VGGT-SLAM 2.0: Real time Dense Feed-forward Scene Reconstruction
This work provides incremental improvements for robotics and computer vision applications requiring accurate, real-time 3D mapping.
The paper tackles the problem of improving real-time dense scene reconstruction in SLAM systems by addressing drift and planar degeneracy in VGGT-SLAM, resulting in a 23% reduction in pose error on the TUM dataset and enabling real-time performance on a ground robot.
We present VGGT-SLAM 2.0, a real time RGB feed-forward SLAM system which substantially improves upon VGGT-SLAM for incrementally aligning submaps created from VGGT. Firstly, we remove high-dimensional 15-degree-of-freedom drift and planar degeneracy from VGGT-SLAM by creating a new factor graph design while still addressing the reconstruction ambiguity of VGGT given unknown camera intrinsics. Secondly, by studying the attention layers of VGGT, we show that one of the layers is well suited to assist in image retrieval verification for free without additional training, which enables both rejecting false positive matches and allows for completing more loop closures. Finally, we conduct a suite of experiments which includes showing VGGT-SLAM 2.0 can easily be adapted for open-set object detection and demonstrating real time performance while running online onboard a ground robot using a Jetson Thor. We also test in environments ranging from cluttered indoor apartments and office scenes to a 4,200 square foot barn, and we also demonstrate VGGT-SLAM 2.0 achieves the highest accuracy on the TUM dataset with about 23 percent less pose error than VGGT-SLAM. Code will be released upon publication.