libpointmatcher

Software
Navigation and mapping
Library

A C++ library implementing the Iterative Closest Point algorithm for aligning point clouds, with a Python binding, used in robotics and computer vision.

Made by Northern Robotics Laboratory, Canada (checked on github.com/norlab-ulaval (opens in a new tab)).

Source on GitHub: github.com/norlab-ulaval/libpointmatcher (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit 62b3478 (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 62b3478 (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.
Commercial use: Yes

What it does

Implements a modular Iterative Closest Point (ICP) pipeline for registering point clouds.
Written in C++ for efficiency and offers Python bindings.
Reads and writes point clouds in csv, vtk, ply and pcd formats.
Ships unit tests based on the GTest framework.
Documentation covers tutorials and a doxygen-based API reference.

Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit 62b3478.

Getting started

Difficulty: Advanced
Hardware it needs, as the project states it: Tested on Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04 and 22.04 on x86 and arm64/v8; reportedly works on Mac OS X and Windows. Depends on Eigen 3, boost 1.48 and up, and libnabo 1.0.7.
How to start: The project's website (opens in a new tab)

Maintenance

Status: Active: a commit in the last 90 days
Newest commit: 27 Aug 2026 on master
Latest release: 1.4.4 (20 Dec 2024)

Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.

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.