As with Animals and Vehicles There Are Several Types of Platforms, They Include

Robotic Platforms

As with animals and vehicles there are several types of platforms, they include:

There can be combinations of these, like amphibious robots, or flying robots that also operate on land.

All of these platforms share some of the same issues:

But there each has problems unique to its environment. Examples below:

Wheeled platforms are limited to exploring places where wheeled vehicles can operate.
Legged vehicles can operate in more environments than wheeled but are inherently more complex, use more power, and have stability issues.
Robots that operate in the water have to deal with problems related to protecting electronics from water, and parts from corrosion and water pressure.
Vehicles that operate in the air are challenged with power problems if they are heavier than air because they must use power just to stay aloft. If they are lighter than air their payloads are limited.
Etc.

Is the platform passively stabile, or must power (computing or actuator) be exerted to keep it stable?

Wheeled platforms are generally thought of as being passively stabile:

Legged platforms can be:

Statically stabile – that is they are stable while not walking.
Most crawling bugs are statically stabile.
Dynamically stabile – Must be walking/running in order to be stable. In order to stand still, they must actively balance.
Work must take place for the system to be stable.
Many fast animals are not statically stabile.

Water based platforms:

Stability is usually passive.
Underwater vehicles can be designed to change buoyancy or to be positively buoyant.

Flying platforms

Fixed wing platforms are geometrically stable but must stay moving to remain aloft.
Rotary blade platforms usually require control inputs to keep them stabile.
Floating platforms are a mix:
Still air
Moving air
Flapping winged systems are usually dynamic.

Power consumption is largely related to stability:

In general actuators require more power than computing. This is typically related to platform size.
Wheeled platforms are usually more efficient than legged platforms. The most efficient legged platforms (passive dynamic walkers) can at best equal a wheeled platform but usually not exceed it. There could be exceptions to this:
Dependent upon wheel size and terrain.
Water based platforms – similar to wheeled platforms
Flying platforms – Because it is hard to stay aloft, power is always a problem here.
Floating and fixed wing craft will use less power.
Floating is deceptive, it takes a large mass of lighter than air material to lift heavier than air materials. In order to move, the total of the mass must be moved.
Hovering craft are power hogs.

Passively and geometrically stabile vehicles require less computing power to move than their counterparts.

Navigation is complex and common to most types of mobile robots that accomplish some type of meaningful task.

Examples of systems that do not navigate based on location from external sources or distances from milestones:

Roomba – spiral pattern, could be based on wheel counts or timers. Then it goes straight until it hits something. Preprogrammed evasive maneuvers.
Lawn mowers based on staying within a demarked area. Area is demarked by an underground wire.

Dead Reckoning – only as reliable as the methods of tracking the vehicles motions. Low cost systems are very inaccurate because the error accumulates. High price systems work well – think about how a nuclear sub navigates.
Measurements of progress made using:
Distance:
Timers
Wheel counts
Steps
Direction:
Inertial systems:
Gyros
Laser gyros
Sun
Compass
Gravity
Etc.
Path following
Bread crumbs
Pheromones
Line following
Milestone – this is a relative method of navigation.
Vector towards milestone based on sensors interpretation of the milestones position.
Here is the problem – Feature detection. It is difficult
Video – image segmentation and detection of desired features and their position relative to platform
Sound – separation/filtering of the desired signal from surrounding noise and directional determination.
Waypoint – this is an absolute method of navigation.
Vector towards the waypoint based on platforms absolute position.
Relies on external infrastructure that usually uses some type of signals transmitted from beacons in known positions and triangulation algorithms. Using the time (1 way or 2 way) that the signal takes to go from the beacon to platform location can be found.
LORAN – known location of stations to bounce signals off of.
GPS – geosynchronous (known location) satellites