Estimating a room size using encoders and collision detectors: application to a cleaning mobile robot

Floor cleaning is a typical mobile robot application. Most commercial cleaning mobile robots designed for domestic applications use random path-planning algorithms and very few sensors and the critical problem is to decide when the cleaning is already finished or the coverage completed. In this paper, we propose some methods to estimate the size of the cleaning area using only the information of encoders and collision detectors. To this end, three typical rooms have been tested with and without furniture. Results show the great influence of furniture distribution in the estimation of the area of the room. Average estimation errors under plusmn20% can be expected for empty rooms and from 0% to -70% in the case of rooms with furniture.