Spatial Knowledge in Humans, Animals and Robots

Humans, animals and robots are physically existing agents situated in the real world. Their common ability to extract, store and use spatial information is crucial for their successful operation. On the other hand, their idiosyncracies seem to be reflected on their spatial knowledge. The paper attempts a survey around the term cognitive map, coined to describe exactly the body of spatial knowledge held by an agent. The topic is discussed at both a global and an individual level. Keywords: Spatial Knowledge, Spatial Cognition, Cognitive Maps. 1 Introduction Humans, animals and robots are physically existent agents situated in the real world space. The ability to perceive properties of that space and the ability of locomotion in the very same space is something common to all of them. It seems that they are crucial to their successful operation for a number of reasons, including survivability. However, their relatively small size, and the need to be at different places at different time..