mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

SplaTAM: Splat, Track & Map 3D Gaussians for Dense RGB-D SLAM

arXiv 2312.02126 ↗First posted 4 Dec 2023cs.CV cs.AI cs.ROcited by 386

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Abstract (arXiv)

Dense simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is crucial for robotics and augmented reality applications. However, current methods are often hampered by the non-volumetric or implicit way they represent a scene. This work introduces SplaTAM, an approach that, for the first time, leverages explicit volumetric representations, i.e., 3D Gaussians, to enable high-fidelity reconstruction from a single unposed RGB-D camera, surpassing the capabilities of existing methods. SplaTAM employs a simple online tracking and mapping system tailored to the underlying Gaussian representation. It utilizes a silhouette mask to elegantly capture the presence of scene density. This combination enables several benefits over prior representations, including fast rendering and dense optimization, quickly determining if areas have been previously mapped, and structured map expansion by adding more Gaussians. Extensive experiments show that SplaTAM achieves up to 2x superior performance in camera pose estimation, map construction, and novel-view synthesis over existing methods, paving the way for more immersive high-fidelity SLAM applications.

Key facts. Cited by 386 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 41 of its 57 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Dec 2023.

Builds on

41 of 57 references.

References · 41

  1. 20233D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Renderingcited by 6,141
  2. 2017ScanNet: Richly-annotated 3D Reconstructions of Indoor Scenescited by 3,088
  3. 20234D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Dynamic Scene Renderingcited by 1,144
  4. 2019The Replica Dataset: A Digital Replica of Indoor Spacescited by 885
  5. 2020ORB-SLAM3: An Accurate Open-Source Library for Visual, Visual-Inertial and Multi-Map SLAMcited by 862
  6. 2016ORB-SLAM2: an Open-Source SLAM System for Monocular, Stereo and RGB-D Camerascited by 801
  7. 2023Deformable 3D Gaussians for High-Fidelity Monocular Dynamic Scene Reconstructioncited by 753
  8. 2023ScanNet++: A High-Fidelity Dataset of 3D Indoor Scenescited by 747
  9. 2023Dynamic 3D Gaussians: Tracking by Persistent Dynamic View Synthesiscited by 731
  10. 2021DROID-SLAM: Deep Visual SLAM for Monocular, Stereo, and RGB-D Camerascited by 673
  11. 2021NICE-SLAM: Neural Implicit Scalable Encoding for SLAMcited by 586
  12. 2022Point-NeRF: Point-based Neural Radiance Fieldscited by 503
29 more
  1. 2021iMAP: Implicit Mapping and Positioning in Real-Timecited by 476
  2. 2023Real-time Photorealistic Dynamic Scene Representation and Rendering with 4D Gaussian Splattingcited by 470
  3. 2016Past, Present, and Future of Simultaneous Localization And Mapping: Towards the Robust-Perception Agecited by 405
  4. 2019Differentiable Surface Splatting for Point-based Geometry Processingcited by 238
  5. 2022NeRF-SLAM: Real-Time Dense Monocular SLAM with Neural Radiance Fieldscited by 188
  6. 2023Co-SLAM: Joint Coordinate and Sparse Parametric Encodings for Neural Real-Time SLAMcited by 183
  7. 2023NICER-SLAM: Neural Implicit Scene Encoding for RGB SLAMcited by 162
  8. 2023Point-SLAM: Dense Neural Point Cloud-based SLAMcited by 160
  9. 2022ESLAM: Efficient Dense SLAM System Based on Hybrid Representation of Signed Distance Fieldscited by 158
  10. 2017CNN-SLAM: Real-time dense monocular SLAM with learned depth predictioncited by 152
  11. 2018CodeSLAM - Learning a Compact, Optimisable Representation for Dense Visual SLAMcited by 151
  12. 2022Vox-Fusion: Dense Tracking and Mapping with Voxel-based Neural Implicit Representationcited by 149
  13. 2016Voxblox: Incremental 3D Euclidean Signed Distance Fields for On-Board MAV Planningcited by 148
  14. 2016BundleFusion: Real-time Globally Consistent 3D Reconstruction using On-the-fly Surface Re-integrationcited by 116
  15. 2022iSDF: Real-Time Neural Signed Distance Fields for Robot Perceptioncited by 107
  16. 2022LaMAR: Benchmarking Localization and Mapping for Augmented Realitycited by 98
  17. 2018DeepTAM: Deep Tracking and Mappingcited by 87
  18. 2023vMAP: Vectorised Object Mapping for Neural Field SLAMcited by 67
  19. 2022Approximate Differentiable Rendering with Algebraic Surfacescited by 44
  20. 2023Dense RGB SLAM with Neural Implicit Mapscited by 42
  21. 2019SceneCode: Monocular Dense Semantic Reconstruction using Learned Encoded Scene Representationscited by 37
  22. 2023HI-SLAM: Monocular Real-time Dense Mapping with Hybrid Implicit Fieldscited by 31
  23. 2023Flexible Techniques for Differentiable Rendering with 3D Gaussianscited by 28
  24. 2022VoGE: A Differentiable Volume Renderer using Gaussian Ellipsoids for Analysis-by-Synthesiscited by 22
  25. 2022iDF-SLAM: End-to-End RGB-D SLAM with Neural Implicit Mapping and Deep Feature Trackingcited by 22
  26. 2023UncLe-SLAM: Uncertainty Learning for Dense Neural SLAMcited by 19
  27. 2023RO-MAP: Real-Time Multi-Object Mapping with Neural Radiance Fieldscited by 9
  28. 2023Probabilistic Point Cloud Modeling via Self-Organizing Gaussian Mixture Modelscited by 7
  29. 2023Incremental Multimodal Surface Mapping via Self-Organizing Gaussian Mixture Modelscited by 5

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 3; 2024: 132; 2025: 143; 2026: 108.

386 papers.

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  1. 2025MapAnything: Universal Feed-Forward Metric 3D Reconstructioncited by 295
  2. 20243D Reconstruction with Spatial Memorycited by 269
  3. 2025AnySplat: Feed-forward 3D Gaussian Splatting from Unconstrained Viewscited by 234
  4. 2024Octree-GS: Towards Consistent Real-time Rendering with LOD-Structured 3D Gaussianscited by 225
  5. 2024A Survey on 3D Gaussian Splattingcited by 221
  6. 2024MASt3R-SLAM: Real-Time Dense SLAM with 3D Reconstruction Priorscited by 198
  7. 2025FLARE: Feed-forward Geometry, Appearance and Camera Estimation from Uncalibrated Sparse Viewscited by 176
  8. 2023Gaussian-SLAM: Photo-realistic Dense SLAM with Gaussian Splattingcited by 152
  9. 2024OpenGaussian: Towards Point-Level 3D Gaussian-based Open Vocabulary Understandingcited by 141
  10. 2024Recent Advances in 3D Gaussian Splattingcited by 130
  11. 2024Revising Densification in Gaussian Splattingcited by 127
  12. 20243D Gaussian as a New Era: A Surveycited by 102
38 more
  1. 2024SLAM3R: Real-Time Dense Scene Reconstruction from Monocular RGB Videoscited by 100
  2. 2023Toward General-Purpose Robots via Foundation Models: A Survey and Meta-Analysiscited by 99
  3. 2024GaussianFlow: Splatting Gaussian Dynamics for 4D Content Creationcited by 99
  4. 2024GaussianImage: 1000 FPS Image Representation and Compression by 2D Gaussian Splattingcited by 97
  5. 2024FMGS: Foundation Model Embedded 3D Gaussian Splatting for Holistic 3D Scene Understandingcited by 86
  6. 2024SGS-SLAM: Semantic Gaussian Splatting For Neural Dense SLAMcited by 86
  7. 2024FreeSplat: Generalizable 3D Gaussian Splatting Towards Free-View Synthesis of Indoor Scenescited by 86
  8. 2024FlashGS: Efficient 3D Gaussian Splatting for Large-scale and High-resolution Renderingcited by 85
  9. 2024GSDF: 3DGS Meets SDF for Improved Rendering and Reconstructioncited by 81
  10. 20243D Gaussian Splatting: Survey, Technologies, Challenges, and Opportunitiescited by 77
  11. 2024How NeRFs and 3D Gaussian Splatting are Reshaping SLAM: a Surveycited by 72
  12. 2024Deep Patch Visual SLAMcited by 68
  13. 2024RGBD GS-ICP SLAMcited by 65
  14. 2024Splat-SLAM: Globally Optimized RGB-only SLAM with 3D Gaussianscited by 64
  15. 2024MotionGS: Exploring Explicit Motion Guidance for Deformable 3D Gaussian Splattingcited by 62
  16. 2024CG-SLAM: Efficient Dense RGB-D SLAM in a Consistent Uncertainty-aware 3D Gaussian Fieldcited by 61
  17. 2024FlowMap: High-Quality Camera Poses, Intrinsics, and Depth via Gradient Descentcited by 61
  18. 2024PF3plat: Pose-Free Feed-Forward 3D Gaussian Splattingcited by 60
  19. 2024LoopSplat: Loop Closure by Registering 3D Gaussian Splatscited by 59
  20. 2024Radiative Gaussian Splatting for Efficient X-ray Novel View Synthesiscited by 56
  21. 2024GeoGaussian: Geometry-aware Gaussian Splatting for Scene Renderingcited by 52
  22. 2024DOGS: Distributed-Oriented Gaussian Splatting for Large-Scale 3D Reconstruction Via Gaussian Consensuscited by 51
  23. 2024GaussNav: Gaussian Splatting for Visual Navigationcited by 49
  24. 2025WildGS-SLAM: Monocular Gaussian Splatting SLAM in Dynamic Environmentscited by 48
  25. 2024EgoLifter: Open-world 3D Segmentation for Egocentric Perceptioncited by 46
  26. 2024SemGauss-SLAM: Dense Semantic Gaussian Splatting SLAMcited by 41
  27. 2024Gaussian Splatting: 3D Reconstruction and Novel View Synthesis, a Reviewcited by 40
  28. 2024SelfSplat: Pose-Free and 3D Prior-Free Generalizable 3D Gaussian Splattingcited by 40
  29. 2024WaterSplatting: Fast Underwater 3D Scene Reconstruction Using Gaussian Splattingcited by 39
  30. 2025GWM: Towards Scalable Gaussian World Models for Robotic Manipulationcited by 37
  31. 2024GlORIE-SLAM: Globally Optimized RGB-only Implicit Encoding Point Cloud SLAMcited by 36
  32. 2024HDR-GS: Efficient High Dynamic Range Novel View Synthesis at 1000x Speed via Gaussian Splattingcited by 35
  33. 2025TartanGround: A Large-Scale Dataset for Ground Robot Perception and Navigationcited by 35
  34. 2025On-the-fly Reconstruction for Large-Scale Novel View Synthesis from Unposed Imagescited by 35
  35. 2024ActiveSplat: High-Fidelity Scene Reconstruction through Active Gaussian Splattingcited by 32
  36. 2024Baking Gaussian Splatting into Diffusion Denoiser for Fast and Scalable Single-stage Image-to-3D Generation and Reconstructioncited by 32
  37. 2025Any4D: Unified Feed-Forward Metric 4D Reconstructioncited by 32
  38. 2024Gaussian Splatting on the Move: Blur and Rolling Shutter Compensation for Natural Camera Motioncited by 29

50 most cited of 386 All 386 (JSON)