# laboshinl/loam_velodyne

Laser Odometry and Mapping (Loam) is a realtime method for state estimation and mapping using a 3D lidar.

Repository: https://github.com/laboshinl/loam_velodyne
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/loam_velodyne
Homepage: http://wiki.ros.org/loam_velodyne
Language: C++
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: velodyne, ros, loam-velodyne, lidar, pointcloud, pcl, slam, mapping, 3d, computer-vision, loam
Last push: 2019-06-18T17:00:43+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3863, "days_push": 2633, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1759, forks 959 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:32.450794+00:00)

## What it is
A ROS implementation of LOAM (Laser Odometry and Mapping), a realtime method for state estimation and 3D mapping using a Velodyne 3D lidar. It processes point clouds to estimate sensor motion and build maps, built with catkin and PCL.

## Use cases
- estimate robot pose from 3D lidar point clouds in realtime
- build 3D maps from Velodyne VLP16 rosbag recordings
- run laser odometry on a ROS robot
- process Velodyne pcap files into maps
- SLAM for indoor-outdoor lidar scanning
- state estimation for autonomous vehicles without GPS

## When to choose
- you use ROS 1 (Indigo-era) with a Velodyne 3D lidar and need realtime odometry and mapping
- you want the classic LOAM algorithm as a reference or research baseline
- you work with PCL point clouds and catkin build tooling

## When to avoid
- you need ROS 2 support or active maintenance - the project targets EOL ROS 1 distros and last released in 2019
- you need a license-cleared production dependency (license is marked NOASSERTION)
- you use non-Velodyne lidars without adaptation
- you want a modern maintained SLAM stack like LIO-SAM or FAST-LIO

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: computer-vision, robotics, simulation
- domain: robotics, autonomous-vehicles, computer-vision
- platform: cpp
- tags: slam, lidar, odometry, pointcloud, velodyne, ros, mapping, state-estimation, linux

## Member repositories
- laboshinl/loam_velodyne (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:32.450794+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:27:17.454779+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/laboshinl/loam_velodyne (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:32.450794+00:00, sha d19d8269b695)
  - homepage: http://wiki.ros.org/loam_velodyne (fetched 2026-08-29T11:05:50.881977+00:00, sha 8ecd68106d53)
  - site_page: https://wiki.ros.org/ROS/Installation (fetched 2026-08-29T11:05:50.887443+00:00, sha 010675c2f05f)
  - site_page: http://docs.ros.org (fetched 2026-08-29T11:05:50.888965+00:00, sha 0fa467f92ffb)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.