A method of establishing an area of confinement and an autonomous robot for performing a task within the area of confinement. In one aspect, the invention can be a method of defining an area of confinement for an autonomous robot comprising: a) positioning the autonomous robot at a first location point P.sub.1, the autonomous robot comprising a location tracking unit, and recording the first location point P.sub.1 within a memory device; b) moving the autonomous robot from the first location point P.sub.1 to a plurality of location points P.sub.2-N and recording each of the plurality of location points P.sub.2-N within the memory device; and c) defining, with a central processing unit, a first closed-geometry comprising the first location point P.sub.1 and the plurality of location points P.sub.2-N as a perimeter of the area of confinement within the memory device.