Cooperative Coverage by Multiple Robots with Contact Sensors

Cooperative coverage by multiple robots with contact sensors is studied in this paper. Multiple robots internal spiral coverage algorithm is presented to overcome the sensing limitation of the robot whose sense range is the radius of the body. The algorithm guarantees complete coverage by repeating covering portion of the environment and setting the GATE grids. The algorithm is also robust in that even if there is only one robot without catastrophic failure it can complete the coverage. The competitive analysis is also made and the upper limitation of the competitive factor is presented. The simulation test and real experiment prove the feasibility of the algorithm.