The tremendous potential of mass market robotics is tied to a robot's ability to interact with the physical environment.

At present, however, real world applications are severely constrained by a lack of low-cost solutions that allow robots to be aware of their physical environment. This is seen in the inability of current products to answer such questions as:

• Where am I?
• Where are the other components of the system or other important objects? (or what is their last known location?)
• What does the operating environment “look like” and how is it structured?
• What events are taking place around me?