Systematic floor coverage of unknown environments using rectangular regions and localization certainty

Abstract

We address the problem of systematically covering all accessible floor space in an unknown environment by a mobile robot. Our approach uses rectangular regions that are swept across the environment. In the first stage, the robot covers each region using the classic boustrophedon pattern and planning paths to uncovered areas within the region while keeping track of its position uncertainty. The region is then moved sideways to cover the next part of the environment until all accessible space has been visited. In the second stage, the robot revisits the perimeter around the obstacles. We compare our method in terms of total trajectory length to 5 off-line methods including the distance transformation by Zelinsky et al. [1] in a standard test environment as well as in multi-room homes. The presented method has been employed in our Mint cleaning robot [2] for autonomously sweeping and mopping the floors.