How is the building mapped?

During installation the robot is driven through the space to build its own map, and the places that matter are then named — table twelve, the kitchen pass, the charging dock. Afterwards, everything the system does refers to those names rather than to raw coordinates.

What is map drift and why does it matter?

Over time the robot's internal map can diverge from the venue's own floor plan, so a point that meant one spot drifts to another. It is the most common cause of a deployment degrading quietly, which is why alignment between the robot's map and the displayed plan needs correcting rather than assuming.

What happens when someone steps in front of the robot?

It slows or stops and waits for the path to clear. That is correct behaviour even when it is inconvenient, because the alternative is a machine that pushes past a person in order to stay on schedule.

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How service robots navigate

A service robot navigates using a map of the building made during installation, with named points of interest marked on it. To move, it plans a route between two named points and then uses live sensor data to avoid anything the map does not know about — people, moved chairs, spills — slowing or stopping rather than pushing through.

Written by Hybot technical lead, Technical lead, Hyrcan-Tech · 2 February 2026 · 6 min read

Two kinds of knowledge

A service robot navigates on two layers, and almost every practical question about these machines turns out to be about one or the other.

What it knows in advance. A map of the building, made during installation, with the important places marked and named: table twelve, the pass, the lift lobby, the charging dock. This is stable and it is what route planning uses.

What it discovers on the way. Sensor data, right now. A person, a pushed-out chair, a delivery crate, a queue. This is unstable, and it is what obstacle avoidance uses.

Route planning without live sensing would drive into people. Live sensing without a plan would wander. You need both.

Why named points matter more than coordinates

Once the map exists, every instruction in the system refers to a name rather than to a position. Send the robot to table-12. Send it to the pass.

This sounds like a convenience and it is actually an architectural decision. It means furniture can be rearranged and the name is re-pointed once, centrally, rather than every task being rewritten. It means an integration can dispatch a robot to a place without knowing anything about the building's geometry. And it means a staff member can create a task without understanding the map at all.

Drift: the thing that quietly ruins deployments

The robot's internal map and the venue's own floor plan are two different representations of the same building, and they can diverge. The robot's sense of where it is accumulates small errors; the displayed plan does not.

When that happens nothing fails loudly. Deliveries just start arriving slightly wrong, and everybody assumes the robot is "being odd today". Alignment between the robot's map and the plan the staff look at has to be maintained and corrected, not assumed, and it is the first thing to check when a working deployment starts to feel unreliable.

Obstacle behaviour is a policy, not a bug

When something appears in the path, the robot slows or stops and waits. People sometimes read that as the robot being timid. It is the correct trade: the alternative is a machine that prioritises its schedule over the person standing in front of it, and nobody should install that in a dining room.

One practical consequence for venues: a corridor that is routinely blocked will produce a robot that routinely waits. The fix is usually the corridor.

Multi-floor buildings

Each floor needs its own map and its own named points, so a destination on any level can be addressed by name. Whether a single robot can serve several floors depends on lifts — which is a survey question, not a software one.

Where to go next

Cluster hub: Service robots explained.

Frequently asked questions

How is the building mapped?: During installation the robot is driven through the space to build its own map, and the places that matter are then named — table twelve, the kitchen pass, the charging dock. Afterwards, everything the system does refers to those names rather than to raw coordinates.
What is map drift and why does it matter?: Over time the robot's internal map can diverge from the venue's own floor plan, so a point that meant one spot drifts to another. It is the most common cause of a deployment degrading quietly, which is why alignment between the robot's map and the displayed plan needs correcting rather than assuming.
What happens when someone steps in front of the robot?: It slows or stops and waits for the path to clear. That is correct behaviour even when it is inconvenient, because the alternative is a machine that pushes past a person in order to stay on schedule.

Where this fits

This page is part of Service robots: what they are and how they work. If you are working through the topic in order, these are the neighbouring pages.

What is a service robot?
A service robot performs useful work alongside people rather than inside a cage. The definition, the categories, and where the boundary sits.
Are service robots safe around people?
What safety means for a robot sharing a floor with guests, children and luggage — stopping behaviour, speed, handovers, and the venue's own duties.
Service robots in multi-floor buildings
Lifts decide the shape of a multi-floor deployment. Per-floor maps, the survey question that matters most, and when a robot per floor is the better answer.

Take it further

If a question here applies to a venue you actually run, the specifics matter more than the general case.

See how task assignment works