Landmarks for navigation in human and robots

Abstract

One determinant of navigation concerns the ability to use landmarks. However, despite wide acceptance of the concept of landmarks, there is considerable debate as to what is meant by the term 'landmark' and how landmarks are used to assist in navigation. Sorrows and Hirtle [30] introduced a tripartite theory of landmarks that can be applied to navigation by humans in real and electronic spaces. Their approach was to classify landmarks along three dimensions: visual, semantic, and structural. These dimensions can be defined independently for navigation in physical space and for navigation in electronic spaces, such as the World Wide Web. It is argued in this paper, that the same framework can be extended to robot navigation, but with the realization of the dimensions appearing quite different in robotics world. The term landmark remains a fundamental concept of navigation and can provide a theoretical bridge between scientific camps of researchers. © 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.