Robot Navigation with Distance Queries

We consider the problem of online robot navigation in an unfamiliar two-dimensional environment, using comparatively limited sensing information. In particular, the robot has local sensors to detect the proximity of obstacles and permit boundary-following, and it is able to determine its current distance and relative bearing to its final destination (via distance queries). By contrast, most previous algorithms for online navigation have assumed that the robot knows its exact current position. Because determining exact location is prone to error that accumulates over time, the usefulness of such algorithms may be limited. In contrast, distance queries give less information, but the accuracy of each query is independent of the number of queries, which means distance queries can be more robust. We formally define our model and give new, efficient navigation algorithms and lower bounds for this setting.