Cuvslam Onboard

cuVSLAM Onboarding

Build, install, and run NVIDIA cuVSLAM — CUDA-accelerated visual odometry and SLAM.

• Repo: https://github.com/nvidia-isaac/cuVSLAM
• Python API docs: https://nvidia-isaac.github.io/cuVSLAM/python/
• C++ API docs: https://nvidia-isaac.github.io/cuVSLAM/cpp/
• Technical report: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.04359

For tracking/pose accuracy issues, see the cuvslam-troubleshoot skill instead.

For dataset-specific walkthroughs (EuRoC calibration, KITTI SLAM, TUM depth settings, multi-camera EDEX extraction), read references/dataset-guides.md.

For live camera setup (RealSense, ZED, OAK-D, Orbbec), read references/live-cameras.md.

Agent Interaction Guidelines

Before executing any setup step, ask the user for missing paths. Do not assume defaults.

• Cloning the repo: Always ask — "Where would you like to clone the cuVSLAM repository? (e.g. ~/cuVSLAM)"
• Dataset preparation: Always ask — "Where would you like to save the [KITTI/EuRoC/TUM/etc.] dataset? (e.g. ~/datasets/kitti)"
• Virtual environment: If not already set up, ask — "Where would you like to create the Python virtual environment? (e.g. ~/cuVSLAM/.venv)"

Once the user provides a path, use it consistently throughout all subsequent commands in that session. Do not re-ask for the same path.

1. Requirements

• Ubuntu 22+ (x86_64 or aarch64/Jetson)
• CUDA Toolkit 12 or 13 (https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda/toolkit)
• System packages: apt update && apt install g++ cmake git git-lfs python3-dev
• CMake 3.19+, Python 3.9+

2. Install PyCuVSLAM (Quickest Path)

Pre-built wheels from https://github.com/nvidia-isaac/cuVSLAM/releases/latest:

Only these combinations are provided. The installed CUDA major must match the wheel's cu12 or cu13 tag; use a source build for other combinations.

python3 -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install cuvslam-<version>.whl
pip install -r examples/requirements.txt   # rerun-sdk, numpy, etc.

3. Build from Source

Clone

Ask the user: "Where would you like to clone the cuVSLAM repository?" before running these commands. Use their answer as <install-dir>.

git clone https://github.com/nvidia-isaac/cuVSLAM.git <install-dir>
cd <install-dir>

Build C++ library

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build --parallel $(nproc)

CMake options:

• -DUSE_RERUN=ON — enable Rerun visualization for C++ tools
• -DCUVSLAM_BUILD_SHARED_LIB=TRUE — build shared library (default)
• -DUSE_CUDA=ON — use CUDA (default)
• -DUSE_CUNLS=ON — enable Multisensor mode (default; requires CUDA)

Install PyCuVSLAM from source

After building C++:

CUVSLAM_BUILD_DIR=$(pwd)/build pip install -e python/

Warning: Reinstall PyCuVSLAM after every C++ rebuild (scikit-build-core limitation).

Build on Jetson (remote ARM)

./copy_to_remote.sh <jetson-host>
ssh <jetson-host> 'CUVSLAM_SRC_DIR="<install-dir>"; CUVSLAM_DST_DIR="$CUVSLAM_SRC_DIR/build"; export CUVSLAM_SRC_DIR CUVSLAM_DST_DIR; "$CUVSLAM_SRC_DIR/build_release.sh"'
./copy_from_remote.sh <jetson-host>

Docker (with RealSense support)

# Ubuntu 22.04 + CUDA 12
docker build -f docker/Dockerfile.realsense-cu12 -t pycuvslam:realsense-cu12 .
./docker/run_docker.sh

# Ubuntu 24.04 + CUDA 13
docker build -f docker/Dockerfile.realsense-cu13 -t pycuvslam:realsense-cu13 .
./docker/run_docker.sh 24

Minimum drivers: CUDA 12 → driver ≥560, CUDA 13 → driver ≥580.

4. Tracking Modes

cuVSLAM supports these visual tracking modes:

5. Run Examples — Public Datasets

Environment setup (common to all examples)

source .venv/bin/activate    # if using venv
cd examples
pip install -r requirements.txt

KITTI (Stereo Odometry) — quickest demo

Ask the user: "Where would you like to save the KITTI dataset? (e.g. ~/datasets/kitti)" before downloading. Then create a symlink so the example script can find it: ln -s <dataset-dir> examples/kitti/dataset

cd examples/kitti
# Download: http://www.cvlibs.net/datasets/kitti/eval_odometry.php (grayscale, 22GB)
# Unzip so <dataset-dir>/sequences/00/image_0/*.png exists
# Symlink dataset into the example directory:
ln -s <dataset-dir> dataset
python3 track_kitti.py

SLAM with mapping + localization:

python3 track_kitti_slam.py     # maps, saves trajectory + map/data.mdb

EuRoC (Stereo-Inertial)

Ask the user: "Where would you like to save the EuRoC dataset? (e.g. ~/datasets/euroc)" before downloading. Then create a symlink: ln -s <dataset-dir> examples/euroc/dataset

cd examples/euroc
# Download MH_01_easy from https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000690084
# Extract mav0/ to <dataset-dir>/mav0/
ln -s <dataset-dir> dataset
cp sensor_cam0.yaml dataset/mav0/cam0/sensor_recalibrated.yaml
cp sensor_cam1.yaml dataset/mav0/cam1/sensor_recalibrated.yaml
cp sensor_imu0.yaml dataset/mav0/imu0/sensor_recalibrated.yaml
python3 track_euroc.py

TUM RGB-D (Mono-Depth)

Ask the user: "Where would you like to save the TUM RGB-D dataset? (e.g. ~/datasets/tum)" before downloading.

cd examples/tum
mkdir -p <dataset-dir>
wget https://cvg.cit.tum.de/rgbd/dataset/freiburg3/rgbd_dataset_freiburg3_long_office_household.tgz -O <dataset-dir>/fr3.tgz
tar -xzf <dataset-dir>/fr3.tgz -C <dataset-dir> && rm <dataset-dir>/fr3.tgz
ln -s <dataset-dir> dataset
cp freiburg3_rig.yaml dataset/rgbd_dataset_freiburg3_long_office_household/
python3 track_tum.py

Multi-Camera (Tartan Ground, 6 stereo pairs)

cd examples/multicamera_edex
pip install tartanair     # x86_64 only
python3 download_tartan.py
python3 track_multicamera_tartan.py

Multisensor (Tartan Ground, RGB-D + optional IMU)

Multisensor tracking is experimental and may be inaccurate or fail for some sensor configurations and scenes.

cd examples/multisensor
pip install tartanair     # x86_64 only
python3 download_tartan.py
python3 track_multisensor_tartan.py
python3 track_multisensor_tartan.py --no-imu

6. Run Examples — Live Cameras

See references/live-cameras.md for detailed setup per camera. This table lists ready-made Python examples shipped in the repository. An em dash means no ready-made example exists; it does not mean the hardware integration is unsupported.

7. C++ API

EuRoC C++ example

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build --target track_euroc
./build/bin/track_euroc /path/to/euroc/mav0

With Rerun: cmake -S . -B build -DUSE_RERUN=ON && cmake --build build --target track_euroc

C++ tools

8. SLAM Workflow

1. Map: Run tracker with SLAM config to collect map
2. Save: Map stored as map/data.mdb (LMDB)
3. Localize: Load saved map, provide initial pose hint, call tracker.slam.localize_in_map()

odom_cfg = cuvslam.Odometry.Config(async_sba=False)  # blocking SBA for reproducibility
slam_cfg = cuvslam.Slam.Config(sync_mode=True)       # sync SLAM, same reason
# The mode must agree with both fields; the tracker rejects a mismatch instead of overriding it.
tracker = cuvslam.Tracker(cuvslam.Rig(...), cuvslam.Tracker.Mode.OdometryWithSlamOffline,
                          odom_cfg, slam_cfg)

odom_pose, slam_pose = tracker.track(...)
slam = tracker.slam

# Save map
def map_saved(success):
    print(f"Map save {'succeeded' if success else 'failed'}")

slam.save_map("map/", map_saved)

# Later: localize
loc_settings = cuvslam.Slam.LocalizationSettings()

def localization_started():
    print("Localization started")

def localization_finished(pose, error_message):
    if pose is not None:
        print(f"Localized pose: {pose}")
    else:
        print(f"Localization failed: {error_message}")

slam.localize_in_map(
    "map/",
    timestamp,
    pose_hint,
    images,
    loc_settings,
    localization_started,
    localization_finished,
)

See examples/kitti/track_kitti_slam.py for the complete workflow.

9. Advanced Features

• Static masks: Crop robot body / distorted edges via camera.border_top/bottom/left/right
• Dynamic masks: Real-time segmentation masks as PyTorch GPU tensors — see examples/kitti/track_kitti_masks.py
• Distortion models: pinhole, fisheye, brown, polynomial — see references/dataset-guides.md
• Debug dump: Set config.debug_dump_directory to capture EDEX + images for offline analysis
• Rerun visualization: All Python examples use Rerun; C++ needs -DUSE_RERUN=ON

10. ROS 2 Integration

Isaac ROS cuVSLAM wraps the C++ API as a ROS 2 node:

• GitHub: https://github.com/NVIDIA-ISAAC-ROS/isaac_ros_visual_slam
• Docs: https://nvidia-isaac-ros.github.io/concepts/visual_slam/cuvslam/index.html
• Supports Humble on Jetson (JetPack 6.1/6.2) and x86_64 (Ubuntu 22.04+)