Discovering and plotting the boundary of an enclosure

A method for generating a map, comprising:

• generating, with a processor of a robot, a map of a workspace of the robot in a work session, wherein:
• the robot carries at least one sensor that senses data indicative of locations of physical objects and walls within a sensed area by the at least one sensor, wherein the sensed data comprises measured distances to at least boundaries of the workspace and the map of the workspace is generated based on successively merged measured distances, plotting boundary of the workspace, identifying gaps in the plotted boundary, and navigating to identified gaps until no gaps exists in the plotted boundary and the plotted boundary is a complete closed loop, and
• the map of the workspace is generated in full when the data sensed by the at least one sensor comprises sensed area overlaps in at least a part of the workspace, wherein the area overlaps comprise areas sensed from different positions and orientations of the robot within the workspace;
• saving, with the processor, the map of the workspace to a memory of the robot or the cloud for being used in a subsequent run;
• and
• wherein the robot is configured to be paired with an external computing device in order to:
• receive at least one input designating a modification to the map of the workspace;
• a unique tag for a subarea within the map of the workspace;
• a schedule for cleaning by the robot an area to avoid;
• and an instruction to start or stop vacuuming or mopping.

A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor of a robot effectuate operations comprising:

• generating, with the processor of the robot, a map of a workspace of the robot in a work session, wherein:
• the robot carries at least one sensor that senses data indicative of locations of physical objects and walls within a sensed area by the at least one sensor, wherein the sensed data comprises measured distances to at least boundaries of the workspace and the map of the workspace is generated based on successively merged measured distances, plotting boundary of the workspace, identifying gaps in the plotted boundary, and navigating to identified gaps until no gaps exists in the plotted boundary and the plotted boundary is a complete closed loop, and
• the map of the workspace is generated in full when the data sensed by the at least one sensor comprises sensed area overlaps in at least a part of the workspace, wherein the area overlaps comprise areas sensed from different positions and orientations of the robot within the workspace;
• saving, with the processor, the map of the workspace to a memory of the robot or the cloud for being used in a subsequent run;
• and
• wherein the robot is configured to be paired with an external computing device in order to:
• receive at least one input designating a modification to the map of the workspace;
• a unique tag for a subarea within the map of the workspace;
• a schedule for cleaning by the robot an area to avoid;
• and an instruction to start or stop vacuuming or mopping.