GrasSmart: An intelligent robotic system for continuous area coverage

Abstract

This work implements and simulates the problem known as, coverage of a continuous planar area by a mobile robot. The robot is given a bitmap of a known geometric area as an input, and derives an optimal path of coverage by implementing and improving the On-line Full Scan Spanning Tree Covering (STC) algorithm[1]. The path is calculated for the continuous area coverage by defining a DFS (Depth First Search) spanning tree. We improved the STCalgorithm by optimizing U-Turns of the path, and optimizing the shifting of the path directions, moreover, we suggest using different sensor information, which reduces errors. The results of our work are presented by a 3D simulation program which mimics the grass robots' path and statistical calculations for testing optimality. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.