What is visual odometry?

Visual odometry (VO) is the process of determining the position and orientation of a robot or other mobile platform by analyzing the sequence of images captured by one or more cameras. It's commonly used in robotics, augmented reality, and autonomous driving to estimate the ego-motion (movement) of the device relative to its environment. VO works by identifying features in images, tracking their movement across subsequent frames, and then using techniques like triangulation and bundle adjustment to estimate the camera's motion and reconstruct a 3D map of the environment. Unlike wheel odometry or inertial measurement units, VO relies on visual information and does not accumulate drift as quickly, making it suitable for longer-term localization and mapping.