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What is orb_slam3?

uz-slamlab/orb_slam3 — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-24

8,604C++Audience · researcherComplexity · 5/5LicenseSetup · hard

In one sentence

A C++ library for real-time camera tracking and 3D map building using only a camera or a camera plus motion sensors, designed for robots, drones, and autonomous systems that need to know where they are.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((ORB-SLAM3))
    What it does
      Camera tracking
      3D map building
      Real-time SLAM
    Camera types
      Monocular
      Stereo
      Depth RGB-D
      Fisheye
    Tech
      C++
      ROS
      OpenCV
    Use cases
      Robots and drones
      AR applications
      Research datasets
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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Add real-time visual-inertial localization to a drone or robot that needs to track its own position.

USE CASE 2

Build an AR application that uses a camera to map and track a real-world environment in real time.

USE CASE 3

Evaluate state-of-the-art SLAM performance on standard robotics datasets like EuRoC or TUM.

USE CASE 4

Research and extend multi-map SLAM algorithms by building on top of this published codebase.

What is it built with?

C++ROSOpenCVEigen

How does it compare?

uz-slamlab/orb_slam3oatpp/oatppewenwan/mvision
Stars8,6048,5938,630
LanguageC++C++C++
Setup difficultyhardhardeasy
Complexity5/54/51/5
Audienceresearcherdeveloperresearcher

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · hard Time to first run · 1day+

Requires Linux, multiple C++ library dependencies, and manual camera calibration, no GPU required but build process is non-trivial.

Free to use and modify, but commercial use requires contacting the authors separately, any derivative work must also be open source under GPLv3.

So what is it?

ORB-SLAM3 is a C++ library that lets a robot or device figure out where it is in space using only camera images, or a combination of camera images and motion sensor data. The problem it solves is called SLAM, which stands for Simultaneous Localization and Mapping. In plain terms: you start a program, point a camera at the world, and the software builds a map of the surroundings while simultaneously tracking exactly where the camera is within that map, all in real time. The library comes from a research group at the University of Zaragoza and was published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics in 2021. It builds on two earlier versions (ORB-SLAM and ORB-SLAM2) and adds support for combining camera input with data from an inertial measurement unit (a chip that detects acceleration and rotation, the kind found in phones and drones). It also adds the ability to manage multiple disconnected maps and stitch them together when the camera revisits a known area. It works with several camera types: a single standard camera, two cameras side by side (stereo), a camera that also measures depth, and wide-angle fisheye lenses. The inertial sensor is optional in all configurations. Demo scripts are included for two standard research datasets used in robotics, and there are examples for Intel RealSense cameras. An optional connection to ROS (a robotics software framework) is provided for people building robot systems. Setting it up requires installing several dependencies on Linux, running a build script, and calibrating your camera by following a PDF included in the repository. The license is GPLv3, meaning commercial use requires contacting the authors separately. This is research software aimed at robotics engineers and computer vision researchers. It is not a packaged product with a graphical interface. People building autonomous vehicles, drones, AR applications, or any system that needs to track position through a camera would be the likely users.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Help me build and install ORB-SLAM3 on Ubuntu 20.04 and run it with a RealSense D435 camera.
Prompt 2
Show me how to run ORB-SLAM3 on the EuRoC dataset in monocular-inertial mode and visualize the trajectory.
Prompt 3
I want to integrate ORB-SLAM3 into a ROS2 robot project, walk me through connecting the ROS interface.
Prompt 4
How do I calibrate my camera for ORB-SLAM3 using the calibration instructions in the repository?

Frequently asked questions

What is orb_slam3?

A C++ library for real-time camera tracking and 3D map building using only a camera or a camera plus motion sensors, designed for robots, drones, and autonomous systems that need to know where they are.

What language is orb_slam3 written in?

Mainly C++. The stack also includes C++, ROS, OpenCV.

What license does orb_slam3 use?

Free to use and modify, but commercial use requires contacting the authors separately, any derivative work must also be open source under GPLv3.

How hard is orb_slam3 to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated hard, with roughly 1day+ to a first successful run.

Who is orb_slam3 for?

Mainly researcher.

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