Modified Boundary Fill for Complete Surface Coverage by Robotic Agents

Some robotic applications like vacuum cleaners require the robot to travel to each and every spot in the room while avoiding obstacles whose position may or may not be known. These obstacles may not always be in the same position. The robot itself may or may not have a map of the room. In the latter case, it has to rely on its sensors to navigate. It also may not know its absolute position in the room as the necessary hardware adds to both cost and complexity. This paper outlines an algorithm that can navigate to every spot in the room without requiring any knowledge of the robots absolute position nor maintaining a virtual map.