The Information Complexity of Navigating with Momentum

Abstract

Many models of organism navigation concern themselves in essence just with the sequence of locations visited and how to manage it. However, larger and bulkier organisms have also to deal with managing momentum. We expect that this affects the cognitive management of movement. Here we propose a simple model for the information processing complexity of navigation when velocity and acceleration are considered, moving away from a kinematic perspective to a partially dynamic model, to separate the effects of location and momentum management. The work is discussed in the context of recent neurobiological research suggesting that biological agents plan around acceleration and deceleration phases, showing high neural activity during their body's velocity changes.