MonoSLAM: Real-Time Single Camera SLAM

—We present a real-time algorithm which can recover the 3D trajectory of a monocular camera, moving rapidly through a previously unknown scene. Our system, which we dub MonoSLAM, is the first successful application of the SLAM methodology from mobile robotics to the “pure vision” domain of a single uncontrolled camera, achieving real time but drift-free performance inaccessible to Structure from Motion approaches. The core of the approach is the online creation of a sparse but persistent map of natural landmarks within a probabilistic framework. Our key novel contributions include an active approach to mapping and measurement, the use of a general motion model for smooth camera movement, and solutions for monocular feature initialization and feature orientation estimation. Together, these add up to an extremely efficient and robust algorithm which runs at 30 Hz with standard PC and camera hardware. This work extends the range of robotic systems in which SLAM can be usefully appli...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: PAMI
• Authors: Andrew J. Davison, Ian D. Reid, Nicholas Molton, Olivier Stasse
• Keywords: Camera, Monocular Camera, PAMI 2007, Single Uncontrolled Camera