# OVPC Mesh: 3D Free-space Representation for Local Ground Vehicle Navigation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.10266 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.10266/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 26 Nov 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [GS-SLAM: Dense Visual SLAM with 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.11700/) (2023)
- [A Survey on 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.03890/) (2024)
- [SHINE-Mapping: Large-Scale 3D Mapping Using Sparse Hierarchical Implicit Neural Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.02299/) (2022)
- [MotionGS : Compact Gaussian Splatting SLAM by Motion Filter](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.11129/) (2024)
- [Smooth Mesh Estimation from Depth Data using Non-Smooth Convex Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.02957/) (2021)
- [Motion planning for off-road autonomous driving based on human-like cognition and weight adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.17820/) (2024)
- [S3LAM: Surfel Splatting SLAM for Geometrically Accurate Tracking and Mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.20854/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper presents a novel approach for local 3D environment representation for autonomous unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) navigation called On Visible Point Clouds Mesh(OVPC Mesh). Our approach represents the surrounding of the robot as a watertight 3D mesh generated from local point cloud data in order to represent the free space surrounding the robot. It is a conservative estimation of the free space and provides a desirable trade-off between representation precision and computational efficiency, without having to discretize the environment into a fixed grid size. Our experiments analyze the usability of the approach for UGV navigation in rough terrain, both in simulation and in a fully integrated real-world system. Additionally, we compare our approach to well-known state-of-the-art solutions, such as Octomap and Elevation Mapping and show that OVPC Mesh can provide reliable 3D information for trajectory planning while fulfilling real-time constraints.