Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) for beginners: the basics

Videos

For those who are new into mobile robotics and want a gentle introduction, I recommend the following online resources:

• The “5 minutes with Cyrill” series (2020-2021). Here you can see the chapter for SLAM:

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• These taped seminars by Cyrill Stachniss (2013-2014):

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• This course by Dr. Jürgen Sturm (TUM, 2013):

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• My 2020 course “A brief introduction to factor graphs” (5 videos). Here it is the fifth video, an introduction to the GTSAM library:

Papers and books

• The current must-read SLAM survey paper (2020-2021): Cadena, C., Carlone, L., Carrillo, H., Latif, Y., Scaramuzza, D., Neira, J., … & Leonard, J. J. (2016). Past, present, and future of simultaneous localization and mapping: Toward the robust-perception age. IEEE Transactions on robotics, 32(6), 1309-1332. (PDF)

• Our SLAM book, for those who want a rigorous treatment of all probabilistic equations in modern mobile robotics (~2012): “Simultaneous Localization and Mapping for Mobile Robots: Introduction and Methods” (Fernández-Madrigal, J.A. and Blanco, J.L., 2012).

• About EKF-based SLAM with landmark maps (the trend between 1999 and ~2010, outdated nowadays):

  • Hugh Durrant-Whyte & Tim Bailey. “Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM): Part I The Essential Algorithms“, (2006) (PDF)

  • Tim Bailey & Hugh Durrant-Whyte and . “Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM): Part II State of the Art“, (2006) (PDF)

• An excellent introductory/advanced book (for everything up to ~2005): Probabilistic Robotics, by Sebastian Thrun, Wolfram Burgard and Dieter Fox.