System Design Assignment: Smart Trolley

Introduction

            The supermarkets and malls have been the most populated offline stores where there is always a problem for lots of consumers to stand in a queue for making the payment and thus, they have to spend more time for just making the payment. It was identified in the previous work that this could be a vital problem for the consumers availing the offline services at the supermarkets and the malls. The proposition of a smart trolley can be the possible answer for this identified problem that can meet the consumers satisfactory level and minimizing the workloads of the supermarket staffs. It can be described as the smart tool or device that will calculate and record all the data related to the products being purchased and related details. The designed smart trolley will also allow the individuals to look at a display that will be demonstrating all the product information. The proposed tool will be much efficient and effective than an individual specially assigned at the billing counter and will be helpful in eliminating the expenses of the supermarkets and malls by providing them effortless and fast services.

 The proposed system design assignment will be helpful enough for the management of staff-less payment services and eliminating the extra need of the queue in which the customer might have to stand for a long period. The concept of this smart trolley was comprised of the electronic devices such as RFID, ARM7LPC2148, screen display, and ZIGBEE. The ARM7LPC2148microcontroller will be installed for the management of the entire operation and operational data. The proposed system design assignment would be capable enough in reducing the expenses of the supermarkets and the malls and allowing consumers to avail the best service with much-enhanced production and output.

            The purpose of this system design assignment is to demonstrate the preliminary design proposed for the project and thereafter, explain the detailed design that can be helpful in demonstrating how the project will function in the real life. An evaluation report has been also proposed in this report explaining the efficiency of the proposed project for the supermarkets and the malls.

Preliminary Design

 Figure 1: Smart Trolley, Preliminary Design 

(Source: Created by Author)

The proposed design of the smart trolley in this system design assignment will be acting as a small database and payment system that will ensure that the products being collected in it is being recorded. This could also be represented as a small information system that will be collecting and processing the data and information related to the products and their amount. It is being assumed that all the products will be tagged using RFID and every user will scan RFID tagging while carrying it in the trolley. After processing the product scan the microcontroller ARM7LPC2148 will record the related data and process it within the embedded processing unit (Ali and Sokusare 2014). The product scanner will provide the necessary details to the display where all the products and their details will be shown along with the taxes and the product cost. Thus, the entire process of billing will be automated and the user can see the actual price of the bucket and pay accordingly. This will allow in the fulfillment of the project scope that was to eliminate the need of extra hand for the payment at the billing counter and stay in line for a longer time. The payment processing system will consume much less time than it was taking in the traditional system.

Detailed Design and development

Object Tracking

Figure 2: Detailed design for object tracking

(Source: Created by Author)

            The embedded object tracking will be scanning the products RFID tag and searching the database for the product details, cost, discount and thereafter the data will be embedded into the micro-controller for further processing. This step will be vital for recording the individual items record and cost and process them accordingly (Punitha et al. 2017). Following is the RFID diagram expressing the functioning of the product scan:

            Thus, the input within the micro-controller will be pushed through this process for further processing of the mathematical calculation and cost estimation of the whole products.

Product Scanner

 The product scanner will be processed through the Zigbee module for supporting the mathematical calculation that can be operated at a low-cost web network, is a wireless network and will be consuming low power. The proposed wireless network device will allow the representatives to monitor the budget and products being collected and stored in the buckets and process the billing system accordingly (Maini and Shettar 2014). This information will be transferred to the display screen after analyzing the whole product specification on the single platform. It will thus, increase the rapid rate of the processing of mathematical calculation and will transfer the data and information wirelessly.

Figure 3: Zigbee demonstration

(Source: Created by Author)

            This phase will be helpful in the mathematical calculation and data and information exchange between the Zigbee and the product scanner for displaying the necessary information over the screen.

Smart display

Figure 4: Smart Display

(Source: Created by Author)

            The collected information related to the products and their cost is being displayed over the screen for the demonstration of the cost and budget of the entire products kept in the cart. This information can be processed for the further processing of the billing of the products. The micro-controller will be playing the crucial role in this phase of the project that will be processing all the collected data and information related to the product details, budget, a number of products and total cost of the bucket and thus, the individual will be informed with the exact amount of the entire products (Awati and Awati 2012). This whole processing will be performed instantly whenever the user put a product in the bucket and thus, the time saving will be a major beneficial factor through this project. It will save time and thus, the cost for the supermarkets and the mall's owner. The developed project will be beneficial for both the consumers and the organization using this product as an integral part for the purchase processing.

Innovation: (establishment of the wireless connection and the smart display tablet screen)

            The IoT, sensors, smart cameras, and fast data processing have been changing the face of the world and hence, these technologies can be used within the supermarket for the further enhancement and introduction of the further innovation for this project. This emphasizes on the establishment of a wireless network and camera network throughout the supermarket and the malls. A smart tablet or mobile device can be embedded within the smart trolley that would allow the user to look for the product and move on to the particular corner where he or she could find the same product without any chaos. This will further eliminate the need for the representatives for directing the consumers as they could find their own way to further processing (Sheba and Rajakumari 2015). This will contribute in the further advancement in the idea being proposed for further processing of the billing system within the supermarkets and the malls. This system will also navigate the users within the mall through the embedded or in-built store map for directing them towards the object they are willing to look for within the supermarket. Following is an example of the user interface for the mobile device directing the consumers within the stores.

Figure 5: User Interface for future Design

(Source: Created by Author)

System test, evaluation & validation, and optimization process

            Following are the factors those would be considered while performing the system test:

Scalability: the proposed project will be capable of allowing the users to collect the product within the level of the bucket despite of the weight and density. Thus, the users would be able to avail the same services in product selection as they were having in the traditional process. The payment processing would be done as per the price of the product and could vary between 50 cents to as much as the user is interested in spending.

Flexibility: the users would be allowed to move the smart trolley within the supermarket to the parking garage however, they will need to pass through the RFID scanner door where the products will be scanned for billed or not billed product (DawkharDhomase and Mahabaleshwarkar 2015). The users will not have to provide any identification or does not have to register for availing the services and thus, users can avail the services whenever they want to within the supermarket or malls. It could be easily and efficiently handled by any user and no additional knowledge is required for further processing.

Security: security will be the major concern for the supermarket owners as the most crucial process of profit is being transformed completely. The proposed project will be secured enough that can allow the supermarket owners to completely rely on the system as the calculations and the budget estimations could be performed in a much easy and efficient manner (Rupanagudi et al. 2015). RFID tagging will be helpful in tracking the products and thus, users could not leave the venue without paying for the product.

Integration: the system does not need any specifications other than power supply factor and thus, integration of the proposed system will be smooth and effective for the management of the products being purchased from the malls and the supermarkets. The additional computers need to be installed that will be much more cost efficient than assigning the individuals for the billing process.

Acceptance: this will be a major factor for the successful deployment of the project within the real world as the product needs to be accepted by the users. This test can only be performed after proposing the product in front of the consumers and gathering the feedback related to the application of the product.

Evaluation

            The proposed system design assignment could be far beneficial for the consumers for paying the bills purchased from the supermarket or malls.The factors those have been utilized in analyzing the performance of the proposed project turned into to be a beneficial factor. The proposed project will be helpful in managing the operational activities related to the purchase and payment of the products in a much efficient and effective way. Quantitative research can be driven considering the investments and the profit that could be made for analyzing the efficiency of the proposed system (Punitha et al. 2017). The budget of the proposed project is 200$ per trolley and a medium sized mall or supermarkets can operate through average 300 trolleys. Total investment for the project would be

            = 300 x 200$ = 60,000$ (this will be a single time investment)

The normal supermarket and mall have 10 billing counters and so 10 representatives need to be appointed on 10 $ per hour:

Supermarket or malls open for 12 hours and so

Salary to be paid for one day = 120$

Salary for a month = 120$ x 30 = 3600$

For one supermarket, total salary paid for 10 billing counters = 3600$

For a year, total salary paid to the individuals = 3600$ x 365 = 13,14,000$ (assumptions being made that the supermarket will be open every day and the staffs will be working every day)

The above quantitative research explains how effective and efficient could be the proposed project in terms of cost saving for the supermarkets. Thus, the proposed project will not only cost-effective rather it will also be saving time for the consumers in a manner to indulge in some other activities other than standing in a queue for paying the bills.

Conclusion

 It can be concluded in this system design assignment that the proposition of the smart trolley can be helpful in providing the consumer's nest, enhanced and fast services without any tolerance. The proposed system design assignment will be allowing individuals to stay out of the queue and make the payment by just carrying their products in the bucket. The future emphasis can be driven by incorporating the payment system and the navigation of the trolley in the mall by just searching for the product. Automation will further be more applicable in enhancing the reliability factor and allowing the consumers to avail the best services. The above system design assignment also presents a quantitative research based on the cost factor being invested in the staffs as compared to the investment made for the smart trolleys. The proposed system has been identified to be cost-effective, efficient and reliable for the consumers and the supermarkets or malls. System design assignment are being prepared by our enigneering assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable total assignment help service.

 Bibliography

Ali, Z. and Sonkusare, R., 2014, August. RFID based smart shopping: an overview. In Advances in Communication and Computing Technologies (ICACACT), 2014 International Conference on (pp. 1-3). IEEE.

Awati, J. and Awati, S., 2012. Smart Trolley in a mega-mall. International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering website: www. ijetae. com (issn 2250-2459, volume 2, issue 3.

Bedi, H.S., Goyal, N., Kumar, S. and Gupta, A., 2017. Smart Trolley using Smart Phone and Arduino. J Electr Electron Syst, 6(223), pp.2332-0796.

Bhandekar, P., Tomar, C., Kasewar, D. and Sheikh, A., 2018. A Survey on Smart Trolley System Based on Android Application.

Dawkhar, K., Dhomase, S. and Mahabaleshwarkar, S., 2015. Electronic Shopping Cart For Effective Shopping based on RFID. International journal of innovative research in electrical, electronics, instrumentation and management engineering, 3(1).

Maini, E. and Shettar, J., 2014. Wireless Intelligent Billing Trolley for malls. International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology, 3(9), pp.1175-78.

Prerana, T., Ranjan, S. and Kaushik, P., 2017. Smart Shopping Cart For Automatic Billing In Supermarket.

Punitha, S., Manjuladevi, K., Ranjani, K. and Gomathi, P., 2017. RFID Based Trolley for Supermarket Automation System. Asian Journal of Applied Science and Technology (AJAST), 1(1), pp.30-33.

Rupanagudi, S.R., Jabeen, F., KR, V.R.S., Adinarayana, S., Bharadwaj, V.K., Karishma, R. and Bhat, V.G., 2015, January. A novel video processing based cost effective smart trolley system for supermarkets using FPGA. In Communication, Information & Computing Technology (ICCICT), 2015 International Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

Sheba, M.V. and Rajakumari, B., 2015. RFID Enabled Smart Billing System. Indian Journal of Science and Technology, 8(32).