Navigation & SLAM

Odometry

Odometry is the estimation of a robot's change in pose over time from onboard motion measurements, such as wheel encoder counts, IMU integration, or visual and LiDAR feature tracking. Because each increment carries error, purely odometric estimates drift without bound and are typically fused with loop closures or global localization. Visual-inertial odometry is standard on GPS-denied aerial and legged platforms.

Why it matters for physical AI

Nearly every mobile robot's state estimator is built on odometry, and its drift characteristics determine how much a system must rely on mapping, beacons, or learned corrections.