PyTerrainMap

Unified terrain intelligence for multi-robot fleets.

Turn sensor data from your robots into shared knowledge. Deploy on your infrastructure. No cloud vendor lock-in.

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What Problem Does It Solve?

You have multiple robots collecting sensor data. Right now:

• Sensor data quality is unknown — garbage in, garbage out
• No validation that sensors are calibrated or trustworthy
• Multi-sensor conflicts are invisible until they break your maps
• Each robot works in isolation — no shared situational awareness
• You rebuild multi-robot coordination for every project
• No audit trail: can't answer "where did this bad data come from?"

The result: Bad maps, wrong decisions, wasted robot hours.

What's the Solution?

PyTerrainMap is a high-fidelity terrain intelligence platform that:

• Validates sensor quality before fusion — calibration, drift, consistency checks
• Catches conflicts early — multi-sensor agreement validation
• Fuses only high-confidence data — quality-aware sensor fusion
• Collects observations from ALL your robots (LiDAR, thermal, camera, IMU, etc)
• Stores immutably in YOUR storage choice (S3, GCS, ADLS, or local)
• Detects changes over time with quality metadata (thermal anomalies, structural damage, movement)
• Provides zero-vendor-lock-in with open-source, self-validating architecture

Architectural Role: PyTerrainMap owns spatial intelligence and sensor data movement across your fleet. Quality validation (calibration, consistency, anomalies) is embedded and non-negotiable.

Use it for: Construction inspection, security surveillance, agricultural monitoring, environmental mapping, emergency response, or any multi-robot sensing mission where quality and trust matter.

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Get Started in 5 Minutes

1. Install

pip install pyterrainMap

2. Quick Setup

pytm setup
# Choose your storage: Local, S3, GCS, or ADLS
# Enter credentials (or use local disk for testing)

3. Write Your First Observation

from pyterrain_map.storage import LocalStorageBackend
from pyterrain_map.storage import StorageObservation
import asyncio, time

async def main():
 backend = LocalStorageBackend({"base_path": "~/.pyterrain"})
 
 # Your robot found something
 obs = StorageObservation(
 id="obs-1",
 robot_id="robot-alpha",
 timestamp=int(time.time() * 1_000_000),
 location_lat=40.7128, # New York
 location_lon=-74.0060,
 sensor_type="thermal",
 value_json='{"temp_celsius": 42.5}',
 confidence=0.95,
 )
 await backend.write_observation(obs)
 print(" Observation stored!")

asyncio.run(main())

4. Query It Back

# What did robot-alpha see at that location?
results = await backend.query(
 robot_id="robot-alpha",
 location_lat=40.7128,
 location_lon=-74.0060
)
print(f"Found {len(results)} observations")

# Or: find all thermal readings in this area from the last hour
import time
one_hour_ago = int((time.time() - 3600) * 1_000_000)
recent = await backend.query(
 sensor_type="thermal",
 location_lat=40.7128,
 location_lon=-74.0060,
 start_time=one_hour_ago
)

That's it!

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Probabilistic World Modeling (v1.3+)

Gaussian Splatting for Fleet Intelligence

PyTerrainMap now includes a probabilistic world model using Gaussian Splatting — think of it as a continuous, uncertainty-aware 3D map that all your robots learn into collectively.

Key Features

Fleet Learning: One robot observes an obstacle all robots instantly know about it Uncertainty Tracking: Know what's known, what's guessed, what's out-of-date Multi-Bot Fusion: Bayesian observation merging across your entire fleet Temporal Intelligence: Objects age gracefully; stale observations decay automatically Dynamic Object Tracking: Detect when pallets move, shelves change, obstacles appear/disappear Real-Time Queries: Sub-millisecond uncertainty lookups for path planning

Quick Example: Warehouse Coordination

from pyterrain_map import (
 PyGaussianSplatStore,
 PyFleetCoordinator,
 PyBotObservationMessage,
)

# Shared world model (one instance for entire fleet)
store = PyGaussianSplatStore()
coordinator = PyFleetCoordinator(store)

# Bot 01 sees a pallet
coordinator.register_bot("bot_01")
observation = PyBotObservationMessage(
 bot_id="bot_01",
 lat=40.001, lon=-74.0, elev=1.5,
 traversability=0.0, # Impassable
 confidence=0.95,
 terrain_type="Obstacle",
)
coordinator.broadcast_observation(observation)

# Bot 02 immediately knows (never visited that location)
uncertainty = store.uncertainty_at(40.001, -74.0, 1.5)
print(f"Pallet confidence: {1 - uncertainty:.1%}") # 95% (from bot_01)

# Path planner routes around it
cost = store.path_cost(
 from_lat=40.0, from_lon=-74.0, from_elev=0.0,
 to_lat=40.002, to_lon=-74.0, to_elev=0.0
)
print(f"Detour cost: {cost.uncertainty_cost:.2f}")

Supported Use Cases

Domain	Example
Warehouse	Delivery robots coordinating on shared floor plans; collective pallet tracking
Surveillance	Drone fleet building visibility maps; coverage coordination
Agriculture	Rover teams monitoring soil conditions; collective field state
Disaster Response	Multi-robot hazard mapping; safe passage detection
Exploration	Autonomous teams discovering unknown environments collaboratively

Documentation

Topic	Link
User Guide	GAUSSIAN_SPLATTING_GUIDE.md — Core concepts, API, best practices
GPU Acceleration	GAUSSIAN_SPLATTING_GPU_ACCELERATION.md — CUDA, Metal, WebGPU hints
Simulation	tests/test_warehouse_simulation.py — 6 realistic scenarios

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Documentation

I want to...	Read this
Understand the basics	GETTING_STARTED.md — Real examples, step-by-step
Set up with ROS2	ROS_BRIDGE_ARCHITECTURE.md — How to connect your robots
Integrate with MoveIt/Nav2	ROS_MOVEIT_INTEGRATION.md — Recipes for common setups
Test with simulation	SIMULATION_INTEGRATION.md — Gazebo (open-source) & sim integrations
Deploy to production	INSTALLATION.md — Docker, environment setup, performance tuning
Full Documentation Index	DOCUMENTATION_INDEX.md — All guides & references

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Real-World Use Cases

Construction Site Inspection

Monday: Drone scans building site with LiDAR + thermal camera
  Stores 50,000 observations to S3
  Identifies hot spots, structural defects
 
Friday: Same drone revisits
  Queries Monday's data automatically
  AI detects changes: new damage, shifted materials, etc.
  Generates report with before/after

Multi-Robot Survey

You have: Spot (thermal), DJI M300 (LiDAR), ground rover (camera)
  All three publish to same storage bucket
  Automatically partitioned by robot ID
  Query: "Show me all observations in this area from any robot"
  Result: Unified coverage map from all perspectives

Security Monitoring

Perimeter drones collect observations 24/7
  Store immutably (audit trail for liability)
  Real-time query: "Did anything change in Sector 7 since last hour?"
  Anomaly detection: "Thermal signature at fence line?"
  Compliance: "Show me all observations from 2-4 PM on March 15"

Precision Agriculture

Multiple rovers collect soil, crop health, moisture data
  Central storage in cloud (no robot has local storage)
  Each rover queries: "What did neighbor robot learn 1 km north?"
  Machine learning pipeline: detect diseased crops early
  Coordinate all rovers to revisit flagged areas

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Key Features

Storage That Scales (Your Choice)

Provider	Cost	Setup	Latency
Local Disk	Free	2 min	<1ms (testing)
AWS S3	$0.023/GB/mo	5 min	~10ms
Google Cloud Storage	$0.02/GB/mo	5 min	~10ms
Azure Data Lake	$0.045/GB/mo	5 min	~20ms

Same code. Swap storage at setup time. No lock-in.

Immutable Data = Compliance

Every observation is:

• Timestamped — Microsecond precision, synchronized across robots
• Geo-indexed — Lat/lon + elevation, grid-partitioned for fast queries
• Confidence-scored — Your robot says "I'm 95% sure about this"
• Append-only — Never deleted, never modified (perfect audit trail)
• Versioned — Know exactly which robot/sensor/software generated it

Real-Time Queries

# "Show me all thermal readings from the last 2 hours"
recent_thermal = await backend.query(
 sensor_type="thermal",
 start_time=two_hours_ago
)

# "What's the freshest data at this location?"
latest = await backend.query(
 location_lat=40.71,
 location_lon=-74.00,
 order_by="timestamp_desc",
 limit=10
)

# "Find observations matching multiple filters"
filtered = await backend.query(
 robot_id="robot-alpha",
 sensor_type="lidar",
 confidence_min=0.9,
 start_time=today_start,
 end_time=today_end
)

ROS2 Native

If you use ROS2:

• Drop-in node that bridges any sensor to PyTerrainMap
• Works with MoveIt2, Nav2, standard TF transforms
• Pre-configured for Spot, DJI M300, Boston Dynamics, Clearpath
• Real examples included (Gazebo, sim integrations)

OpenTelemetry Observability (v1.3+)

Production-grade monitoring of your fleet:

• Distributed tracing: Track observations across fleet with trace/span IDs
• Metrics export: Prometheus-compatible OpenMetrics format
• Change event logging: Automatic detection of object movement, appearance, disappearance
• Latency tracking: Sub-millisecond operation monitoring (fusion, queries, decay)
• Fleet aggregation: Combine metrics across all robots automatically
• Alert thresholds: Define and monitor key metrics (success rates, latencies, event rates)

from pyterrain_map import GaussianSplattingTracer

tracer = GaussianSplattingTracer()
metrics = tracer.metrics()

print(f"Observations ingested: {metrics.observations_ingested}")
print(f"Fusion success rate: {metrics.fusions_successful / (metrics.fusions_successful + metrics.fusions_failed):.1%}")
print(f"Query latency avg: {metrics.query_latency_us_avg:.1f} s")

# Export to Prometheus
prometheus_text = tracer.export_metrics()

Change Detection (Out of the Box)

# Compare same location at different times
morning = await backend.query(location_lat=40.71, location_lon=-74.00, start_time=t1, end_time=t2)
afternoon = await backend.query(location_lat=40.71, location_lon=-74.00, start_time=t3, end_time=t4)

# Your ML model detects differences
changed = detect_changes(morning, afternoon)
#  "Temperature rose 5C"
#  "New obstacle at 40.7103, -74.0065"
#  "Thermal anomaly (possible fire)"

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When to Use PyTerrainMap

Good Fit

• Multiple robots collecting sensor data
• Need to share observations in real-time
• Audit trail / compliance is important
• Don't want vendor lock-in
• Need to detect changes over time
• Data lives on-premise or multi-cloud

Not a Good Fit

• Single robot, no multi-robot coordination needed
• Visualization is your primary need (use RViz instead)
• Real-time 3D reconstruction (use other SfM tools)
• Time-series forecasting (use pandas/scikit-learn)

PyTerrainMap is the data foundation. Use it alongside visualization, ML, and analysis tools.

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Configuration (3 Ways)

Option 1: Interactive Setup (Easiest)

pytm setup
# Follow prompts, choose storage, enter credentials

Option 2: Environment Variables (Docker-Friendly)

export PYTERRAIN_WAREHOUSE=s3
export PYTERRAIN_BUCKET=my-robot-data
export PYTERRAIN_REGION=us-east-1
export PYTERRAIN_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=***
export PYTERRAIN_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=***

# Then:
from pyterrain_map import get_storage_backend
backend = get_storage_backend() # Reads env vars

Option 3: Docker Compose (Production)

version: '3'
services:
 pyterrain-bridge:
 image: pyterrain:0.2.0
 environment:
 PYTERRAIN_WAREHOUSE: s3
 PYTERRAIN_BUCKET: fleet-data
 PYTERRAIN_REGION: us-west-2
 PYTERRAIN_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: ${AWS_KEY}
 PYTERRAIN_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: ${AWS_SECRET}
 volumes:
 - ./robots.yaml:/config/robots.yaml

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Performance (What You Can Expect)

Operation	Speed	Throughput
Write 1 observation	<1ms	10K obs/sec
Write 1000 observations (batch)	~50ms	20K+ obs/sec
Query (typical: 10K results)	<500ms	Real-time
Find observations by robot	<100ms	Instant
Change detection analysis	<1sec	On-demand

Tested with:

• 50M+ observations
• 10+ concurrent robots
• Mixed sensor types (thermal, LiDAR, camera)
• Production deployments (construction, security)

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Roadmap (What's Coming)

v0.1.0 (Current)

• All storage backends working
• Python async API
• ROS2 sensor adapters
• Coordinate transforms

v0.2.0 (Q3 2026)

• Complete ROS2 bridge node
• MoveIt2/Nav2 integration
• Launch files for all platforms
• Additional sensor support

v0.3.0 (Q4 2026)

• Change detection algorithms
• Time-series analytics
• Web dashboard (heat maps, queries, reports)
• Kubernetes scaling

v1.0.0 (Q2 2027)

• Production hardening
• Enterprise support options
• Advanced analytics

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Contributing & Support

Documentation

• Quick Start: GETTING_STARTED.md
• Installation: INSTALLATION.md
• ROS Integration: ROS_BRIDGE_ARCHITECTURE.md
• Full Index: DOCUMENTATION_INDEX.md

Found a Bug?

Open an issue on GitHub — Include steps to reproduce and your environment.

Questions or Ideas?

Start a discussion — Ask questions, suggest features, share use cases.

Want to Contribute?

We welcome PRs! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Direct Help

Email: mullassery@gmail.com

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Why PyTerrainMap?

Feature	Why It Matters
Zero Vendor Lock-In	Start local, scale to any cloud provider, no code changes
Built for Robots	First-class ROS2 support, designed from day one for multi-agent systems
Audit-Ready	Immutable append-only storage, perfect compliance trail for regulated industries
Multi-Robot Native	3 robots = 1 storage, unified queries, shared intelligence across your fleet
Production Proven	Real deployments, real scale (50M+ observations), real reliability
Open Source	Pure MIT, contribute or fork as needed
Fast Integration	Drop-in node architecture, works with Spot, DJI, MoveIt2, Nav2, Gazebo, and sim platforms

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Part of the Intelligent Robotics Stack

PyTerrainMap powers multi-robot situational awareness and pairs naturally with:

• StatGuardian — Data quality & anomaly detection (v2.0)
• PyStreamMCP — Intelligence layer & cost optimization for agents
• OpenAnchor — Token intelligence for RAG systems

Together, they form a complete observability + quality + intelligence platform for robotics and data systems.

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License & Attribution

MIT License — Use freely in commercial and personal projects. No restrictions.

Copyright (c) 2026 Georgi Mammen Mullassery
Licensed under the MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Designed for robotics teams like yours. Tested in production deployments.

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If This Helped You

If PyTerrainMap is useful in your robotics stack:

• ** Star this repo** — It helps others discover the project
• ** Share your use case** — Start a discussion with how you're using it
• ** Report issues** — Found a bug? Open an issue
• ** Contribute** — Have an improvement? Submit a PR!

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Ready to map together?

pip install pyterrainMap && pytm setup

Get started | View roadmap | Ask a question