A SLAM Overview from a User’s Perspective

Abstract

This paper gives a brief overview on the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) problem from the perspective of using SLAM for an application as opposed to the common view in SLAM research papers that focus on investigating SLAM itself.We discuss different ways of using SLAM with increasing difficulty: for creating a map prior to operation, as a black-box localization system, and for providing a growing online map during operation.We also discuss the common variants of SLAM based on 2-D evidence grids, 2-D pose graphs, 2-D features, 3-D visual features, and 3-D pose graphs together with their pros and cons for applications. We point to implementations available on the Internet and give advice on which approach suits which application from our experience.