Fastest path to cover area

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How do we determine the fastest path to cover an area using an object of some radius r? E.g. a machine that needs to spray a chemical onto a surface. I assume this is some kind of NP-hard problem.

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Seems to me that the total area painted is (roughly) the area of the brush times the length of the path. So, if two paths cover the same area, without overlaps, then they must have the same length. Time will be wasted if we have to lift the brush from the paper, though, so my argument only applies to continuous paths (with no lifts).

This kind of problem arises in many NC (numerical control) applications, and has been well studied. For example, trying to mill a region with an NC cutter is somewhat the same problem as painting. Here's one paper on the subject.