A Comparison of Outdoor 3D Reconstruction between Visual SLAM and LiDAR SLAM

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive comparison between Visual SLAM, utilizing an RGB-D camera and ORB-SLAM3 algorithm, and LiDAR SLAM, employing a 3D LiDAR sensor and SC-LeGO-LOAM algorithm, for outdoor 3D reconstruction. Our evaluation covers their performances in terms of visual perception, computational requirements, accuracy, robustness, and map completeness in outdoor mapping. The results show that visual SLAM provides more detailed visual representations, while LiDAR SLAM demonstrates advantages in efficiency, robustness, and overall map reconstruction for outdoor environments. Hence, LiDAR SLAM is deemed more suitable for outdoor mapping applications, particularly for robotics and autonomous systems navigation in complex outdoor environments.