Complete sensor-based coverage with extended-range detectors: a hierarchical decomposition in terms of critical points and Voronoi diagrams

Sensor-based coverage uses sensor information to determine a path that passes a detector over all points in an unknown space. Our prior work in coverage prescribed a path for a circular robot of radius r to pass over all points in unknown spaces; in this case we set the detector range /spl delta/ to be equal to the robot's radius, r. Our prior work in Voronoi diagrams prescribed a path for a circular robot with infinite detector range (/spl delta/=/spl infin/) to pass its detector over all points in an unknown bounded space. This work combines these, results to consider "efficient" coverage with a finite-range detector with r</spl delta/</spl infin/. We define a new hierarchical decomposition with two types of cells: VAST and NARROW. In the VAST-cells, we treat the circular detector like a robot and re-use our critical point based coverage algorithm. In the NARROW-cells, since the obstacles are within the detector range, we effectively have an infinite-range detector, so the robot simply follows the Voronoi diagram. This paper proves that this approach ensures complete coverage with extended-range detectors, which includes a switching procedure from VAST to NARROW-cells.

[1]  Howie Choset,et al.  Exact cellular decompositions in terms of critical points of Morse functions , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[2]  Howie Choset,et al.  Sensor based motion planning: the hierarchical generalized Voronoi graph , 1996 .

[3]  Howie Choset,et al.  Critical point sensing in unknown environments , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[4]  Howie Choset,et al.  Sensor-Based Exploration: The Hierarchical Generalized Voronoi Graph , 2000, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[5]  Tucker Balch,et al.  Making a Clean Sweep: Behavior Based Vacuuming , 1993 .

[6]  Howie Choset,et al.  Coverage Path Planning: The Boustrophedon Cellular Decomposition , 1998 .

[7]  Ernest L. Hall,et al.  Region filling operations with random obstacle avoidance for mobile robots , 1988, J. Field Robotics.

[8]  Douglas W. Gage,et al.  Randomized search strategies with imperfect sensors , 1994, Other Conferences.

[9]  Ralph L. Hollis,et al.  Contact sensor-based coverage of rectilinear environments , 1999, Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control Intelligent Systems and Semiotics (Cat. No.99CH37014).

[10]  Vladimir J. Lumelsky,et al.  Dynamic path planning in sensor-based terrain acquisition , 1990, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[11]  Elon Rimon,et al.  Spanning-tree based coverage of continuous areas by a mobile robot , 2001, Proceedings 2001 ICRA. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.01CH37164).

[12]  Howie Choset,et al.  Sensor-Based Exploration: Incremental Construction of the Hierarchical Generalized Voronoi Graph , 2000, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[13]  Vladimir J. Lumelsky,et al.  A terrain-covering algorithm for an AUV , 1996, Auton. Robots.