AutoCart

Background

The current model of the shopping cart does not offer any advantages to the customers in their experience shopping in market places in terms of speed of processing payment. Some customers may have difficulties finding the items around the marketplace and need a way to find their specified goods in an efficient manner. A shopping cart that serves as a personal assistant for customers and checkout point can dramatically improve customer experience, reduce labor costs, and improve shopping and checkout times allowing for a higher turnover rater of customers, which in turn leads to higher revenues for store owners.

Goal

Our goal for this project is to design an autonomous cart robot capable of automating a part of the shopping experience in order to optimize shopping time for customers and eliminate the need for long queues on registers.

Future Plans and Improvements

• Possbile brake system to allow for more stability of the shopping cart
• Improved mechanism to help stand on its own when detached from the base shopping cart
• Motorized to allow for navigation without human interaction
• Use of ROS to completely simulate this process

Faculty and Sponsor

Professor Mark Walter (m.walter@uci.edu)

Professor David Copp (dcopp@uci.edu)

Sponsor Mahmoud Abdelgalil (maabdelg@uci.edu)