EROAM: Event-based Camera Rotational Odometry and Mapping in Real-time

TL;DR

EROM is a real-time event-based camera system that accurately estimates rotational motion and creates detailed panoramic maps using a novel spherical event representation and geometric optimization, outperforming existing methods in speed and robustness.

Contribution

The paper introduces EROAM, a new event-based rotational odometry and mapping system utilizing spherical event representation and a novel ES-ICP optimization framework for improved accuracy and efficiency.

Findings

Outperforms state-of-the-art methods in accuracy and robustness.

Maintains performance under high angular velocities and long sequences.

Produces high-quality panoramic reconstructions with fine details.

Abstract

This paper presents EROAM, a novel event-based rotational odometry and mapping system that achieves real-time, accurate camera rotation estimation. Unlike existing approaches that rely on event generation models or contrast maximization, EROAM employs a spherical event representation by projecting events onto a unit sphere and introduces Event Spherical Iterative Closest Point (ES-ICP), a novel geometric optimization framework designed specifically for event camera data. The spherical representation simplifies rotational motion formulation while operating in a continuous spherical domain, enabling enhanced spatial resolution. Our system features an efficient map management approach using incremental k-d tree structures and intelligent regional density control, ensuring optimal computational performance during long-term operation. Combined with parallel point-to-line optimization, EROAM achieves efficient computation without compromising accuracy. Extensive experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets show that EROAM significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods in terms of accuracy, robustness, and computational efficiency. Our method maintains consistent performance under challenging conditions, including high angular velocities and extended sequences, where other methods often fail or show significant drift. Additionally, EROAM produces high-quality panoramic reconstructions with preserved fine structural details.