Sensor-Based Coverage for Demining: Exact Cellular Decompositions and Uncertain Detectors

Coverage path planning is the determination of a path that a robot must take in order to pass itself, a detector, or some other effector over each point in an environment. Applications include demining, floor scrubbing, and inspection. In previous work, we developed the boustrophedon cellular decomposition, an exact cellular decomposition approach, for the purposes of coverage. Each cell in the boustrophedon decomposition is covered with simple back and forth motions. Therefore, coverage is reduced to finding an exhaustive path through a graph that represents the adjacency relationships of the cells in the boustrophedon decomposition. Such a path will ensure that a detector passes over all points in the environment, but it does not guarantee that all ordnance is indeed detected because mine detectors have error. Therefore, we also consider probabilistic methods to determine paths for the robot to maximize the likelihood of detecting all ordnance in a target location using a priori known information.