*3.4. Boustrophedon Decomposition*

Trapezoidal decomposition produces many cells, some of which can be merged. This characteristic is a disadvantage because as many cells exist, the coverage path will be longer. To overcome this limitation, a method that creates nonconvex cells is needed. The boustrophedon cellular decomposition is similar to trapezoidal decomposition but considers vertices in the area called critical points [33,35]. The boustrophedon decomposition reduces the number of cells compared with trapezoidal decomposition, which means shorter path planning, as shown in Figure 4. As the trapezoidal decomposition, this method is for polygonal areas, and the environment of the coverage area should be known. For this reason, it can be classified as an offline method.

**Figure 4.** Boustrophedon decomposition.
