Two decades of open-source robotics — since 2005
Documentation · Tutorials · API Reference · Examples · Applications
MRPT is a well-established C++ framework for mobile robotics, originally developed in 2005 at the University of Málaga and actively maintained to this day. Over the years, contributions from the community have evolved it into a robust, modular toolkit widely used in both academic research and industry.
MRPT 3.0 is a major refactoring that modernises the build system (colcon-based modular packages), cleans up the public API, and aligns with modern C++17 standards while preserving the data structures and algorithms at the core of MRPT.
| Area | What's included |
|---|---|
| SLAM | MonteCarlo Localization, RBPF, pose-graph optimization |
| Geometry | SE(2)/SE(3) Lie groups, rigid body transforms, point clouds |
| Probabilistic | Kalman filters, particle filters, PDFs over poses & maps |
| Maps | Occupancy grids, point maps, landmark maps, voxel maps |
| Sensors | LiDAR, stereo/RGB-D cameras, IMU, GPS, Velodyne, … |
| Visualization | 3-D scene graph (mrpt::viz), GUI windows, plot widgets |
| Navigation | Reactive nav, path planning, PTG-based obstacle avoidance |
| Python | pybind11 bindings for all major modules |
# ROS 1 (deprecated)
sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-mrpt2
# ROS 2
sudo apt install ros-$ROS_DISTRO-mrpt-*| Distro | Build dev | Release |
|---|---|---|
| ROS 2 Humble (u22.04) |  |
|
| ROS 2 Jazzy (u24.04) |  |
|
| ROS 2 Kilted (u24.04) |  |
|
| ROS 2 Lyrical (u26.04) |  |
|
| ROS 2 Rolling (u26.04) |  |
Binary package build status per package, distro, OS and architecture:
| Package | ROS 2 Humble BinBuild |
ROS 2 Jazzy BinBuild |
ROS 2 Kilted BinBuild |
ROS 2 Lyrical BinBuild |
ROS 2 Rolling BinBuild |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mrpt_core | |||||
| mrpt_io | |||||
| mrpt_serialization | |||||
| mrpt_system | |||||
| mrpt_rtti | |||||
| mrpt_containers | |||||
| mrpt_typemeta | |||||
| mrpt_random | |||||
| mrpt_config | |||||
| mrpt_data | |||||
| mrpt_expr | |||||
| mrpt_math | |||||
| mrpt_poses | |||||
| mrpt_tfest | |||||
| mrpt_bayes | |||||
| mrpt_obs | |||||
| mrpt_topography | |||||
| mrpt_maps | |||||
| mrpt_graphs | |||||
| mrpt_opengl | |||||
| mrpt_img | |||||
| mrpt_viz | |||||
| mrpt_imgui | |||||
| mrpt_imgui_vendor | |||||
| mrpt_gui | |||||
| mrpt_nav | |||||
| mrpt_kinematics | |||||
| mrpt_slam | |||||
| mrpt_graphslam | |||||
| mrpt_hwdrivers | |||||
| mrpt_common | |||||
| mrpt_comms | |||||
| mrpt_libapps_cli | |||||
| mrpt_libapps_gui | |||||
| mrpt_apps_cli | |||||
| mrpt_apps_gui | |||||
| mrpt_examples_cpp |
Each cell stacks the badges for that ROS 2 distro, in this order (when available):
- Ubuntu (
amd64) - Ubuntu (
arm64) - RHEL (
x86_64) -- not available for Humble:pybind11-devhas no RHEL 8 mapping in rosdep, so mrpt3 cannot be built there. - Fedora (
x86_64) -- only available since ROS 2 Lyrical (Fedora was not a supported buildfarm target for earlier distros).
A red/failing badge means the package attempted to build for that platform but currently fails (e.g. an unresolved transitive dependency); a missing badge means that platform is not offered at all for that distro.
mrpt_imgui_vendor is pending its first rosdistro release, so its badges will show as unbuilt until that merge lands.
sudo apt install libmrpt-dev mrpt-appsCheck your distro version at Ubuntu / Debian. For a more recent build, use the nightly PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:joseluisblancoc/mrpt
sudo apt install libmrpt-dev mrpt-appsgit clone https://github.com/MRPT/mrpt.git --recursiveInstall build dependencies with rosdep (recommended, works even without ROS installed):
sudo apt install python3-rosdep
sudo rosdep init # only once per machine
rosdep update
rosdep install --from-paths . --ignore-src -r -yThen build with colcon:
colcon buildSee the full build guide for colcon, CMake options, and dependency setup.
Nightly Windows installer — includes .exe, .dll, .h, and .lib files.
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
project(my_robot_app)
find_package(mrpt_poses REQUIRED)
find_package(mrpt_maps REQUIRED)
add_executable(my_app main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(my_app mrpt::mrpt_poses mrpt::mrpt_maps)Migrating from MRPT 2.x? See the porting guide — package names changed from
mrpt-<name>tomrpt_<name>and targets frommrpt::<name>tomrpt::mrpt_<name>.
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| Full API reference | docs.mrpt.org/reference/latest/modules.html |
| Tutorials | docs.mrpt.org/reference/latest/tutorials.html |
| Code examples | docs.mrpt.org/reference/latest/examples.html |
| Python examples | docs.mrpt.org/reference/latest/python_examples.html |
| Python API reference | docs.mrpt.org/reference/latest/python_api.html |
| Docs for AI agents | llms.txt, examples.json, and a .md version of every page |
| GUI applications | docs.mrpt.org/reference/latest/applications.html |
| Supported sensors | docs.mrpt.org/reference/latest/supported-sensors.html |
| ROS wrappers | docs.mrpt.org/reference/latest/wrappers.html |
| Porting from 2.x | docs.mrpt.org/reference/latest/page_porting_mrpt3.html |
| Changelog | docs.mrpt.org/reference/latest/page_changelog.html |
| Robotics datasets | mrpt.org/robotics_datasets |
MRPT 3.0 is organized as independent colcon packages. Each can be built and used standalone:
mrpt_core · mrpt_math · mrpt_poses · mrpt_obs · mrpt_maps · mrpt_slam ·
mrpt_viz · mrpt_gui · mrpt_nav · mrpt_bayes · mrpt_graphs · mrpt_io ·
mrpt_img · mrpt_config · mrpt_serialization · mrpt_random · mrpt_system ·
mrpt_tfest · mrpt_kinematics · mrpt_comms · mrpt_hwdrivers · …
- Questions: Stack Overflow
[mrpt]or mrpt-users mailing list - Bugs / features: GitHub Issues
- Contributing: see CONTRIBUTING.md
- MOLA SLAM: MRPT is the core library of the MOLA modular SLAM framework
Released under the BSD 3-Clause License.
