Tackling Area Coverage Problems in a Reconfigurable Floor Cleaning Robot Based on Polyomino Tiling Theory

Veerajagadheswar Prabakaran,Rajesh Mohan,Thejus Pathmakumar,Suganya Kumar,Vinu Sivanantham

doi:10.3390/app8030342

Veerajagadheswar Prabakaran, Rajesh Mohan + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/app8030342

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Abstract

Whilst Polyomino tiling theory has been extensively studied as a branch of research in mathematics, its application has been largely confined to multimedia, graphics and gaming domains. In this paper, we present a novel application of Tromino tiling theory, a class of Polyomino with three cells in the context of a reconfigurable floor cleaning robot, hTromo. The developed robot platform is able to automatically generate a global tiling set required to cover a defined space while leveraging on the Tromino tiling theory. Specifically, we validated the application of five Tromino tiling theorems with our hTromo robot. Experiments performed clearly demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach resulting in very high levels of area coverage performance in all considered experimental cases. This paper also presents the system architecture of our hTromo robot and a detailed description of the five tiling theorems applied in this study.

Highlights

Floor cleaning, be it commercial or domestic, is commonly considered to be boring, repetitive, and tiresome
We significantly extend our earlier work by leveraging on the Tromino tiling theory to automatically generate a global tiling set that would enable our hTromo robot to cover a given area
We present a novel application of Tromino tiling theory, a class of Polyomino with three cells in the context of a reconfigurable floor cleaning robot, hTromo

Summary

Introduction

Be it commercial or domestic, is commonly considered to be boring, repetitive, and tiresome. Such work has led to a new generation of robot cleaners, and subsequent improvements in quality of life and personal productivity. Market leaders include Samsung, Neato, iRobot, and Dyson, with their floor-cleaning devices commonly adopting a circular, or half-circular shape. Such devices use a network of internal sensors to navigate a specific floorspace independently. A significant amount of robotics research has studied cleaning robots and their human interaction, functionality, design, independence, benchmarking, and mechanics. Such literature has led to the production of multiple new robotic devices. For example, proposed an innovative robot cleaner for busy locations, such as transport hubs, that utilized Swedish wheel technology to navigate such floorspaces effectively [2]

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