The Scientific Status of Mobile Robotics: MultiResolution Mapbuilding as a Case

We present a novel approach to mapbuilding and target area identification in mobile robotics – its emphasis being on the efficiency of multiple resolution representations for mapping and goal-area identification (for example, for the purpose of mobile robot self-localisation). After presenting and analysing the experimental results, we examine the scientific status of the research carried out, and of the field of mobile robotics in general. We argue that there is an implicit theory of mobile robotics, but that – for the future health of the discipline – it needs to be extended and made explicit through the development of an appropriate theoretical language and formal models. After exploring the relationship between design, engineering, and science, we argue that mobile robotics still lacks falsifiable theories of robot–environment interaction. This leads us to propos