Elevation Mapping CuPy

Real-time, GPU-accelerated elevation mapping for ROS 2 Jazzy.

Latest release Documentation

This documentation tracks the actively maintained ros2 branch. The legacy ROS 1 line remains on main.

Highlights

  • GPU-accelerated elevation mapping with CuPy.

  • Geometry, RGB, semantic image, and semantic pointcloud fusion.

  • ROS 2 launch files, GridMap services, and GPU integration tests.

  • Deterministic fusion and reproducible performance benchmarks.

Start here

Introduction - Branch scope, map inputs, and supported features
Installation - ROS2 Jazzy installation and build
Tutorial - Launching the node, TurtleBot3 demo, and semantic demos
ROS 2 Jazzy v2.2.0 Release - ROS2 Jazzy release status and validation summary

The legacy plane-segmentation stack is not part of the current ROS 2 workspace. The supported release surface for this branch is the Python/CuPy elevation mapping pipeline plus the restored semantic_sensor package.

Multi-modal elevation mapping overview

Citing

If you use elevation_mapping_cupy, please cite the following paper: Elevation Mapping for Locomotion and Navigation using GPU

Hint

Elevation Mapping for Locomotion and Navigation using GPU IROS 2022 paper

Takahiro Miki, Lorenz Wellhausen, Ruben Grandia, Fabian Jenelten, Timon Homberger, Marco Hutter

@misc{mikielevation2022,
    doi = {10.48550/ARXIV.2204.12876},
    author = {Miki, Takahiro and Wellhausen, Lorenz and Grandia, Ruben and Jenelten, Fabian and Homberger, Timon and Hutter, Marco},
    keywords = {Robotics (cs.RO), FOS: Computer and information sciences, FOS: Computer and information sciences},
    title = {Elevation Mapping for Locomotion and Navigation using GPU},
    publisher = {International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
    year = {2022},
}

Multi-modal elevation mapping if you use color or semantic layers

Hint

MEM: Multi-Modal Elevation Mapping for Robotics and Learning MEM paper

Gian Erni, Jonas Frey, Takahiro Miki, Matias Mattamala, Marco Hutter

@misc{Erni2023-bs,
    title = "{MEM}: {Multi-Modal} Elevation Mapping for Robotics and Learning",
    author = "Erni, Gian and Frey, Jonas and Miki, Takahiro and Mattamala, Matias and Hutter, Marco",
    publisher = {International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},
    year = {2023},
}