VINGS-Mono: Visual-Inertial Gaussian Splatting Monocular SLAM in Large Scenes

Abstract

VINGS-Mono is a monocular inertial Gaussian Splatting (GS) SLAM framework designed for large-scale scenes. It integrates four main components: VIO Front End, 2D Gaussian Map, NVS Loop Closure, and Dynamic Eraser. The VIO Front End processes RGB frames with dense bundle adjustment and uncertainty estimation to extract scene geometry and poses. The mapping module incrementally builds a 2D Gaussian map with up to 50 million Gaussian ellipsoids. Key components like a Sample-based Rasterizer, Score Manager, and Pose Refinement enhance mapping efficiency and localization accuracy for large-scale urban environments. To ensure global consistency, the NVS Loop Closure uses Novel View Synthesis for loop detection and map correction, while the Dynamic Eraser addresses dynamic objects in outdoor scenes. Evaluations demonstrate localization performance comparable to Visual-Inertial Odometry and surpass GS/NeRF SLAM methods in mapping and rendering. A mobile app further verifies real-time capability, generating high-quality Gaussian maps using a smartphone camera and low-frequency IMU. VINGS-Mono is the first monocular Gaussian SLAM framework for outdoor, kilometer-scale scenes.