mola_metric_maps

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
jazzy

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
kilted

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
rolling

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

No version for distro ardent showing humble. Known supported distros are highlighted in the buttons above.

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
humble

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

No version for distro bouncy showing humble. Known supported distros are highlighted in the buttons above.

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
humble

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

No version for distro crystal showing humble. Known supported distros are highlighted in the buttons above.

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
humble

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

No version for distro eloquent showing humble. Known supported distros are highlighted in the buttons above.

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
humble

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

No version for distro dashing showing humble. Known supported distros are highlighted in the buttons above.

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
humble

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

No version for distro galactic showing humble. Known supported distros are highlighted in the buttons above.

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
humble

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

No version for distro foxy showing humble. Known supported distros are highlighted in the buttons above.

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
humble

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
iron

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

No version for distro lunar showing humble. Known supported distros are highlighted in the buttons above.

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
humble

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

No version for distro jade showing humble. Known supported distros are highlighted in the buttons above.

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
humble

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

No version for distro indigo showing humble. Known supported distros are highlighted in the buttons above.

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
humble

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

No version for distro hydro showing humble. Known supported distros are highlighted in the buttons above.

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
humble

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

No version for distro kinetic showing humble. Known supported distros are highlighted in the buttons above.

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
humble

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

No version for distro melodic showing humble. Known supported distros are highlighted in the buttons above.

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
humble

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange

No version for distro noetic showing humble. Known supported distros are highlighted in the buttons above.

mola_metric_maps package from mola repo

mola mola_bridge_ros2 mola_demos mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset mola_input_rawlog mola_input_rosbag2 mola_input_video mola_kernel mola_launcher mola_metric_maps mola_msgs mola_pose_list mola_relocalization mola_traj_tools mola_viz mola_viz_imgui mola_yaml

ROS Distro
humble

Package Summary

Version	2.9.0
License	GPLv3
Build type	AMENT_CMAKE
Use	RECOMMENDED

Repository Summary

Checkout URI	https://github.com/MOLAorg/mola.git
VCS Type	git
VCS Version	develop
Last Updated	2026-05-15
Dev Status	DEVELOPED
Released	RELEASED
Contributing	Help Wanted (-) Good First Issues (-) Pull Requests to Review (-)

Package Description

Advanced metric map classes, using the generic `mrpt::maps::CMetricMap` interface, for use in other MOLA odometry and SLAM modules.

Additional Links

Website

Maintainers

Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco

Authors

No additional authors.

`mola_metric_maps`

Advanced metric map classes for LiDAR odometry and SLAM, built on the generic mrpt::maps::CMetricMap interface. All maps are serializable, visualizable, and integrate with the mp2p_icp registration library.

Map classes

Production-quality maps

Class	Header	Description
`mola::HashedVoxelPointCloud`	`HashedVoxelPointCloud.h`	Flat sparse hash map of cubic voxels. Up to 32 points per voxel stored without heap allocation (fixed array SSO). Backend: `tsl::robin_map`. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`.
`mola::SparseVoxelPointCloud`	`SparseVoxelPointCloud.h`	Two-level voxel map: sparse outer blocks + 32³ inner `FixedDenseGrid3D`. Tracks per-voxel point means; supports voxel-mean ICP matching. Implements `NearestNeighborsCapable`. The primary workhorse map in MOLA LO/SLAM.
`mola::NDT`	`NDT.h`	Normal Distributions Transform map (Magnusson 2007). Fits a Gaussian per voxel; planar voxels expose `NearestPlaneCapable`, non-planar ones expose `NearestNeighborsCapable`. Enables automatic point-to-point vs. point-to-plane pairing selection.
`mola::KeyframePointCloudMap`	`KeyframePointCloudMap.h`	Keyframe-based map: each keyframe holds a local point cloud plus a SE(3) pose. Supports map corrections without re-inserting points (just update poses). Implements `IcpPrepareCapable`, `NearestPointWithCovCapable`, `MetricMapMergeCapable`, and `KeyframeMapCapable`.

Experimental / work-in-progress maps

Class	Header	Status
`mola::SparseTreesPointCloud`	`SparseTreesPointCloud.h`	Coarse 3D grid of independent `CSimplePointsMap` sub-maps, each with its own KD-tree. Functionally complete but not benchmarked against the hash-based alternatives for typical SLAM workloads.
`mola::OccGrid`	`OccGrid.h`	Wraps `mrpt::maps::COccupancyGridMap2D` with a super-resolution likelihood cache. The cache infrastructure is in place but likelihood population is not yet implemented (`// TODO`). Not used in any production pipeline.

Utility / internal classes

Class	Header	Description
`mola::index3d_t<T>`	`index3d_t.h`	Discrete 3D integer index. Works as key in `std::map` and `std::unordered_map` / `tsl::robin_map` via the `index3d_hash` functor, which implements the Teschner et al. (2003) spatial hash.
`mola::FixedDenseGrid3D<T,N,C>`	`FixedDenseGrid3D.h`	Dense NxNxN grid (N=2^SIDE_NUM_BITS) allocated with `calloc` for fast zero-init. Used as the inner block in `SparseVoxelPointCloud`. Requires trivially-copyable cell types.

Build and install

Refer to the root MOLA repository.

License

This package is released under the GNU GPL v3 license as open source for research and evaluation purposes only. Commercial licenses available upon request, for this package alone or in combination with the complete SLAM system.

CHANGELOG

Changelog for package mola_metric_maps

2.9.0 (2026-05-11)

fix: KeyframePointCloudMap viz should honor pointSize
Merge pull request #143 from MOLAorg/bump-cmake-version bump min req cmake version to 3.22
bump min req cmake version to 3.22
Merge pull request #142 from MOLAorg/feat/add-keyframe-map-capable-api feat: Add keyframe map capable API
feat: Add keyframe map capable API
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.8.0 (2026-04-29)

Merge pull request #139 from MOLAorg/fix/monothonic-kf-ids Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Fix: ensure monothonic KF ids
Merge pull request #138 from MOLAorg/fix/kf-map fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
fix: robustify edge cases from last API changes
Merge pull request #137 from MOLAorg/feat/metric-map-changes-for-lo-grav-align mola_metric_maps: per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake
feat(mola_metric_maps): per-KF pose plumbing for online gravity rebake Add the KeyframePointCloudMap APIs needed by mola_lidar_odometry's online gravity-rebake feature:
- cloneKFPoses: snapshot of all KF poses keyed by id
- setKeyframePose: per-KF pose overwrite with cache invalidation
- lastInsertedKeyFrameID / nextFreeKeyFrameID_public: id introspection
- drainEvictedKeyFrameIDs: pull-then-clear list of KFs dropped during remove_frames_farther_than-driven evictions inside insertObservation Also exports the MOLA_METRIC_MAPS_HAS_KFM_POSE_PLUMBING feature macro so downstream packages in separate repos (mola_lidar_odometry) can guard usage with __has_include + this macro and stay buildable against older mola_metric_maps checkouts. Adds unit-test coverage for the new APIs in test-mola_metric_maps_keyframemap. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <<noreply@anthropic.com>>
Merge pull request #134 from Zeal-Robotics/perf/keyframe-prewarm-global-submap perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global
perf(mola_metric_maps): pre-warm global-frame submap data in icp_get_prepared_as_global icp_get_prepared_as_global() was building, on the search submap, only the local-frame KD-tree and per-point covariances (via KeyFrame::buildCache):
- bbox
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on pointcloud_ (local frame)
- computeCovariancesAndDensity() (local frame) The very first call to nn_search_cov2cov() then lazily materialized the global-frame counterparts on the caller thread:
- pointcloud_global() (deep copy of pointcloud_ rotated by pose())
- kdTreeEnsureIndexBuilt3D() on the global cloud
- covariancesGlobal() (rotated covariances) For a non-trivial preloaded local map this stalled the first ICP align() by several seconds (e.g. ~6 s on a typical localization map), defeating the purpose of having a separate "prepare global" hook. Front-ends that explicitly pre-warm via icp_get_prepared_as_global() at startup were hit hardest, since the remaining lazy work then showed up on the very first scan instead of being amortized across startup. Pre-trigger the same three calls at the end of icp_get_prepared_as_global() so the search submap is fully ready by the time ICP::align() / nn_search_cov2cov() runs.
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco, Robin Van Cauwenbergh

2.7.0 (2026-04-22)

Reorganize website
Merge pull request #121 from MOLAorg/fix/clean-up-old-mrpt-version-checks Clean up: remove old mrpt version fallback code sections
Contributors: Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco

2.6.1 (2026-04-02)

File truncated at 100 lines see the full file

Package Dependencies

Deps	Name
	ros_environment
	ament_cmake_xmllint
	ament_cmake_gtest
	ament_cmake
	ament_lint_auto
	ament_lint_common
	mola_common
	mola_kernel
	mrpt_libmaps
	mp2p_icp

System Dependencies

Name
cmake
doxygen
tbb

Dependant Packages

Name	Deps
mola
mola_lidar_odometry
mola_sm_loop_closure

Launch files

No launch files found

Messages

No message files found.

Services

No service files found

Plugins

No plugins found.

Recent questions tagged `mola_metric_maps` at Robotics Stack Exchange