[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.
Directional information may be sourced from familiar reference points such as the sun, stars, or the Earth's magnetic field.
[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] Animals can obtain the so-called pure allothetic navigation once they become familiar with fixed objects at specific locations.
[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.