Cutting to the chase
Clearly you don't need a PhD in Computing to sweep in the yard , but one might be usefull in order to know linear and radial sweep algorithm. So , what's all about ? It's just what it sounds it is , sweeping linear ( up to down , for example ) or radial ( making a 360 degrees loop ).
How this can help ? Well...
Linear sweep
Suppose you a set of objects in an Euclidean plane. We need to extract information about some objects. The method of linear sweeping takes a line and moves it on a fixed direction. Usually the line taken would be vertical and the direction would be left to right or up to down.
Radial sweep
Basically , it would go like that.