Designing and Evaluating a Portable LiDAR-based SLAM system

Mobile Mapping Technology (MMT) has evolved rapidly over the past few decades, especially in using low-cost sensors. This progress is primarily attributed to the appearance of innovative simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms. This article focuses on evaluating the efficiency of a new LiDAR-based portable SLAM system for mapping in dynamic real-world environments. The work proposed a technical solution based on a Livox Avia LiDAR sensor enhanced by gimbal stabilization. The system, named Portable Livox-based Mapping system (PoLiMap), is compared to other similar solutions by acquiring data from various environments, including urban sceneries, underground tunnels and forested areas, and processing them using a modified FAST-LIO-SLAM algorithm. The research presented in the article contributes to the understanding of the capabilities of PoLiMap systems under various conditions and offers significant insight into its potential applications. Accuracy evaluation results prove that the proposed MMT system can successfully tackle various demanding environments and challenge the results of other more costly state-of-the-art portable mobile laser scanning methods.