Navigation research
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Whereas originally the term Navigation applies to the process of directing a ship to a destination, Navigation research deals with fundamental aspects of navigation in general. It can be defined as "The process of determining and maintaining a course or trajectory to a goal location" (Franz, Mallot, 2000). It concerns basically all moving agents, biological or artificial, autonomous or remote-controlled.
Franz and Mallot proposed a navigation hierarchy (Robotics and Autonomous Systems 30 (2000), 133-153):
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Behavioural prerequisite |
Navigation competence |
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Local navigation |
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Search |
Goal recognition |
Finding the goal without active goal orientation |
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Direction-following |
Align course with local direction |
Finding the goal from one direction |
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Aiming |
Keep goal in front |
Finding a salient goal from a catchment area |
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Guidance |
Attain spatial relation to the surrounding objects |
Finding a goal defined by its relation to the surroundings |
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Way-finding |
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Recognition-triggered response |
Association sensory pattern-action |
Following fixed routes |
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Topological navigation |
Route integration, route planning |
Flexible concatenation of route segments |
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Survey navigation |
Embedding into a common reference frame |
Finding paths over novel terrain |
There are two basic methods for navigation:
- Egocentric navigation also known as Idiothetic navigation
- Allocentric navigation also known as Allothetic navigation
[edit] Robotic navigation
Outdoor robots can use GPS in a similar way to automotive navigation systems. Alternative systems can be used with floor plan instead of maps for indoor robots, combined with localization wireless hardware.
