Blind area measurement with mobile robots

Abstract

We are interested in the problem of how a mobile robot can measure the area of a closed region that is beyond its immediate sensing range. Our inspiration comes from scout worker ants who assess potential nest cavities. These scouts work literally in dark to assess arbitrary closed spaces. Experimental studies have shown that the scouts can reliably reject nest sites that are small for the colony. These studies support the hypothesis that scouts use the ?Buffon's needle method? to measure the area of the nest. We have implemented the Buffon's needle method on a simulated mobile robot system and evaluated its performance through systematic experiments. The results show that the method can reliably measure the area of closed regions regardless of their shape and compactness, and that the method is undisturbed by partial barriers placed inside these regions.