:robot: MOLA :compass:
_{Modular Optimization framework for Localization and mApping}

A modern, modular C++ and ROS 2 framework for Localization and SLAM. Configurable pipelines for LiDAR Odometry, LIO, and more.

Why MOLA  |  Solutions  |  Plans & Pricing  |  Documentation

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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)

EOL Distro	Last Release
ROS 2 Iron (u22.04)

🤖 What is MOLA?

MOLA (Modular Optimization framework for Localization and mApping) is a modular, extensible, and high-performance framework for robotics localization and 🗺️ mapping.

This repository contains the base open-sourced packages for the MOLA project. Other packages exist under the MOLAorg organization.

Refer to the official documentation for build instructions, demos, API reference, etc.

🗺️ Features

• 📍 LiDAR Odometry (LO), LiDAR-Inertial Odometry (LIO), geo-referenced maps, sensor fusion
• 🧩 Fully configurable YAML pipelines - no recompilation needed to change sensors, filters, or map layers
• 🎯 Flexible accuracy: fast real-time navigation or survey-grade (<1 cm) mapping
• 🌍 Map-less RTK-quality outdoor georeferencing with low-cost GNSS + LiDAR + IMU
• 🛠️ Rich .mm metric map ecosystem: viewer, LAS/PLY/TXT export, filtering, georeferencing tools
• 🤖 ROS 2 ready (Humble, Jazzy, Kilted, Rolling) but also usable from standalone pure C++

🚀 Demo videos

Lidar-Inertial-Odometry (LIO) demo with Oxford Spires:

Lidar-Odometry (LO) demo with GrandTour legged dataset:

Lidar-Odometry (LO) demo with KITTI:

ROSCon Talk introducing MOLA

Video (Slides):

Individual package build status

Binary package build status per package and ROS 2 distro:

Package	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)
mola
mola_bridge_ros2
mola_demos
mola_input_lidar_bin_dataset
mola_input_rawlog
mola_input_rosbag2
mola_input_video
mola_kernel
mola_launcher
mola_metric_maps
mola_msgs
mola_pose_list
mola_relocalization
mola_traj_tools
mola_viz
mola_yaml

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, since mrpt3 cannot be built there.
• Fedora (x86_64) -- only available since ROS 2 Lyrical.

Citations

The latest publications on MOLA are (ArXiV).

@article{blanco2025mola_lo,
    author = {Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco},
    title = {{A flexible framework for accurate LiDAR odometry, map manipulation, and localization}},
    journal = {The International Journal of Robotics Research},
    volume = {44},
    number = {9},
    pages = {1553--1599},
    year = {2025},
    doi = {10.1177/02783649251316881},
    URL = { https://doi.org/10.1177/02783649251316881},
    eprint = {https://doi.org/10.1177/02783649251316881},
}

MOLA was initially presented in 2019 in (PDF):

@INPROCEEDINGS{Blanco-Claraco-RSS-19, 
    AUTHOR    = {Jose Luis Blanco-Claraco}, 
    TITLE     = {{A Modular Optimization Framework for Localization and Mapping}}, 
    BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems}, 
    YEAR      = {2019}, 
    ADDRESS   = {FreiburgimBreisgau, Germany}, 
    MONTH     = {June}, 
    DOI       = {10.15607/RSS.2019.XV.043} 
} 

License

MOLA follows an Open Core model. Core modules are released under the GNU GPL v3 license, while foundational libraries (MRPT, mp2p_icp) are BSD-3.

Commercial use: Companies needing to deploy MOLA in closed-source products can obtain a commercial license (MOLA Pro).

See the Plans & Pricing page for details on Community vs Pro editions.

Contributions require acceptance of the Contributor License Agreement (CLA).

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