One other thing we need to keep in mind is that I assumed the map above has 1 meter spacing between each grid cell. Knowing what part of a factory floor is open space and what part of a factory floor contains obstacles helps a robot properly plan the shortest, collision-free path from one point to another. A robot’s position in the environment at any given time is relative to the corner of the map (x=0, y=0). We can use a grid map to abstractly represent any indoor environment, including a house, apartment, and office. However, open factory floor is located at (x=3, y=3).
For example, we can see in the image above that a shelf is located at (x=6, y=8). The cool thing about a grid map is that we can determine what is in each cell by looking up the coordinate. An overhead view of a factory floor represented abstractly as a grid map with 1 meter x 1 meter cells.
