Cleaning robot device based on rectangular map decomposition and coverage path planning method using the same

Coverage robot using rectangular map decomposition and spiral path planning

This technology enables a cleaning robot to collect information on obstacles, corners, and edges in an unknown map. Based on this data, the map is divided into rectangular sub-maps. The robot performs cleaning in a spiral pattern within each sub-map and utilizes a shortest-path algorithm to move between sub-maps, thereby increasing path planning efficiency.

When performing conventional coverage path planning in large or obstacle-heavy spaces, the need to account for the entire grid and all edges increases computational complexity, which significantly slows down execution time.

This technology uses collected edge information to decompose the map into rectangular sub-maps, optimizes decomposition units by identifying convex and concave corners, and generates paths based on these edges to reduce the overall map exploration range and computational load.

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Key Features:

• Map exploration phase: Detecting walls and obstacles while following walls in an unknown map to collect corner and edge information.
• Map decomposition phase: Using the collected corner and edge information to divide the map into one or more rectangular sub-maps.
• Sub-map cleaning phase: Moving along a spiral coverage path within the decomposed sub-maps using edge information to perform cleaning.
• Sub-map selection phase: Selecting the next sub-map to clean based on Euclidean distance and generating a new path.

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