OctoMap: an efficient probabilistic 3D mapping framework based on octrees

Abstract

Three-dimensional models provide a volumetric representation of space which is important for a variety of robotic applications including flying robots and robots that are equipped with manipulators. In this paper, we present an open-source framework to generate volumetric 3D environment models. Our mapping approach is based on octrees and uses probabilistic occupancy estimation. It explicitly represents not only occupied space, but also free and unknown areas. Furthermore, we propose an octree map compression method that keeps the 3D models compact. Our framework is available as an open-source C++ library and has already been successfully applied in several robotics projects. We present a series of experimental results carried out with real robots and on publicly available real-world datasets. The results demonstrate that our approach is able to update the representation efficiently and models the data consistently while keeping the memory requirement at a minimum.

Efficient generation of 3D surfel maps using RGB–D sensors

“…The graph is then optimized using the g2o framework. The method was implemented in the ROS framework (Quigley et al, 2009) and cooperates with the ROS OctoMap (Hornung et al, 2013) package for creation of the occupancy map. A sample map, which…”

Local Multi-resolution Surfel Grids for MAV Motion Estimation and 3D Mapping

“…A common research topic in SLAM with 3D laser scanners is how to maintain high run-time performance and low memory consumption simultaneously. Hornung et al [10] implement a multi-resolution map based on octrees (OctoMap). Ryde et al [18] use voxel lists for efficient neighbor queries.…”

RMAP: a rectangular cuboid approximation framework for 3D environment mapping

“…Many recent research works focus on mapping and localization. The environment representation can be topological (Thrun 1998) or metric (Elfes 1989;Thrun 2003;Hornung et al 2013). Topological maps utilize graph structures to represent the environment whereas metric maps capture its area or volume.…”

“…The work presented in (Einhorn et al 2011) proposes a formulation which adapts the resolution of the grid in an online manner based on measurements. A fully probabilistic grid structure based on octrees titled Octomap (Wurm et al 2010;Hornung et al 2013) has been presented which generates accurate 3D environment representations. Recently an extension of 3D NDT concepts titled NDT-OM (Occupancy mapping) has been presented (Saarinen et al 2013) which has similar computational complexity to Octomap (Wurm et al 2010;Hornung et al 2013), whereas the memory complexity issue is not discussed.…”