Uncertainty-Aware LiDAR–Inertial–Visual SLAM with Adaptive Fusion and Multi-Channel Geometric Loop Closure

Accurate and robust localization and mapping in complex and dynamic environments remain a fundamental challenge for autonomous systems. LiDAR–Inertial–Visual Odometry (LIVO) integrates the complementary strengths of LiDAR geometry, visual appearance, and inertial motion constraints. However, existing LIVO systems still suffer from limited adaptability to sensor degradation, weak loop-closure robustness, and insufficient cross-modal consistency modeling. This paper presents a robust multi-sensor SLAM framework that integrates an uncertainty-aware LIVO front-end, a geometry-driven loop-closure module, and a cross-modal consistency factor-graph back-end. We develop an uncertainty-aware iterated error-state Kalman filter (iESKF) to tightly fuse LiDAR, visual, and inertial measurements, with measurement covariances dynamically adjusted according to innovation statistics, feature-matching quality, and observability. To improve global consistency, we propose a multi-channel Binary Triangle Constraint (mBTC) descriptor for LiDAR-based loop detection, which enhances robustness under viewpoint changes and appearance degradation. In addition, we introduce a cross-modal consistency factor to explicitly constrain the relative motion agreement between visual and LiDAR odometries. Extensive experiments on multiple public benchmarks demonstrate improved accuracy, loop-closure reliability, and long-term consistency compared with state-of-the-art LIVO systems.

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Publication Details

Journal
Robotics
Published
2026-04-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/robotics15050090
Primary Topic
Robotics and Sensor-Based Localization
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Uncertainty-Aware LiDAR–Inertial–Visual SLAM with Adaptive Fusion and Multi-Channel Geometric Loop Closure

Qixue Zhong, Jing Xing, Luo L, Jian Liu
Robotics
Robotics and Sensor-Based Localization
article

Uncertainty-Aware LiDAR–Inertial–Visual SLAM with Adaptive Fusion and Multi-Channel Geometric Loop Closure

Qixue Zhong, Jing Xing, Luo L, Jian Liu
article en

Abstract

Accurate and robust localization and mapping in complex and dynamic environments remain a fundamental challenge for autonomous systems. LiDAR–Inertial–Visual Odometry (LIVO) integrates the complementary strengths of LiDAR geometry, visual appearance, and inertial motion constraints. However, existing LIVO systems still suffer from limited adaptability to sensor degradation, weak loop-closure robustness, and insufficient cross-modal consistency modeling. This paper presents a robust multi-sensor SLAM framework that integrates an uncertainty-aware LIVO front-end, a geometry-driven loop-closure module, and a cross-modal consistency factor-graph back-end. We develop an uncertainty-aware iterated error-state Kalman filter (iESKF) to tightly fuse LiDAR, visual, and inertial measurements, with measurement covariances dynamically adjusted according to innovation statistics, feature-matching quality, and observability. To improve global consistency, we propose a multi-channel Binary Triangle Constraint (mBTC) descriptor for LiDAR-based loop detection, which enhances robustness under viewpoint changes and appearance degradation. In addition, we introduce a cross-modal consistency factor to explicitly constrain the relative motion agreement between visual and LiDAR odometries. Extensive experiments on multiple public benchmarks demonstrate improved accuracy, loop-closure reliability, and long-term consistency compared with state-of-the-art LIVO systems.

RoboticsVol. 15(5)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Institute of Microelectronics (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Openalex Percentile: Top 3%
Robotics and Sensor-Based Localization
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