The ROVER Visual SLAM Benchmark

News

[2024/12/05] Initial code release.
[2025/05/20] ROVER is accepted to IEEE Transactions on Robotics.
[2025/05/25] Dataset released on HuggingFace, see Utility section for HuggingFace download script.

Getting Started

The only required software is Docker. Each SLAM method comes with its own Docker container, making setup straightforward. We recommend using VSCode with the Docker extension for an enhanced development experience. Additionally, we provide a Docker container with tools for evaluating and handling the ROVER dataset.

When running the Dockerfiles, the first step is to navigate to the directory where the dataset is stored, as it will be mounted inside the Docker container.

Tested on Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04 with CUDA versions 11 and 12, using NVIDIA GPUs including the RTX 4090, A5000, and A6000.

Dataset

The dataset can be found here: https://huggingface.co/datasets/iis-esslingen/ROVER.

SLAM Methods

Each method is available as a Docker container. When running the Dockerfiles, the first step is to enter the directory where the dataset is stored, as it will be mounted inside the Docker container.

DPVO & DPV-SLAM

We are using our fork of the official DPVO / DPV-SLAM implementation.

Note: The container currently does not support visualization.

Example to run the application and evaluation:

python evaluate_rover.py \
    --base_data_path /garden_small/2023-08-18 \
    --ground_truth_path /garden_small/2023-08-18/ground_truth.txt \
    --output_path ./rover_trajectories \
    --cameras d435i t265 pi_cam \
    --trials 5

Parameters:

base_data_path: Specifies the base directory of the dataset sequence.
ground_truth_path: Path to the ground truth file for the selected dataset sequence.
output_path: Directory where the resulting trajectories will be stored.
cameras: List of cameras to be used for the evaluation. Choices: d435i, t265, or pi_cam.
trials: The number of trials to execute for the evaluation.

To enable Loop Closing for DPV-SLAM, add the argument: --opts LOOP_CLOSURE True.

DROID-SLAM

We are using our fork of the official DROID-SLAM implementation.

Separate scripts are provided for each camera in the DROID-SLAM/evaluation_scripts folder, namely test_rover_d435i.py, test_rover_pi-cam-02.py, and test_rover_t265.py.

Example to run the application and evaluation:

python evaluation_scripts/test_rover_d435i.py \
    --data_path /garden_small/2023-08-18 \
    --ground_truth_path /garden_small/2023-08-18/ground_truth.txt \
    --output_path ./rover_trajectories

Parameters:

base_data_path: Specifies the base directory of the dataset sequence.
ground_truth_path: Path to the ground truth file for the selected dataset sequence.
output_path: Directory where the resulting trajectories will be stored.

To test DROID-SLAM in RGBD mode (Camera D435i), add the flag --depth, for Stereo mode (Camera T265) add --stereo.

OpenVINS

We are using our fork of the official OpenVINS implementation.

To launch the application:

roslaunch ov_msckf <launch_file> \
    do_bag:=<do_bag> bag:=<bag> \
    do_save_traj:=<do_save_traj> \
    traj_file_name:=<traj_file_name>

Parameters:

launch_file: Specifies the launch file to use. Choices include:
- rover_mono-inertial_d435i_external.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_d435i_internal.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_pi-cam-02_external.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_t265_external.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_t265_internal.launch
- rover_stereo-inertial_t265_external.launch
- rover_stereo-inertial_t265_internal.launch
do_bag: (Optional) Specifies whether to replay a bag. Set to either:
- true: To replay a bag.
- false: To not replay a bag.
bag: (Optional) Specifies the path to the rosbag file.
do_save_traj: (Optional) Specifies whether to save a predicted trajectory. Set to either:
- true: To save the trajectory.
- false: To not save the trajectory.
traj_file_name: (Optional) Specifies the file path where the estimated trajectory should be saved.

VINS-Fusion

We are using our fork of the official VINS-Fusion implementation.

To launch the application:

roslaunch vins <launch_file> \
    do_bag:=<do_bag> bag:=<bag> \
    do_save_traj:=<do_save_traj> \
    traj_file_name:=<traj_file_name> \
    do_lc:=<enable_loop_closing>

Parameters:

launch_file: Specifies the launch file to use. Choices include:
- rover_mono-inertial_d435i_external.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_d435i_internal.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_pi-cam-02_external.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_t265_external.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_t265_internal.launch
- rover_stereo_t265.launch
- rover_stereo-inertial_t265_external.launch
- rover_stereo-inertial_t265_internal.launch
do_bag: (Optional) Specifies whether to replay a bag. Set to either:
- true: To replay a bag.
- false: To not replay a bag.
bag: (Optional) Specifies the path to the rosbag file.
do_save_traj: (Optional) Specifies whether to save a predicted trajectory. Set to either:
- true: To save the trajectory.
- false: To not save the trajectory.
traj_file_name: (Optional) Specifies the file path where the estimated trajectory should be saved.
do_lc: (Optional) Specifies whether to enable loop closing. Set to either:
- true: To enable loop closing.
- false: To disable loop closing.

SVO-Pro

We are using our fork of the official SVO-Pro implementation.

To launch the application:

roslaunch svo_ros <launch_file> \
    do_bag:=<do_bag> bag:=<bag> \
    do_save_traj:=<do_save_traj> \
    traj_file_name:=<traj_file_name> \
    do_lc:=<enable_loop_closing>

Parameters:

launch_file: Specifies the launch file to use. Choices include:
- rover_mono_d435i.launch
- rover_mono_pi-cam-02.launch
- rover_mono_t265.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_d435i_external.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_d435i_internal.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_pi-cam-02_external.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_t265_external.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_t265_internal.launch
- rover_stereo_t265.launch
- rover_stereo-inertial_t265_external.launch
- rover_stereo-inertial_t265_internal.launch
do_bag: (Optional) Specifies whether to replay a bag. Set to either:
- true: To replay a bag.
- false: To not replay a bag.
bag: (Optional) Specifies the path to the rosbag file.
do_save_traj: (Optional) Specifies whether to save a predicted trajectory. Set to either:
- true: To save the trajectory.
- false: To not save the trajectory.
traj_file_name: (Optional) Specifies the file path where the estimated trajectory should be saved.
do_lc: (Optional) Specifies whether to enable loop closing. Set to either:
- true: To enable loop closing.
- false: To disable loop closing.

ORB-SLAM3

We are using our fork of the ORB-SLAM3 ROS Wrapper implementation.

To launch the application:

roslaunch orb_slam3_ros <launch_file> \
    do_bag:=<do_bag> bag:=<bag> \
    do_save_traj:=<do_save_traj> \
    traj_file_name:=<traj_file_name> \
    do_lc:=<enable_loop_closing>

Parameters:

launch_file: Specifies the launch file to use. Choices include:
- rover_mono_d435i.launch
- rover_mono_pi-cam-02.launch
- rover_mono_t265.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_d435i_external.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_d435i_internal.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_pi-cam-02_external.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_t265_external.launch
- rover_mono-inertial_t265_internal.launch
- rover_stereo_t265.launch
- rover_stereo-inertial_t265_external.launch
- rover_stereo-inertial_t265_internal.launch
- rover_rgbd_d435i.launch
- rover_rgbd-inertial_d435i_external.launch
- rover_rgbd-inertial_d435i_internal.launch
do_bag: (Optional) Specifies whether to replay a bag. Set to either:
- true: To replay a bag.
- false: To not replay a bag.
bag: (Optional) Specifies the path to the rosbag file.
do_save_traj: (Optional) Specifies whether to save a predicted trajectory. Set to either:
- true: To save the trajectory.
- false: To not save the trajectory.
traj_file_name: (Optional) Specifies the file path where the estimated trajectory should be saved.
do_lc: (Optional) Specifies whether to enable loop closing. Set to either:
- true: To enable loop closing.
- false: To disable loop closing.

Utilities

HuggingFace Download Script

download.py is a Python script to download chunked zip-files from HuggingFace.

Command Syntax

python3 download.py \
    --locations <locations> \
    --scenarios <scenarios> \
    --save-dir <save-dir> \
    [--keep-parts]

Parameters:

locations: Dataset locations to download; one or more of (campus_small, campus_large, garden_small, garden_large, park). Default is all locations.
scenarios: Scenarios to download; one or more of (summer, autumn, winter, spring, day, dusk, night, night-light). Default is all scenarios.
save-dir: Path to the directory in which to save files (default: current directory).
keep-parts: If set, retain chunked part files after successful reconstruction.

Convert Raw Dataset to Rosbag

raw_to_rosbag.py is a Python script designed to convert raw sensor data into a ROS bag file. This tool is useful for working with robotics datasets, enabling streamlined integration with ROS-based tools and workflows.

The script supports various sensors and offers customization options through command-line arguments.

Command Syntax

python3 raw_to_rosbag.py \
    --input_directory <input_directory> \
    --output_bag <output_bag> \
    --sensors <sensor_list>

Parameters:

input_directory: Path to the directory containing raw sensor data.
output_bag: Path to the output ROS bag file. Defaults to <input_directory>/rosbag.bag.
sensors: List of sensors to include in the ROS bag. Choices are: d435i, t265, pi_cam, and vn100.

Evaluation

tbd.

Citing

If you find our work useful, please consider citing:

@ARTICLE{schmidt2025rover,
  author={Schmidt, Fabian and Daubermann, Julian and Mitschke, Marcel and Blessing, Constantin and Meyer, Stephan and Enzweiler, Markus and Valada, Abhinav},
  journal={IEEE Transactions on Robotics}, 
  title={ROVER: A Multi-Season Dataset for Visual SLAM}, 
  year={2025},
  volume={},
  number={},
  pages={1-19},
  keywords={Simultaneous localization and mapping;Visualization;Forestry;Robots;Lighting;Global navigation satellite system;Benchmark testing;Location awareness;Automobiles;Hands;SLAM;Visual SLAM;datasets;benchmark},
  doi={10.1109/TRO.2025.3577026}}