[ros-users] SLAM pretty much requires laser?

Hi,

Several people in Trossen Robotics community are just starting to use ROS.
Our robots are usually smaller and cheaper.
Hokuyo and SICK sensors are way out of reach for us.

We love what navigation stack can do, but it looks like it pretty much
requires the usage of a lidar for SLAM.
Is that a correct statement to make?

Thank you,
Alex

P.S. We are aware of VSLAM, but it seems computationally intensive.
NXT-ROS project is another example of using navigation without a laser,
but the accuracy seems pretty limited.