Allothetic means being centred in people or places other than oneself. It has been defined as a process of "determining and maintaining a course or trajectory from one place to another.[1] It can be used as a navigational strategy among animals to aid in their survival.[1] It can also be a source of information for machines, particularly those biologically-inspired models and is provided by a set of laser rangefinders, sonars, or vision.[2]

Allothetic is used in navigation models (e.g., of a rat in a maze) as in the phrase "allothetic map" to indicate that a global map, not orientated or centred on the subject was used, rather than idiothetic, which means a navigation system centred on the subject. Directional information may be sourced from familiar reference points such as the sun, stars, or the Earth's magnetic field.[3] Allothetic cues are often employed with idiothetic information to achieve spatial behavior.[2] Their characteristics are complementary such as the way the latter can help address the allothetic information's perceptual aliasing problem, which prevents an animal or a robot from distinguishing two places from each other.[4]

Animal navigation

Animals can obtain the so-called pure allothetic navigation once it became familiar with fixed objects at specific locations.[3] Relationships among these objects, particularly permanent and semi-permanent objects, are also critical in guiding the animals' movements.[5] These objects need to be asymmetrical otherwise they will not contain identifiable information about direction.[3] Allothetic navigation in rats uses external cues such as visual, auditory, or olfactory information to help them in foraging resources or for protection against predators.[1]

Robot navigation

Robot navigation relies on allothetic and idiothetic information to determine a robot's position in its environment.[6]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Whishaw, Ian; Kolb, Bryan (2004). The Behavior of the Laboratory Rat: A Handbook with Tests. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 392, 401. ISBN 0195162854.
  2. 1 2 Jefferies, Margaret; Yeap, Wai-Kiang (2008). Robotics and Cognitive Approaches to Spatial Mapping. Berlin: Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 175. ISBN 9783540753865.
  3. 1 2 3 Howard, Ian P.; Rogers, Brian J. (2012). Perceiving in Depth, Volume 3: Other Mechanisms of Depth Perception. Oxford University Press. p. 319. ISBN 9780199764167.
  4. ↑ Hallam, Bridget; Floreano, Dario; Hallam, John; Hayes, Gillian; Meyer, Jean-Arcady (2002). From Animals to Animats 7: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behavior. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pp. 131. ISBN 0262582171.
  5. ↑ Winn, Philip (2001). Dictionary of Biological Psychology. Routledge. pp. 60. ISBN 0203298845.
  6. ↑ Filliat, David, and Jean-Arcady Meyer. "Map-based navigation in mobile robots:: I. a review of localization strategies." Cognitive Systems Research 4.4 (2003): 243-282.


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