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Grid Map

  • Software
  • Navigation and mapping
  • Library

A C++ library with a ROS interface for managing two-dimensional grid maps that hold multiple data layers, designed for mobile robotic mapping and rough terrain navigation.

Made by ANYbotics, Switzerland (checked on github.com/ANYbotics (opens in a new tab)).

Source on GitHub: github.com/ANYbotics/grid_map (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit cdd0ea2 (opens in a new tab).

Licenses

Code
BSD-3-Clause (opens in a new tab)

Read by Robotheca from LICENSE (opens in a new tab) (BSD-3-Clause) at commit cdd0ea2 (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.

Commercial use
Yes

What it does

  • Stores map data as multiple layers, such as elevation, variance, color, and surface normals, with support for any number of layers.
  • Uses a two-dimensional circular buffer so the map can be shifted to follow the robot without copying data in memory.
  • Stores grid data as Eigen types, so Eigen algorithms can be applied directly to map data.
  • Converts grid maps to and from ROS message types, and provides conversions for costmap_2d, PCL, OctoMap and OpenCV.
  • Provides RViz plugins and visualization nodes that render grid maps as height maps, point clouds, occupancy grids and grid cells.
  • Offers a set of filters, configured as a chain in YAML, for thresholding, normals, smoothing, inpainting and expression evaluation.

Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit cdd0ea2.

Getting started

Difficulty
Intermediate
Hardware it needs, as the project states it
The grid_map_core package depends only on the Eigen linear algebra library; the other packages depend on a ROS installation.

Maintenance

Status
Maintained: a commit in the last 12 months
Newest commit
13 Jan 2026 on master
Latest release
1.6.4 (6 Jan 2021)

Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.

Links

Robots on Robotheca that use it

No robot on Robotheca is linked to it yet. Links come from a robot's robot.yaml, from its dependency files read as text, or from Robotheca's editors.

Robotheca lists software as a reference: nothing is hosted or run here, and every fact links to where it was read.