# ActiveSplat: High-Fidelity Scene Reconstruction through Active Gaussian Splatting

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.21955 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.21955/

## Key facts

- Cited by 32 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 40 of its 53 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 29 Oct 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 40)

- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [Mip-NeRF 360: Unbounded Anti-Aliased Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.12077/) (2021)
- [Mip-NeRF: A Multiscale Representation for Anti-Aliasing Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.13415/) (2021)
- [Matterport3D: Learning from RGB-D Data in Indoor Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.06158/) (2017)
- [Habitat: A Platform for Embodied AI Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.01201/) (2019)
- [2D Gaussian Splatting for Geometrically Accurate Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17888/) (2024)
- [Zip-NeRF: Anti-Aliased Grid-Based Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.06706/) (2023)
- [Mip-Splatting: Alias-free 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16493/) (2023)
- [SuGaR: Surface-Aligned Gaussian Splatting for Efficient 3D Mesh Reconstruction and High-Quality Mesh Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12775/) (2023)
- [NICE-SLAM: Neural Implicit Scalable Encoding for SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.12130/) (2021)
- [Gibson Env: Real-World Perception for Embodied Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.10654/) (2018)
- [iMAP: Implicit Mapping and Positioning in Real-Time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.12352/) (2021)
- [Gaussian Splatting SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.06741/) (2023)
- [SplaTAM: Splat, Track & Map 3D Gaussians for Dense RGB-D SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02126/) (2023)
- [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)
- [GaussianPro: 3D Gaussian Splatting with Progressive Propagation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.14650/) (2024)
- [NICER-SLAM: Neural Implicit Scene Encoding for RGB SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.03594/) (2023)
- [Reconciling Reality through Simulation: A Real-to-Sim-to-Real Approach for Robust Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03949/) (2024)
- [ActiveNeRF: Learning where to See with Uncertainty Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.08546/) (2022)
- [CoR-GS: Sparse-View 3D Gaussian Splatting via Co-Regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.12110/) (2024)
- [FisherRF: Active View Selection and Uncertainty Quantification for Radiance Fields using Fisher Information](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17874/) (2023)
- [Splat-Nav: Safe Real-Time Robot Navigation in Gaussian Splatting Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.02751/) (2024)
- [Uncertainty Guided Policy for Active Robotic 3D Reconstruction using Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.08409/) (2022)
- [An Efficient Sampling-based Method for Online Informative Path Planning in Unknown Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.09548/) (2019)
- [Uncertainty-driven Planner for Exploration and Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.11907/) (2022)
- [Active Neural Mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.16246/) (2023)
- [GS-Planner: A Gaussian-Splatting-based Planning Framework for Active High-Fidelity Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.10142/) (2024)
- [NARUTO: Neural Active Reconstruction from Uncertain Target Observations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.18771/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 32)

- [ActiveGS: Active Scene Reconstruction Using Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.17769/) (2024)
- [ActiveGAMER: Active GAussian Mapping through Efficient Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.06897/) (2025)
- [GauSS-MI: Gaussian Splatting Shannon Mutual Information for Active 3D Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.21067/) (2025)
- [PINGS: Gaussian Splatting Meets Distance Fields within a Point-Based Implicit Neural Map](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.05752/) (2025)
- [CL-Splats: Continual Learning of Gaussian Splatting with Local Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.21117/) (2025)
- [ActiveInitSplat: How Active Image Selection Helps Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06859/) (2025)
- [Understanding while Exploring: Semantics-driven Active Mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.00225/) (2025)
- [Peering into the Unknown: Active View Selection with Neural Uncertainty Maps for 3D Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.14856/) (2025)
- [MAGICIAN: Efficient Long-Term Planning with Imagined Gaussians for Active Mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.22650/) (2026)
- [Uncertainty-driven 3D Gaussian Splatting Active Mapping via Anisotropic Visibility Field](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.30342/) (2026)
- [Auto3R: Automated 3D Reconstruction and Scanning via Data-driven Uncertainty Quantification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.04528/) (2025)
- [AREA3D: Active Reconstruction Agent with Unified Feed-Forward 3D Perception and Vision-Language Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.05131/) (2025)
- [Dream-SLAM: Dreaming the Unseen for Active SLAM in Dynamic Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.21967/) (2026)
- [SplatSearch: Instance Image Goal Navigation for Mobile Robots using 3D Gaussian Splatting and Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.12972/) (2025)
- [ObjSplat: Geometry-Aware Gaussian Surfels for Active Object Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.06997/) (2026)
- [Active View Selection with Perturbed Gaussian Ensemble for Tomographic Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.06852/) (2026)
- [Coverage Optimization for Camera View Selection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.05259/) (2026)
- [Hestia: Voxel-Face-Aware Hierarchical Next-Best-View Acquisition for Efficient 3D Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.01014/) (2025)
- [CoRe-GS: Coarse-to-Refined Gaussian Splatting with Semantic Object Focus](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.04859/) (2025)
- [EmbodiedSplat: Online Feed-Forward Semantic 3DGS for Open-Vocabulary 3D Scene Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.04254/) (2026)
- [User-in-the-Loop View Sampling with Error Peaking Visualization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.21009/) (2025)
- [IntelliCap: Intelligent Guidance for Consistent View Sampling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.13043/) (2025)
- [ROI-GS: Interest-based Local Quality 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.01978/) (2025)
- [HERE: Hierarchical Active Exploration of Radiance Field with Epistemic Uncertainty Minimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.07242/) (2026)
- [Remember to be Curious: Episodic Context and Persistent Worlds for 3D Exploration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.22814/) (2026)
- [ActMVS: Active Scene Reconstruction with Monocular Multi-View Stereo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.01367/) (2026)
- [RefGlass-GS: A UAV-Enabled Fusion Framework for Photorealistic, Semantic and Interactive Digitization of Reflective Glass Facades via Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.28826/) (2026)
- [FillGS: Filling Observation Gaps in 4D Gaussian Splatting via Viewpoint-Time Selection and Generative Refinement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.29284/) (2026)
- [DynActiveGS: Active Gaussian Splatting for Dynamic Scene Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.01178/) (2026)
- [TRACE: Ergodic Trajectory Optimization for Active Scene Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.02304/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We propose ActiveSplat, an autonomous high-fidelity reconstruction system leveraging Gaussian splatting. Taking advantage of efficient and realistic rendering, the system establishes a unified framework for online mapping, viewpoint selection, and path planning. The key to ActiveSplat is a hybrid map representation that integrates both dense information about the environment and a sparse abstraction of the workspace. Therefore, the system leverages sparse topology for efficient viewpoint sampling and path planning, while exploiting view-dependent dense prediction for viewpoint selection, facilitating efficient decision-making with promising accuracy and completeness. A hierarchical planning strategy based on the topological map is adopted to mitigate repetitive trajectories and improve local granularity given limited time budgets, ensuring high-fidelity reconstruction with photorealistic view synthesis. Extensive experiments and ablation studies validate the efficacy of the proposed method in terms of reconstruction accuracy, data coverage, and exploration efficiency. The released code will be available on our project page: https://li-yuetao.github.io/ActiveSplat/.