Prototyping an automated robotic shopping cart with visual perception

Abstract: Intelligent atonomous robots are expected to be more common in the future and it is a topic of interest for science and companies. Instead of letting the customer pull a heavy cart by hand, an intelligent robotic shopping cart can aid a customer with their shopping by automatically following them. For this purpose, a prototype of an automated robotic shopping cart was implemented on the robotino 3 system, using tools from the programming environment robotino view created by FESTO. Some tools were used for computer vision to identify a customer bearing a colored symbol. The symbol could be uniquely designed for one individual customer and the identification was not sensitive to external disturbances of light, thanks to two lamps attached to the symbol. Collision avoidance was implemented with IR-sensors using scripts written in LUA based on a version of the bug 2 algorithm. Distance was accurately determined to obstacles and to the customer by using information from these two implementations. The robot successfully followed a human while avoiding obstacles that were in the way. After moving towards the customer, it safely stopped close to the customer – making it possible for the customer to place an object in the shopping cart. The robotino used a comprehendable routine such that the customer and the robotino understood the intention of the other actor.