Development of robotic transportation system - Shopping support system collaborating with environmental cameras and mobile robots -

A robotic transportation system for shopping assistance has been developed. The system consists of a guidance robot, a cart robot, and environmental cameras. The guidance robot is an autonomous mobile robot with a position localization function, the cart robot with a shopping basket can follow the guidance robot, and environmental cameras can detect the robot and humans. A verification test has been performed in the test environment assumed for a food store. The guidance robot was able to guide the person to his/her desired place and to follow the person, and the cart robot was able to carry the articles while a shopping demonstration. Furthermore, safety technologies in the environment where robots and humans co-exist have been developed.