Distributed Pose Graph Optimization via Continuous Riemannian Dynamics

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Shin, Jaeho, Ghaffari, Maani, Tian, Yulun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Shin, Jaeho
Ghaffari, Maani
Tian, Yulun
author_facet Shin, Jaeho
Ghaffari, Maani
Tian, Yulun
contents We present a framework for distributed Pose Graph Optimization (PGO) by formulating the problem as a second-order continuous-time dynamical system evolving on Lie groups. By modeling pose variables as massive particles subject to damping, the equilibrium points of the resulting Riemannian dynamics coincide with first-order critical points of the original PGO problem. Using the governing damped Euler--Poincaré equations and a semi-implicit geometric integrator, we design an optimization algorithm that generalizes existing algorithms such as Riemannian gradient descent and Gauss--Newton. In multi-robot settings, we present a fully distributed and parallel method based on block-diagonal mass and damping matrices, where each robot solves an ordinary differential equation for its own poses with minimal communication overhead. Moreover, modeling both state and velocity enables principled neighbor prediction that significantly improves convergence under delayed communication. Theoretically, we present an analysis and establish sufficient condition that ensures energy dissipation under the employed geometric discretization scheme. Experiments on benchmark PGO datasets demonstrate that the proposed solver achieves superior performance compared to state-of-the-art distributed baselines in both synchronous and asynchronous regimes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_11210
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Distributed Pose Graph Optimization via Continuous Riemannian Dynamics
Shin, Jaeho
Ghaffari, Maani
Tian, Yulun
Robotics
We present a framework for distributed Pose Graph Optimization (PGO) by formulating the problem as a second-order continuous-time dynamical system evolving on Lie groups. By modeling pose variables as massive particles subject to damping, the equilibrium points of the resulting Riemannian dynamics coincide with first-order critical points of the original PGO problem. Using the governing damped Euler--Poincaré equations and a semi-implicit geometric integrator, we design an optimization algorithm that generalizes existing algorithms such as Riemannian gradient descent and Gauss--Newton. In multi-robot settings, we present a fully distributed and parallel method based on block-diagonal mass and damping matrices, where each robot solves an ordinary differential equation for its own poses with minimal communication overhead. Moreover, modeling both state and velocity enables principled neighbor prediction that significantly improves convergence under delayed communication. Theoretically, we present an analysis and establish sufficient condition that ensures energy dissipation under the employed geometric discretization scheme. Experiments on benchmark PGO datasets demonstrate that the proposed solver achieves superior performance compared to state-of-the-art distributed baselines in both synchronous and asynchronous regimes.
title Distributed Pose Graph Optimization via Continuous Riemannian Dynamics
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.11210