Robotrolley: Customer Following Trolley (CFT)

Due to inconvenience and time wasting factor in traditional trolleys employed in shopping malls, markets and shopping complexes etc, we have come up with the novel solution named as RoboTrolley i.e. an intelligent customer following trolley (CFT) that will follow the customer while maintaining a suitable distance. The CFT strikes an optimal equilibrium between automation and personalized experience through this harmonious fusion of technology and human-centric design and redefines the shopping experience. This design has been achieved by integrating contemporary technology into the establishing framework of customer-oriented traditional shopping in order to enhance efficiency and convenience throughout shopping. This intelligent CFT operates on one ultrasonic and two IR sensors for distance and motion detection of customer respectively, L298 motor driver module for 4 DC geared motors and Arduino UNO as micro-controller in the design to bring paradigm shift in retail dynamics. Percentage performance and speed in meter per second versus distance in centimeter has been observed for our CFT i.e. between 5 cm to 45 cm. This CFT range is selected after testing the workable ultrasonic sensor’s range with a safety margin so no other person can disturb the detection of actual customer by coming in between. More than 90 percent performance has been observed on a particular distance of 35cm and 45cm between customer and our proposed CFT.