After internally using it for two years, Google has announced the open-source release of its thematic mapping library Cartographer. The tool is designed to enable real-time simultaneous localization and mapping, better known by its acronym SLAM, and has the capability to build a 2D or 3D map while keeping track of an individual or robotic agent’s location on that map.
SLAM algorithms combine data from various sensors – for instance Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) systems and cameras — to simultaneously find the location of the sensor and a map of the sensor’s surroundings. The technology works with the open source Robot Operating System (ROS), thus enabling easy-to-deploy software in robots, self-driving cars, and drones.
Cartographer builds globally consistent maps in real-time across a broad range of sensor configurations common in academia and industry. The following video is a demonstration of Cartographer’s real-time loop closure:
github repo :
https://github.com/googlecartographer/cartographer
source :
https://opensource.googleblog.com/2016/10/introducing-cartographer.html