Calibrated Keyframe-Segment Selection for Descriptor-Agnostic LiDAR Loop Closure in Repetitive Environments

Abstract:False LiDAR loop closures can distort pose graphs in repetitive environments, where one query may match several distant places. Genuine revisits, unlike many perceptual aliases, tend to remain consistent across neighboring keyframes. We present Query-Calibrated Segmental Admission (QCSA), a loop-candidate selection method between descriptor retrieval and point-cloud registration. QCSA maps descriptor scores to evidence that distinguishes true loops from hard negatives, accumulates it over short keyframe segments, and admits only the best segment above a threshold fitted to the strongest false segment for each calibration query. The admitted segment forms two local submaps for one Generalized Iterative Closest Point (GICP) registration. QCSA requires pairwise descriptor scores and separate calibration for each descriptor and setting. Across seven descriptors on the SNU Library Dataset (SNULib), QCSA lowers average trajectory error with 53.8% fewer registration attempts than Top-1. With common local submaps and downstream processing on NCLT, it also reduces registration attempts, constraints exceeding the pose-error tolerance, and trajectory error relative to Top-1. HeLiPR Bridge further evaluates repeated outdoor geometry. Our implementation and dataset will be released at: this https URL.

Robotics (cs.RO); Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV)

arXiv:2512.09447 [cs.RO]

(or arXiv:2512.09447v3 [cs.RO] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2512.09447 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

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