Method for interactively providing waypoints to a mobile robot for use in the marking of a geometric figure on a ground surface

A method for interactively providing waypoints to a mobile robot for use in the marking of a geometric figure on a ground surface comprising the steps of:

• i) selecting a control function on a control unit of said mobile robot accepting manual positioning of the mobile robot at two or more target locations on the ground surface, wherein the mobile robot comprises a position determining device comprising a pointing device with a tip or a light emitter that is adapted for pointing to a target location to be measured, and wherein the pointing device is mounted on the mobile robot such that said tip of said pointing device or the light emitted by the light emitter is visible for the user of said mobile robot when the user is in an upright position;
• ii) positioning, manually or via the control unit, the mobile robot in proximity to a first target location to be marked on the surface, and directing the tip of the pointing device or light emitter mounted on the mobile device toward a first target location to be marked, the directing operation being performed by tilting the tip or light emitter, or by re-positioning said mobile robot such that the tip or light emitter is pointing towards said first target;
• iii) instructing the mobile robot, via the control unit, to store the first target location as a first waypoint;
• iv) repeating steps ii)-iii) to obtain at least a second waypoint;
• v) selecting a control function on the control unit of the mobile robot accepting manual selection of a geometric figure for being marked on said ground surface;
• vi) instructing the mobile robot to compute via the control unit, the best fit for the selected geometric figure on the surface based on the two or more waypoints;
• vii) instructing the mobile robot, via the control unit, to compute waypoint coordinates of the geometric figure for being marked from the best fit position of said geometric figure on the surface;
• and
• viii.a) instructing the mobile robot, via the control unit, to store the computed waypoint coordinates of the geometric figure;
• or
• viii.b) instructing the mobile robot, via the control unit, to mark the geometric figure on the surface.