Base

The base module provides fundamental data structures, utilities, and mathematical operations that form the foundation of GTSAM. Here are the key header files:

Core Mathematical Concepts¶

Utilities to define group, manifold, and Lie group classes, as well as concept checks for them.

• Manifold.h - Defines the concept for differentiable manifolds with retract/local operations. See Manifold docs.

• Lie.h - Implements the Lie group concept combining group operations with manifold structure. See LieGroup docs.

• MatrixLieGroup.h - Base class for matrix Lie groups (SO(n), SE(n), SL(n), etc.) with Hat/Vee operators. See MatrixLieGroup docs.

And, less common:

• Group.h - Defines the group concept with identity, inverse, and composition operations. See Group docs.

• VectorSpace.h - Defines the vector space concept. See VectorSpace docs.

• ProductLieGroup.h - Cartesian products of Lie groups

• lieProxies.h - Proxy functions for testing

Linear Algebra¶

Linear algebra operations optimized for robotics applications. Vector and Matrix are essentially typedefs and wrappers for Eigen:

• Vector.h - Vector operations and mathematical functions

• Matrix.h - Essential matrix operations and linear algebra utilities built on Eigen

• cholesky.h - Cholesky decomposition algorithms for solving linear systems

These are used in Jacobian and Hessian factors:

• VerticalBlockMatrix.h - Specialized block matrix structure for efficient sparse operations

• SymmetricBlockMatrix.h - Symmetric block matrix implementation for optimization problems

Jacobians¶

• numericalDerivative.h - Numerical differentiation utilities for automatic derivative computation

• OptionalJacobian.h - Optional Jacobian computation wrapper for optimization efficiency

Container and Data Structures¶

• High-performance container types (FastSet, FastMap, etc.) optimized for GTSAM (unclear whether still relevant for recent c++ compilers)

• DSFMap.h - Disjoint Set Forest implementation using maps for union-find operations

• DSFVector.h - Disjoint Set Forest implementation using vectors for better performance

• TreeTraversal.h - Tree traversal algorithms and utilities for factor graphs

• ConcurrentMap.h - Thread-safe concurrent map implementation

Debugging and Development Tools¶

• debug.h - Debugging utilities, assertion macros, and conditional compilation flags

• timing.h - Performance timing and profiling utilities for benchmarking

• TestableAssertions.h - Assertion macros for unit testing with tolerance checking

• chartTesting.h - Utilities for testing manifold chart operations

Sampling and Statistics¶

• WeightedSampler.h - Weighted random sampling utilities for Monte Carlo methods

• sampler.h - General sampling utilities and random number generation

Graph Algorithms¶

• Kruskal.h - Kruskal’s algorithm for minimum spanning trees in factor graphs

• BTree.h - Balanced tree implementation for efficient storage and retrieval

Type System and Traits¶

• types.h - Common type definitions, aliases, and forward declarations

• concepts.h - C++ concept definitions for type checking and constraints

• Testable.h - Base class and concept for objects that can be tested for equality

Serialization Support¶

• SerializationBase.h - Base serialization functionality for saving/loading objects

• StdOptionalSerialization.h - Serialization support for std::optional types

Memory Management and Performance¶

• utilities.h - General utility functions, memory management helpers, and common operations

• FastDefaultAllocator.h - Custom allocator for improved performance in critical paths

• Value.h - Type-erased value wrapper for heterogeneous containers

Template Metaprogramming¶

• treeTraversal-inst.h - Template instantiations for tree traversal algorithms

• concepts.h - SFINAE utilities and type trait helpers