A Comparative Analysis of Visual Odometry in Virtual and Real-World Railways Environments

This paper aims at illustrating the benefits of employing graphic simulation for earlystage testing of perception tasks in the railway domain, For this purpose, it presents a comparative analysis of the performance of a SLAM algorithm applied both in a virtual synthetic environment and a real-world scenario.The analysis leverages virtual railway environments created with the latest version of Unreal Engine, facilitating data collection and allowing the examination of challenging scenarios, including low-visibility, dangerous operational modes, and complex environments.The results highlight the feasibility and potentiality of graphic simulation to advance perception tasks in the railway domain.