PRE2018 1 Group3 1203310

Introduction:

With the fast advances of technology there is a lot of change that the world is undergoing now. A lot of everyday tasks get more automated and some of these are taken over by a robot counterpart. Here we will take a look into the world of automated grocery shopping, or at least part of it in this case. We are talking about a robotic store clerk that could be able to do the same things a regular one would do. One of these tasks are navigation around the store, but most of the time a common store clerk does not think a lot about it. If someone would want to design a robotic counterpart, there are several obstacles you would have to overcome. Obstacles in a literal sense, like store shelves, customers, shopping carts etc. There are apparently some cases that are interesting to look at and what effect they have to the shelf filling experience. What we are focussing on in this case is a robots interaction with the way customers act in tandem with a shopping cart. A shopping cart plays an interesting factor in the behavior of an average consumer.

Problem statement:

Ever wondered how customers move about in a store? Are you aware of your own behavior when moving about and how much do you take your environment in consideration. These are all questions that can be asked when we are talking about the navigation around a store. So when someone would design a robot to do the same activities, this should all be taken into consideration. The main differences between a robot and a human should be highlighted to know what we are capable of and look at the things we could take advantage of.

When navigating around a store you are bound to encounter an obstacle in your way. Most humans know how to move about in these settings, mostly because of prior experiences and common knowledge. Besides that, they are more flexible to adapt in different occasions, for example when another customer makes eye contact and almost instantly act accordingly. A robot has to be programmed in a certain way to process this type of cues to act in the best possible way. Even though a human has an upper hand in this occasion, there are some other things a robot can do, that a human can't. What we are mainly talking about is the sensory input a robot is capable of, besides the 5 main senses a human possesses.

The obstacles an agent could encounter can be devided in a couple of groups:

• Immobile
  • Boxes
  • Loose products
• Mobile/movable
  • Carts
  • Baskets
• Human customers
  • Regular customers
  • Customers with baskets
  • Customers with shopping carts

What we are focussing in this case is the behavior of mainly customers with shopping carts and how an agent could act with them. There are a couple of reasons why this in particular is interesting. One of these things is that customers make it look like they act with irregular behavior, but there are some aspects we could take into consideration to maybe predict their actions in advance to eventually act upon these predictions. some of these are the effect of a customer that is pushing a cart compared to regularly moving about. What the popular isles are, especially for customers with carts. Besides that there is some phenomena like cart abandonement, how children act around and the lay-out of a supermarket to name a few.

The effects of a shopping cart on the movement of a customer

Retailers offer a means to facilitate shopping to their patrons in the form of providing carts. In particular, shoppers use carts to temporarily store products before purchasing them at the checkout counters. Customers also use carts for general convenience, some customers prefer to put personal belongings in their carts rather than carry them. Yet shopping carts do hinder movement in the store by reducing walking speed and flexibility of walking direction. Therefore, the frequency of the parking of shopping carts depends is an evaluation that is based on whether there are accompanying advantages or disadvantages for doing so. Unfortunately, these drivers are not directly observable, and moreover, they depend on such factors as the time pressure customers face.

The Technology

There are some constraints connected to the tracking and recognition of human customers and shopping carts. One of these is the restrictive legal situation in Europe which prohibits methods such as cell phone tracking, and secondly, budget considerations limit the use of sophisticated tracking technologies (e.g., radio frequency identification technology [RFID] chips in shopping carts). What we are looking for in this case is a solution that is ethically accepted and has consideration of a moderate budget.