A method and apparatus for cleaning the surfaces of a pool by a programmed robotic pool cleaner initially set at an arbitrary position in the poll. The pool can be of any standard or non-standard shapes, and the surfaced with any conventional materials. The robot is advanced until it encounters a first obstacle (1), then reverses direction and advances along the same path to an opposing second obstacle (2) to form a first path between the opposing first (1) and second (2) obstacles. At the second obstacle (2), the robot reverses and advances to a predetermined point (A) between the opposing obstacles along said first path. At the predetermined point (A), the robot stops and turns in a first direction at a predetermined angle of turn, and repeats the above steps along additional paths until the sum of the predetermined angle of turns generates a quantity of paths sufficient to substantially clean the pool surfaces.