robotic shelf stock monitoring system
DESCRIPTION
An autonomous robot that will roam in malls and will scan product shelves and record its status (whether empty or not) using arduino microcontroller and labview software.TRANSCRIPT
ROBOTIC SHELF STOCK MONITORING SYSTEM
byDnyanesh DeoFeroz ChaodhriRaja Chowdhury
project guideMr. Gopalkrishnan Naraynan
The Problem
• Reduced sales despite that product being in the stock.
• Unnecessary stock piles up even before the current stock has depleted.
• Problem in the area of big parking lots.
Our Application
• An autonomous robot that will roam in the mall along a line.
• Monitor shelves for stock content through image processing in LABVIEW.
• For empty or near empty shelves, it will send a message to the control room to fill the stock.
• To analyze empty slots for available parking slots.
Project Description
• Application consists of a line follower robot.
• USB camera is mounted on two bars
• Robot is made using a aluminium frame.
• Line follower will handle the horizontal movement of the robot or camera.
• USB camera will give the view of the shelf.
• Camera is mounted on a pulley system.
• Pulley system consists of simple motor and support from bars.
• Pulley system will handle the vertical movement of the robot or camera.
• Photoelectric Proximity sensors for crowd detection.
• Images acquired by USB camera will be processed using LabVIEW
Mechanical Model
Camera mounting
Supporting platform
Base
Motor
Line Follower
• Follows black line on white surface.
• Four wheel drive.
• Speed control by motor driver.
• Hardware for Line follower Robot-
1. Arduino Board.2. 12V DC motors.3. Wheels.4. IR Sensors.5. H-Bridge Motor Drivers.6.12V lead acid battery
H - Bridge
An H bridge is an electronic circuit that enables a voltage to be applied across a load in either direction. These circuits are often used in robotics and other applications to allow DC motors to run forwards and backwards.
Other hardware required is -1. USB Camera for image acquisition
2. Motor in pulley system
3. Photoelectric Proximity Switch
Software needed -
● Arduino IDE● LabVIEW
What We Have Tried§ H – Bridge IC L298§ H – Bridge IC A3940KLWT with Power Mosfet§ H – Bridge IC MC33886 (Working)§ IR Sensor (Working but NO proper mounting)§ Photo-electric Sensor§ Photo-electric Switch (Working)§ RF module for wireless communication (Working only one way)
Hurdles§ SOLVED1. Camera Mounting2. Finding appropriate Motor Driver3. Photo-electric Switch for Line Following
§ UNSOLVED1. Compact chassis (For proper Line Following)2. Tire Grip3. Four Wheel Drive Or Two Wheel Drive4. Battery Life
LabVIEW
• Vision Acquisition and Vision Assistant Module.
• OCR/OCV pattern recognition feature.
• Symbols detection in region of interest.
• Status of shelf will be calculated on the basis of the number of symbols detected.
● For communication between robot and control room.
● TCP/IP communication using UDP Multicast.● Hosting LAN● In case of emergencies StockEye can be
controlled from Control Room
What We Have Tried§ IMAGE PROCESSING1. Edge Detection2. Pattern Matching3. Thresholding, Segmentation4. OCR/OCV (Working)
§ Line Following1. Hough Transform2. Edge Detection
§ COMMUNICATION
1. NI VISA Serial Module2. Arduino LIFA Module3. TCP/IP VI (by hosting LAN)
Hurdles§ SOLVED1. Image Processing2. Communication (From StockEye to Control Room)
§ UNSOLVED1. Color Image Processing (Appropriate Camera with Auto Focus)2. Two way communication3. Distance of Camera from Shelf