# LiV-GS: LiDAR-Vision Integration for 3D Gaussian Splatting SLAM in Outdoor Environments

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.12185 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.12185/

## Key facts

- Cited by 15 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 19 Nov 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 15 of 15)

- [GS-LIVO: Real-Time LiDAR, Inertial, and Visual Multi-sensor Fused Odometry with Gaussian Mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.08672/) (2025)
- [Learning-based 3D Reconstruction in Autonomous Driving: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.14537/) (2025)
- [GS-GVINS: A Tightly-integrated GNSS-Visual-Inertial Navigation System Augmented by 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.10975/) (2025)
- [SAGOnline: Segment Any Gaussians Online](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.08219/) (2025)
- [ARSGaussian: 3D Gaussian Splatting with LiDAR for Aerial Remote Sensing Novel View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.18380/) (2024)
- [AgriGS-SLAM: Orchard Mapping Across Seasons via Multi-View Gaussian Splatting SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.26358/) (2025)
- [Object-Centric 3D Gaussian Splatting for Strawberry Plant Reconstruction and Phenotyping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.02207/) (2025)
- [DensifyBeforehand: LiDAR-assisted Content-aware Densification for Efficient and Quality 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.19294/) (2025)
- [MrGS: Multi-modal Radiance Fields with 3D Gaussian Splatting for RGB-Thermal Novel View Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.22997/) (2025)
- [Spectral GS-SLAM: Observability-Aware, Degeneracy-Robust Tracking for Real-Time 3D Gaussian Splatting SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.21258/) (2026)
- [LVD-GS: Gaussian Splatting SLAM for Dynamic Scenes via Hierarchical Explicit-Implicit Representation Collaboration Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.22669/) (2025)
- [Rad-GS: Radar-Vision Integration for 3D Gaussian Splatting SLAM in Outdoor Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.16091/) (2025)
- [Transforming Omnidirectional RGB-LiDAR data into 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.06061/) (2026)
- [Pocket-SLAM: Rendering-Area-Aware Pruning for Memory-Efficient 3DGS-SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.24796/) (2026)
- [Real-Time LiDAR Gaussian Splatting SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.04127/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present LiV-GS, a LiDAR-visual SLAM system in outdoor environments that leverages 3D Gaussian as a differentiable spatial representation. Notably, LiV-GS is the first method that directly aligns discrete and sparse LiDAR data with continuous differentiable Gaussian maps in large-scale outdoor scenes, overcoming the limitation of fixed resolution in traditional LiDAR mapping. The system aligns point clouds with Gaussian maps using shared covariance attributes for front-end tracking and integrates the normal orientation into the loss function to refines the Gaussian map. To reliably and stably update Gaussians outside the LiDAR field of view, we introduce a novel conditional Gaussian constraint that aligns these Gaussians closely with the nearest reliable ones. The targeted adjustment enables LiV-GS to achieve fast and accurate mapping with novel view synthesis at a rate of 7.98 FPS. Extensive comparative experiments demonstrate LiV-GS's superior performance in SLAM, image rendering and mapping. The successful cross-modal radar-LiDAR localization highlights the potential of LiV-GS for applications in cross-modal semantic positioning and object segmentation with Gaussian maps.