G-EDF-Loc: 3D Continuous Gaussian Distance Field for Robust Gradient-Based 6DoF Localization

arXiv cs.RO / 4/7/2026

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Key Points

  • The paper introduces G-EDF-Loc, a robust 6-DoF scan-to-map localization pipeline that runs on the CPU and targets real-time performance via direct registration.
  • It proposes G-EDF, a continuous and memory-efficient 3D Gaussian Distance Field that represents an Euclidean Distance Field using a block-sparse Gaussian mixture with adaptive spatial partitioning to reduce boundary artifacts.
  • The method ensures smoothness by maintaining C^1 continuity across block transitions and uses analytical gradients from the continuous map for gradient-based optimization.
  • Experiments on large-scale datasets show that G-EDF-Loc matches or exceeds state-of-the-art approaches and remains resilient under severe odometry degradation and even without IMU prior information.

Abstract

This paper presents a robust 6-DoF localization framework based on a direct, CPU-based scan-to-map registration pipeline. The system leverages G-EDF, a novel continuous and memory-efficient 3D distance field representation. The approach models the Euclidean Distance Field (EDF) using a Block-Sparse Gaussian Mixture Model with adaptive spatial partitioning, ensuring C^1 continuity across block transitions and mitigating boundary artifacts. By leveraging the analytical gradients of this continuous map, which maintain Eikonal consistency, the proposed method achieves high-fidelity spatial reconstruction and real-time localization. Experimental results on large-scale datasets demonstrate that G-EDF-Loc performs competitively against state-of-the-art methods, exhibiting exceptional resilience even under severe odometry degradation or in the complete absence of IMU priors.