The Design and Development of an Autonomous Shopping Cart

Abstract

Automated driving systems are growing in popularity and are becoming closer to full completion and commercialization with companies improving upon electronic vehicles. It would be beneficial to move towards using similar technology in other facets of life to remove physical burden and human intervention to potentially increase safety. Another way this technology could be implemented is at the grocery store with shopping carts. Companies worldwide would benefit as they lose millions of dollars annually on shopping carts that are stranded, broken, and stolen. Autonomous shopping carts could potentially reduce damage and theft by automatically returning to the store and remaining out of the elements. One major inhibiting factor is developing an affordable autonomous shopping cart that would be mutually beneficial for the consumer and producer. Using the mainstream wire design of carts now, it is possible to make modifications to add on the required technology to create an autonomous driving system. This report explores a basic design of an autonomous shopping cart that uses proximity sensors, mini CIM motors, and a Pixy camera mounted on. Mechanically, the design was successful and works as intended but due to issues with the iteration of the Pixy cam and code, the autonomous mode is incomplete. Further plans for development are discussed that would greatly improve upon the practicality of this prototype for both users and corporations.