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arXiv · 2505.11794

Gaussian Splatting as a Unified Representation for Autonomy in Unstructured Environments

Dexter Ong·Yuezhan Tao·Varun Murali·Igor Spasojevic·Vijay Kumar·Pratik Chaudhari
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Abstract

In this work, we argue that Gaussian splatting is a suitable unified representation for autonomous robot navigation in large-scale unstructured outdoor environments. Such environments require representations that can capture complex structures while remaining computationally tractable for real-time navigation. We demonstrate that the dense geometric and photometric information provided by a Gaussian splatting representation is useful for navigation in unstructured environments. Additionally, semantic information can be embedded in the Gaussian map to enable large-scale task-driven navigation. From the lessons learned through our experiments, we highlight several challenges and opportunities arising from the use of such a representation for robot autonomy.

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Dexter Ong, Yuezhan Tao, Varun Murali, Igor Spasojevic, Vijay Kumar, Pratik Chaudhari. 2025-05-17. Gaussian Splatting as a Unified Representation for Autonomy in Unstructured Environments. https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.11794

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