ProSLAM: Graph SLAM from a Programmer's Perspective

Dominik Schlegel, Mirco Colosi, Giorgio Grisetti

Abstract: In this paper we present ProSLAM, a lightweight open-source stereo visual SLAM system designed with simplicity in mind. This work stems from the experience gathered by the authors while teaching SLAM and aims at providing a highly modular system that can be easily implemented and understood. Rather than focusing on the well known mathematical aspects of stereo visual SLAM, we highlight the data structures and the algorithmic aspects required to realize such a system. We implemented ProSLAM using the C++ programming language in combination with a minimal set of standard libraries. The results of a thorough validation performed on several standard benchmark datasets show that ProSLAM achieves precision comparable to state-of-the-art approaches, while requiring substantially less computation.