More appropriate word for a "shape" of environment

I am researching about exploration in robotics field, for example, how to make roomba (I hope you all might know this cleaning robot) explore more efficiently in an office room. For some cleaning robots, they try to use a shape of the room to decide the efficient path for the robots to explore and clean the room.

Since this kind of exploration plans are not necessary limiting to only room. It can be any environment. For example, we want a robot to clean on the table, so here we use the shape of table's surface (which is usually square or circle ) to make effective path.

So here comes the question. I want to use more appropriate word for "the shape of environment." Because "shape" can be more than 2 dimension and I want to mean only the draft line of shape of environment like the lines you draw on soccer field, basketball field, etc. What I am only thinking of now are "the boundary of environment" or "the outline of environment." Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Solution 1:

footprint

has the connotation of viable area of concern.

Solution 2:

You could refer to the locus (plural: loci) of the robot.

A locus may alternatively be described as the path through which a point moves to fulfill a given condition or conditions. So, for example, a circle may also be defined as the locus of a point moving so as to remain at a given distance from a fixed point.

So for example, the robot's locus would be those points (and areas) it can cover, but not those tight corners it cannot fit inside.

This word has been used in a patent for a robot locus control system, and in papers describing robot locus or locus plans.

Solution 3:

In question How would I express the notion of 'inner perimeter' succinctly?, the term 'perimeter' was suggested, and that term may apply here as well. If it doesn't seem appropriate to you, then add more details to your question.

In addition, consider ambit (“The sphere or area of control and influence of something” or “A circuit, or a boundary around a property”), milieu (“a person’s social setting or environment”), and Wiktionary's sense 3 of geometry (“the spatial attributes of an object, etc.”).