SMART-Smart Mobile Autonomous Robotic Trolley

Abstract

The traditional shopping experience in malls and complexes often entails time-consuming billing processes, leading to long queues at cashier counters, inefficiencies in analysing purchased items, and challenges in navigating vast product selections. In response to these issues, the proposed work focuses on developing a Smart Trolley system aimed at streamlining the shopping process, enhancing convenience for customers, reducing workload on both customers and salespeople, and facilitating easier product navigation within the premises. The Smart Trolley system utilizes an Espressif8266 (ESP8266) microcontroller integrated with various components, including a Espressif32 (ESP32) Cam (QR scanner) for item recognition, a webserver to access bill from mobile devices, and a GPS module for location tracking and navigation assistance. Through the integration of these technologies, customers can scan items as they place them in the trolley, view a real-time list of scanned items on the trolley’s display screen, and complete the checkout process directly from the trolley interface, eliminating the need to visit traditional billing stations. Furthermore, GPS functionality enables personalized navigation assistance, guiding customers to specific products or locations within the store based on their preferences or shopping list. The development of the Smart Trolley system represents a significant step towards revolutionizing the shopping experience, offering increased efficiency, convenience, and security for both customers and salespeople. Through iterative design, integration, and testing, a robust and user-friendly solution poised to enhance the retail landscape and set new standards for shopping convenience in modern establishments was created

Introduction

The SMART Billing Trolley is an innovative solution developed to enhance efficiency and customer satisfaction in retail shopping. Traditional manual billing systems cause delays, queues, and higher labor costs. This smart trolley integrates technologies like QR code scanning, IoT, GPS, and real-time data processing to automate billing within the cart, enabling users to scan items and pay via a website, reducing checkout times and improving the shopping experience.

2. Literature Review

Several earlier smart trolley concepts utilized technologies such as RFID, ZigBee, ESP8266, Raspberry Pi, and NodeMCU. These systems focused on autonomous navigation, real-time billing, cloud connectivity, and enhanced user interfaces. Key contributions include:

• Real-time inventory and billing (IoT + Cloud)

• Autonomous movement (motor control)

• QR code scanning for cost-effective automation

3. Proposed System Overview

The SMART system includes three main components:

• Trolley Control System (TCS): Manages trolley movement via GPS, motors, and motor drivers.

• Shopping Control System (SCS): Handles scanning, billing, expiry date checks, and online payments.

• Battery Management System (BMS): Supplies separate, optimized power to both control systems for efficiency.

4. Trolley Control System

• Mechanical Design: Built using PVC pipes, acrylic sheets, and a storage basket.

• Motor Control: Uses 4 DC motors controlled via a web-based interface with an ESP8266 and L289N motor driver, enabling direction and speed adjustments using real-time WebSocket communication.

• Control Box: Houses ESP8266 (for Wi-Fi and control), NeoM6 GPS (for tracking), and motor drivers.

• Control Panel: Contains manual switches and an LCD display to show operational status and scanned item details.

5. Shopping Control System

• QR Code Scanning: Implemented using ESP32-CAM, scanning structured QR codes (name, price, weight, expiry), with duplicate checking and real-time server updates via HTTP POST.

• Item Display System: Shows scanned item details and status messages on an LCD screen.

• Billing System:

  1. Item sync with website using WebSockets.

  2. Quantity updates and expiry checks in real-time.

  3. Total calculation using dynamic algorithms.

  4. Payment integration and bill generation via a secure gateway.

  5. Database cleaning and logging into a separate analytics database for optimization and future insights.

6. Battery Management System

• Trolley System Power: 4x 3.7V Li-ion batteries for motor and control electronics, with manual switch to conserve energy.

• Shopping System Power: 4x 1.5V AA batteries for ESP32-CAM and LCD, also with independent switch for power management.

7. Implementation Results

• Hardware: A prototype using lightweight PVC and acrylic materials, with efficient layout for the QR scanner and LCD.

• Software: User interface includes customer data, trolley ID, product list, total amount, and expiry indicators. Data is stored in MongoDB, with real-time updates and cleanup after checkout to prevent redundancy.

Conclusion

This paper demonstrates a mechanical framework that can be utilized in trolleys at shopping centres that can carry a weight of 15 kg and an electronic system that can control the SMART Billing Trolley efficiently for more than 4 hours. With the integration of technologies like QR Code scanning, remote mobility control and web-based billing systems, this system shows the potential for seamless automation and enhanced customer convenience. The system’s modular design, integrating a Trolley Control System for mobility and a Shopping Control System for item scanning and billing, ensures functionality across mechanical. software and hardware domains. Key features like real-time item tracking, automated billing, and remote payment gateways improve efficiency and reduce workload for customers and sales personnel alike.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Soham Kapadi, Aryan Allegunti, Prathamesh Kapoor, Dr. Narendra Bhagat, Prof. Priya Chimurkar. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.