# Visual Place Recognition: A Tutorial

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.03281 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.03281/

## Key facts

- Cited by 31 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 36 of its 109 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 6 Mar 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 36)

- [ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.0575/) (2014)
- [SuperGlue: Learning Feature Matching with Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.11763/) (2019)
- [ORB-SLAM: a Versatile and Accurate Monocular SLAM System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1502.00956/) (2015)
- [NetVLAD: CNN architecture for weakly supervised place recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.07247/) (2015)
- [D2-Net: A Trainable CNN for Joint Detection and Description of Local Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.03561/) (2019)
- [Large-Scale Image Retrieval with Attentive Deep Local Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.06321/) (2016)
- [Patch-NetVLAD: Multi-Scale Fusion of Locally-Global Descriptors for Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.01486/) (2021)
- [Rethinking Visual Geo-localization for Large-Scale Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.02287/) (2022)
- [PlaNet - Photo Geolocation with Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.05314/) (2016)
- [VPR-Bench: An Open-Source Visual Place Recognition Evaluation Framework with Quantifiable Viewpoint and Appearance Change](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.08135/) (2020)
- [Deep Learning Features at Scale for Visual Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1701.05105/) (2017)
- [Where is your place, Visual Place Recognition?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.06443/) (2021)
- [On the Performance of ConvNet Features for Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1501.04158/) (2015)
- [Night-to-Day Image Translation for Retrieval-based Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.09767/) (2018)
- [SeqNet: Learning Descriptors for Sequence-based Hierarchical Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.11603/) (2021)
- [Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search on High Dimensional Data --- Experiments, Analyses, and Improvement (v1.0)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.02455/) (2016)
- [Convolutional Neural Network-based Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1411.1509/) (2014)
- [Hyperdimensional computing as a framework for systematic aggregation of image descriptors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.07720/) (2021)
- [AmsterTime: A Visual Place Recognition Benchmark Dataset for Severe Domain Shift](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.16291/) (2022)
- [The Revisiting Problem in Simultaneous Localization and Mapping: A Survey on Visual Loop Closure Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.12831/) (2022)
- [Experiments with Random Projection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1301.3849/) (2013)
- [Adversarial Training for Adverse Conditions: Robust Metric Localisation using Appearance Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.03341/) (2018)
- [Learning Sequential Descriptors for Sequence-based Visual Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.03868/) (2022)
- [Data-Efficient Decentralized Visual SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.05772/) (2017)
- [Delta Descriptors: Change-Based Place Representation for Robust Visual Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.05700/) (2020)
- [iBoW-LCD: An Appearance-based Loop Closure Detection Approach using Incremental Bags of Binary Words](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.05909/) (2018)
- [Condition-Invariant Multi-View Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.09516/) (2019)
- [Intelligent Reference Curation for Visual Place Recognition via Bayesian Selective Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.09228/) (2020)
- [A Hierarchical Dual Model of Environment- and Place-Specific Utility for Visual Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.02440/) (2021)
- [Spiking Neural Networks for Visual Place Recognition via Weighted Neuronal Assignments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.06452/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 31)

- [AnyLoc: Towards Universal Visual Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00688/) (2023)
- [Optimal Transport Aggregation for Visual Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.15937/) (2023)
- [Close, But Not There: Boosting Geographic Distance Sensitivity in Visual Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.02422/) (2024)
- [Language-EXtended Indoor SLAM (LEXIS): A Versatile System for Real-time Visual Scene Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.15065/) (2023)
- [EDTformer: An Efficient Decoder Transformer for Visual Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.00784/) (2024)
- [MeshVPR: Citywide Visual Place Recognition Using 3D Meshes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.02776/) (2024)
- [Unifying Local and Global Multimodal Features for Place Recognition in Aliased and Low-Texture Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.13395/) (2024)
- [Ensemble-Based Event Camera Place Recognition Under Varying Illumination](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.01968/) (2025)
- [To Match or Not to Match: Revisiting Image Matching for Reliable Visual Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.06116/) (2025)
- [Through the Lens of Doubt: Robust and Efficient Uncertainty Estimation for Visual Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.13464/) (2025)
- [Event-Driven Neuromorphic Vision Enables Energy-Efficient Visual Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.03277/) (2026)
- [Spike-EVPR: Deep Spiking Residual Networks with SNN-Tailored Representations for Event-Based Visual Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.10476/) (2024)
- [TextInPlace: Indoor Visual Place Recognition in Repetitive Structures with Scene Text Spotting and Verification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06501/) (2025)
- [Hierarchical place recognition with omnidirectional images and curriculum learning-based loss functions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.14117/) (2024)
- [Query-Based Adaptive Aggregation for Multi-Dataset Joint Training Toward Universal Visual Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.03831/) (2025)
- [Advanced techniques and applications of LiDAR Place Recognition in Agricultural Environments: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.22198/) (2026)
- [Visual Relocalization from Sparse Views in Aliased and Low-Texture Environments via Novel View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.22147/) (2026)
- [Aggregating Multiple Bio-Inspired Image Region Classifiers For Effective And Lightweight Visual Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.12995/) (2023)
- [Multi-Technique Sequential Information Consistency For Dynamic Visual Place Recognition In Changing Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.08263/) (2024)
- [NocPlace: Nocturnal Visual Place Recognition via Generative and Inherited Knowledge Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.17159/) (2024)
- [Local positional graphs and attentive local features for a data and runtime-efficient hierarchical place recognition pipeline](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.10283/) (2024)
- [Towards Revisiting Visual Place Recognition for Joining Submaps in Multimap SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.12408/) (2024)
- [Why Sample Space Matters: Keyframe Sampling Optimization for LiDAR-based Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02643/) (2024)
- [Adaptive Thresholding for Visual Place Recognition using Negative Gaussian Mixture Statistics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.09071/) (2025)
- [Hybrid guided variational autoencoder for visual place recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.09248/) (2026)
- [A neuromorphic model of the insect visual system for natural image processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.06405/) (2026)
- [Systematic Evaluation of Novel View Synthesis for Video Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.05876/) (2026)
- [MAG-VLAQ: Multi-modal Aerial-Ground Query Aggregation for Cross-View Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.09418/) (2026)
- [FRED: A Multi-Modal Autonomous Driving Dataset for Flooded Road Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.22018/) (2026)
- [DisPlace: Discriminative Place Projections for Multi-Reference Visual Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.30769/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Localization is an essential capability for mobile robots. A rapidly growing field of research in this area is Visual Place Recognition (VPR), which is the ability to recognize previously seen places in the world based solely on images. This present work is the first tutorial paper on visual place recognition. It unifies the terminology of VPR and complements prior research in two important directions: 1) It provides a systematic introduction for newcomers to the field, covering topics such as the formulation of the VPR problem, a general-purpose algorithmic pipeline, an evaluation methodology for VPR approaches, and the major challenges for VPR and how they may be addressed. 2) As a contribution for researchers acquainted with the VPR problem, it examines the intricacies of different VPR problem types regarding input, data processing, and output. The tutorial also discusses the subtleties behind the evaluation of VPR algorithms, e.g., the evaluation of a VPR system that has to find all matching database images per query, as opposed to just a single match. Practical code examples in Python illustrate to prospective practitioners and researchers how VPR is implemented and evaluated.