Navigation of cleaning robots using triangular-cell map for complete coverage

Abstract

A novel approach for navigation of cleaning robots in an unknown workspace is presented which includes a new map representation method and a complete coverage navigation mechanism. First, we discuss a triangular cell map representation which makes the cleaning robot navigate with a shorter path and increased flexibility than a rectangular cell map representation. Then, we propose the complete coverage navigation and map construction methods which enable the cleaning robot to navigate the complete workspace with no complete information about the environment. Finally, we evaluate the performance of our proposed triangular cell map via the existing distance-transform-based path planning method comparing to that of the rectangular cell map.