IMTC 2003 Instrumentation and Measurement

Technology Conference
Vail, CO, USA, 20-22 May 2003

Complete Floor Coverage in Cleaning Robots Using Lateral Ultrasonic Sensors

J. Palacin1, X. Lasa1, S. Marco2
2

Departamento de Electrnica, Universitat de Barcelona, Mart i Franqus, 1. 08028 Barcelona, Spain.

Departamento de Informtica e Ingeniera Industrial, Universitat de Lleida, Jaume II, 69. 25001 Lleida, Spain.
Phone: +34-973 702724, Fax: +34 973-702702, e_mail: palacin@ieee.org

Abstract Floor cleaning is a typical mobile robot application. In

general, the cleaning operation requires an algorithm for real-time
path generation for complete floor coverage however, a mobile
robot has many problems to follow a given path because on the on
board sensors error. In this paper a procedure for straight-line
path following using lateral ultrasonic measurements is
introduced. The procedure does not require the use of specific
landmarks and is based on the creation of a reference lateral
distance vector that can be used during the cleaning procedure to
align the robot in consecutive parallel paths.

walls. When an object does not lean in the walls additional

information is needed (grid map or topological map) to avoid
infinite rotation around the object. This algorithm has the
drawbacks of the sensitivity to the odometry errors and the
high number of special situations that requires algorithm
modification.

I. INTRODUCTION
Proposed algorithms for cleaning or complete coverage [1,
2] have always straight-line paths while the cleaning
procedure used to start next to a wall (or similar object).
However, a mobile robot has always problems in the
development of a path following trajectory. An application
like floor cleaning where the complete path can be very large
and plenty of turns requires a low positioning error profile or
a procedure for positioning error correction. Several methods
have been proposed for path following and error correction
[X, X]. However, most of these methods can not be used if
the planned robot must be classified as domestic or low cost
because of the huge computational requirements.
In this work a procedure for straight-line path following
without explicit landmarks using a lateral reference distance
vector is enunciated and tested in a differential drive cleaning
robot with embedded ultrasonic sensors (fig. 1). The problem
of the wide beam width of the transducers is also studied and
a methodology is proposed for the adaptation of the initial
lateral distance vector to make it useful regardless of the
robot relative distance to the walls.
II. STRAIGHT-LINE PATH FOLLOWING
The main problem for a cleaning robot is the coverage
algorithm in unknown scenario. There are two main coverage
algorithms that can be used in cleaning applications: spiral
[3] and boustrophedon (the way of the ox) [4].
The spiral coverage starts with a wall following stage at a
close distance to the wall and when the robot detects that has
reached a previously explored area, the wall following stage
continues but the distance to the wall is increased
approximately the robot width. Every turn the distance to the
wall is increased the same way. This algorithm runs very well
if all the objects located in the trajectory lean against the

Fig. 1. Robonet cleaning robot: the ultrasonic sensors available for

lateral measurement are indicated.

The boustrophedon path is the most similar to the human

floor-cleaning path and recent work about this algorithm [4]
assumes that the robot knows the layout of the environment
prior to the planning event but, in our opinion, this is not the
general case for a domestic cleaning robot. Therefore, the
robot must use their own sensors to acquire information about
the environment and perform coverage in real-time. This type
of coverage is usually called sensor-based coverage because
the coverage operation depends on the sensor information.
Regardless of the coverage algorithm, during the cleaning
operation the robots are supposed to run frequently in a
straight-line path. Therefore, the main objective of this work
is to obtain a procedure to maintain a cleaning robot in a
straight-line path that runs in parallel to the walls. The
lateral distance measurements obtained with ultrasonic
sensors will be used mainly to follow this path. This
procedure is based on the creation of a reference lateral
distance vector and has two main parts: close exploration and
far exploration.
Before starting the close exploration the robot is supposed
to be in parallel and close to a wall at a predetermined
distance (for example 200mm). This process can be
simplified if the robot can handle two ultrasonic sensors for
parallel alignment (fig. 2). The measured distance by the
ultrasonic sensors is also stored in a vector called lateral
reference vector.

--

--

--

--

--

--

--

200

Fig. 2. Starting with the robot in parallel to the wall. The distance
measured is stored in the reference lateral vector.

The close exploration stage means that the robot has to

follow the wall at a predetermined close distance. Therefore,
the robot starts to run using the internal control system to
follow a straight-line path. Moreover, a lateral ultrasonic
sensor is used to measure the real distance to the wall while
running where each measurement is initiated when the robot
runs a fixed relative distance. The measured distance to the
wall can be used by the control system for parallel robot
alignment to the wall (for example if the difference between
consecutive samples is smaller than 10mm) and stored in a
reference lateral vector for later use (fig. 3).
--

--

--

--

201

199

202

200

Fig. 3. Close exploration: each new measure is compared with the

previous for parallel alignment to the wall while running and stored in
the reference lateral vector for later use.

The scenario topologies will end this close exploration

stage and the general coverage algorithm will establish the
next robot movements. For example, if the coverage
algorithm generates a boustrophedon path (fig. 4), when the
robot reaches its new position again in parallel to the walls,
the information stored in the reference vector can be
compared with the distance measured with the lateral
ultrasonic sensor and used to maintain the robot in parallel to
the wall. This is the far exploration stage; the robot uses the
information of the environment already obtained to follow a
straight-line path.
--

--

--

--

201

199

202

200

--

--

--

--

401

399

402

400

402

401
200

Fig. 4. When the robot reaches an area where the reference lateral
vector is available it is used for parallel alignment.

When the robot reaches an area where the lateral reference

vector is empty it is supposed that the robot has to maneuver
to recover a close distance to the unexplored wall and,
when in parallel, the close exploration stage must start again.
Then, the reference vector must be filled with the new lateral
distance measurements (fig. 5).
-151

-153

-149

-150

201

199

202

200

--

--

--

--

--

--

--

--

350

Fig. 5. When an unexplored area is reached the reference lateral

vector is filled with the new data (while maintaining alignment).

Finally, when the reference vector in completely filled the

robot can follow a straight-line path in parallel to the walls
without maneuvering (fig. 6) and, following this path, the
cleaning speed and the energy efficiency will be maximum.
-151

-153

-149

-150

201

199

202

200

399

397

401

400

751

749

752

750

755

753

403

402

550

Fig. 6. While available the reference vector is used for alignment.

Although the proposed method has been defined in a

simplified example with two perfect walls and one perfect
corner, it can be used in whatever scenario where the lateral
reference vector can be obtained. However, a normal room is
expected to have also plain and parallel walls (or objects).
Therefore, the most important drawback to the enunciated
method is the sensor proposed for lateral measurements
because ultrasonic sensors have a beam cone that expands its
measurement area as the distance increases. This problem can
be solved using a sharper and expensive measurement device
(laser) or modeling the ultrasonic sensor behavior.
III. ULTRASONIC SENSOR BEAM INFLUENCE

The coverage algorithm will determine the robot path

depending on the scenario topology and use the information
of the reference vector for parallel alignment to the walls.

The proposed methodology has been tested in a cleaning

robot called Robonet. The robot has a cleaning device and

seven ultrasonic sensors (fig. 1): three for frontal

measurements and four for two sides lateral measurements.
The ultrasonic sensors used in our experiments were the
Polaroid 6500 Series electrostatic transducers with a 15
beam, which are commonly used on mobile robots for
obstacle avoidance. However, the standard ranging module
has a minimum measurement range of 380mm, too big for a
cleaning robot that has to run close to the walls. Therefore, a
ranging module was developed to obtain the minimum
measurement range of the sensor, 150mm, using also a twogain slope receiver amplifier. Note that in the robot used (fig.
1) the lateral sensors are located in the handle to allow
distance measurements very close to the robot and the sensor
used for alignment is located ahead the robot center of
rotation. The complete measurement system includes a
temperature sensor for the sound-speed temperature
dependence compensation and is used without any previous
calibration. Figure 7 shows the low error and the good
accuracy of the designed ultrasonic measurement system (at
24C).

the lateral reference vector and in the following experiments

the distance will be expressed in grid cells.
Figure 8 shows the results of a first experiment where the
lateral scenario is composed by two walls and one corner (the
case studied theoretically in figures 4, 5 and 6). The corner
shadow error indicates the number of cell measurements that
must be considered wrong measurements as a consequence of
the beam-corner influence. Figure 8 shows the corner shadow
curve depending on the corner gap (relative distance between
walls) and the sensor distance (relative to the far most wall).
The composed envelope of the three results can be
approximated using a 14th order polynomial fit plus rounding
and then the robot will be able to estimate the corner shadow
depending on their distance to the far most wall. However,
successive experiments have shown that the maximum corner
shadow depending on the gap between is always 2 or 3 cells
and a simplified interpretation is allowed: if there is a sharp
corner always supposes a shadow of three cells (200mm)
regardless of the corner gap.
3.5

1.2

2.5

corner shadow (cells)

1.4

absolute error (cm)

1
0.8
0.6

2
1.5
1

0.4

0.5

0.2

20

60

120
distance (cm)

180

240

Fig. 7. Maximum, minimum and mean absolute error: 100

measurements in each point.

Ultrasonic sensors have a beam cone that expands as the

measurement distance increases and then the distance
obtained depends on the shape (and the sound reflection) of
all the objects included in the measurement cone. Moreover,
ultrasonic sensors can not be easily used in a continuous way,
because in normal operation they have to wait to the echo
signal and, if the mobile robot is in movement, this means a
discretization of the environment. Therefore, the ultrasonic
cone is expected to induce a certain discretization in the
measurements.
To test the beam influence, we have chosen a square
discretization grid of 66.6mm, that is, the robot is expected to
obtain a new lateral ultrasonic measurement every relative
displacement of 66.6mm. This grid has chosen according the
robot nominal speed and the lateral distance range of the
planned. Finally, every grid cells corresponds to a position in

1 cell gap
3 cells gap
6 cells gap

10

20
30
40
distance to the far wall (cells)

50

60

Fig. 8. Corner shadow depending on the corner gap between walls

and the absolute distance to the far wall.

Figure 9 shows the results of a second experiment to test

the influence of the object size in the cone shadow error. The
maximum shadow is still 3 cells, and extended tests have
shown that this result is valid even for a 1 cell width object.
The discretization effect makes that smaller objects (table or
chair legs for example) will be coded as 1 cell occupancy
width but they will be clearly measured only on short
distances, at higher distances these objects can disappear
form the measurements because of the small reflected sound
energy. Therefore when an object is coded as 1 cell object it
is recommended to mark the cell also as unusable for the
alignment algorithm.

WALL

3.5

A
WRITING
DESK

corner shadow (cells)

2.5

1.5

1
Trajectory A
LRV

0.5
object at 3 cells from the wall
object at 9 cells from the wall
0

10

20
30
40
distance to the wall (cells)

--

--

--

--

173

172

173

174

174

173

175

175

175

175

175

175

175

175

175

175

ML

--

--

--

--

173

172

173

174

174

173

LRV

Inf

-80

-82

Inf

173

172

173

174

Trajectory C
174
173

MLRV

50

60

Fig. 9. Obtained corner shadow for a plain object (width: 3 cells, high:
10 cells) located at different distances from the wall.

MLRV

--

--

--

--

--

--

--

441

441

441

ML

Inf

187

185

Inf

439

439

441

441

440

440

LRV

Inf

-80

-82

Inf

173

172

173

174

Trajectory E
174
173

--

454

452

--

--

--

--

708

708

708

448

435

438

449

695

696

698

698

698

699

IV. TESTS

MLRV

The proposed procedure has been applied to a test case

where a round writing desk is located in front of a wall.
Figure 10 shows the evolution of the lateral reference vector
(LRV) updated every cell ran. When this vector is available it
is modified for direct comparison with the measured lateral
distance. The rounded object shape generates some false
distance measurements (labeled as Inf in Trajectory C) that
must be corrected by the assumption that this kind of cells
corresponds to a corner. Therefore, in successive parallel
trajectories the estimated shadow of this corner is indicated as
cells with possible bad distance measurement (Trajectories C
and E) but, as it can be seen, this is not the case. The rounded
shape of the writing desk produces no shadow and, in a real
situation, the robot must change their trajectory to run more
close to the object. In this case the robot trajectory has been
maintained and a maximum error of 19mm has been obtained
between the data of the modified reference vector and the
measurements obtained by the robot (this situation is market
in fig. 10).
Another particular situation has been detected when
replacing the wiring desk by a specific model of chair desk.
In the robot used for the test the lateral sensors are located
165mm high and this can hide the lower part of the chair at
close distance, as a result, the robot is confused and tries to
clean the unexplored area but, when maneuvering, the chair is
detected and then the robot undoes the previous movement.
This situation produces a set of unnecessary movements that
must be avoided with the adequate sensor placement.

ML

Fig. 10. Evolution of the lateral reference vector (LRV), measured

lateral distance (ML) and the modified distance vector (MLRV) for
direct comparison of the measures.

V. CONCLUSIONS
A procedure for straight-line path following using
ultrasonic sensors has been proposed. The procedure has been
tested in a limited set of cases in a typical office environment.
During the tests a foreseeable measurement problem has been
detected in the presence of rounded objects and the sensors
placement problem has also been detected. The method has
been proven useful for robot alignment in unstructured
environments but requires more intensive tests to detect other
possible special cases and the expansion to two dimensions.
REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

[3]
[4]

[5]

A. Zelinsky, R.A. Jarvis, J.C. Byrne, S. Yuta. "Planing Paths of

Complete Coverage of an unstructured Environment by a Mobile
Robot. In Proceedings of International Conference on Advanced
Robotics, pp. 533-538, 1993.
H. Choset. "Coverage for robotics - A survey of recent results".
Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence, Vol.31, pp. 113126, 2001.
Dyson robotic vacuum cleaner (DC06).
http://www.dyson.com.
H. Choset. "Coverage of Known Spaces: The Boustrophedon
Cellupdar Decomposition". Autonomos Robots, Vol. 9, pp. 247-253,
2000.