Both the laser-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) and vision-based SLAM have limitation in specific environment, the SLAM with laser-camera fusion sensor can take advantage of outstanding features and make up the disadvantages of each sensors in these environment. Therefore, the SLAM with laser-camera fusion sensor has got much attention. The research of SLAM with laser-camera fusion sensor are reviewed and some outstanding achievements are presented to get a better understanding. Then the extrinsic calibration of camera and laser and laser-camera data fusion are analyzed in detail. And the advantages and disadvantages of the SLAM with laser-camera fusion sensor and its main application fields are summarized. In the end, the main trends and research hotspots of SLAM with laser-camera fusion sensor are discussed.