link: here

GitHub Repository Link: TixiaoShan/LIO-SAM

Sensor Suite

  • IMU
  • LIDAR
  • GPS

Cons

  • Still suffers from issue with featureless areas which uses GPS for correction. This results in failure in GPS constraint or noisy readings.

VINS-Mono: A Robust and Versatile Monocular Visual-Inertial State Estimator

Paper Link: here

GitHub Repository Link: HKUST-Aerial-Robotics/VINS-Mono

Sensor Suite

  • IMU
  • 1 x Monocular Camera

Cons

  • Since this algorithm depends on feature-based SLAM, it fails for long hallways or open areas which lacks features.
  • High Paced Motion results in distortion and Mapping Failure due to limitation of the processor to find features in images.
  • Dependence on camera requires heavy calibration for intrinsic and extrinsic parameters of sensors.

EMV-LIO: An Efficient Multiple Vision aided LiDAR-Inertial Odometry

Paper Link: here

GitHub Repository Link: BingqiShen/EMV-LIO

Sensor Suite

  • IMU
  • Cameras
  • LIDAR

Cons

  • Open-Source Codebase suffers from high number of Magic Numbers for transforms and values. Needs heavy modification to be used for your application.
  • Algorithm Fails for Big Maps due to ROS Node not being able to handle data higher than 1 GB on a node.
  • Built using the combination of VINS-Mono and LIO-SAM which has a bad intertwined Transform Tree. Modifying the code requires a lot of effort.