1. A method for a robot to autonomously generate a digitally stored map of an environment, the method comprising: receiving, via an input signal to a stored program executing in the robot, an instruction to physically traverse a route within the environment, the route comprising a path through the environment, and in response to the input signal, initiating physical traversal of the robot of the route; while traversing the route, collecting digital data from one or more sensors of the robot and digitally transforming the collected digital data to result in identifying one or more features of the environment and to generate a digitally stored initial map representing the environment that has been traversed; in response to detecting completion of traversal of the route, initiating traversal of the environment using other than the route, and: concurrently generating and digitally storing a digital map of valid areas of the environment; while generating the digital map, determining that a particular area is potentially invalid based on detecting features of the environment that are not represented in stored environment data, and in response, generating and transmitting an electronic message comprising collected sensor data for the particular area and a prompt requesting information indicating whether the particular area is valid; in response to input indicating that the particular area is valid, traversing the particular area and continuing generating the digital map, and in response to input indicating that the particular area is invalid, avoiding traversing the particular area and moving to an unmapped valid area of the environment; repeating the preceding steps relating to generating the digital map until all valid areas of the environment have been traversed.