SSMS

Consumers have become digitally resilient with the rise of technology in all business areas. The driving nature of production and work mainly depends on automation/smart systems. The ease of mobility, convenience, and efficiency it provides to the consumers is second to none. Since the beginning of

Project Title

SSMS

Project Area of Specialization

Internet of Things

Project Summary

Consumers have become digitally resilient with the rise of technology in all business areas. The driving nature of production and work mainly depends on automation/smart systems. The ease of mobility, convenience, and efficiency it provides to the consumers is second to none. Since the beginning of the digital era, people rely on smart solutions for streamlined and seamless operations, including that of a grocery store.

The world is going towards a cashless era, where transactions are made digitally using Pay applications. The need for a feasible automated store management system for local brick and mortar stores in Pakistan is growing with increasing crime rates, inflation, and security issues.

The proposed project does not only deter the crime rate at the local brick and mortar stores but also provides convenience to the consumers while providing a secure and smart solution to the store owners.

Project Objectives

The proposed project’s goal is to automate the commercialization process that further leads to an automated business idea in the big retail stores of Pakistan. Although, we have come across many solutions based on the technology of RFID and bar code scanning, the store management gets limited to a smart trolley. Consequently, limiting the approach to a trolley and not the management store.

The proposed solution looks at all the aspects of the store management system, including automation, the security measures, consumers’ convenience, efficiency, labor costs and overall productivity of the employees.

While bar code scanning increases the consumers’ inconvenience, RFID technology is 10 times more costly than the scanner itself. Therefore, canceling both the smart solutions as feasible solutions for the big retail stores in Pakistan.

However, the proposed project works using the technology of image processing and computer-vision. Thereby, expanding the system from a trolley to the whole store and reducing development costs for brick and mortar stores.

While the software includes designing an application for integration with the touch screen, the hardware/architecture of the project includes installing 4-directional sensors and cameras into the trolley for motion detection and to fetch/send product details to the touch screen.

Project Implementation Method

To get the perfect result of the automated smart store, it require the perfect combination of hardware and software. The smart store includes all the modern features that helps the customers to get eased while shopping. To make this system feasible for the customers, there are following equipment used to design this project that are categorized into two major parts that are mentioned below

HARDWARE DESIGN

• RASPBERRY PI

[1]Raspberry pi is a portable computing device that will be placed in the trolley to help the cameras operate and detect the images.

• WIRELESS ACCESS

[2]Wireless connection is a basic concept that will be applied for the automation of the smart store. The wireless access helps the customers to connect to the internet using QR codes. The internet connection helps the user to open and access the smart store mobile application. The smart trolley has its own smart screen that will require an active and fast internet connection. The smart trolley will be equipped with the modern and most feasible technology to help the customer not wait in the queue. This way the consumer can directly make payment through the smart trolley application without leaving the trolley.

• NETWORKING

[2]To get an advanced, feasible network with a friendly user interface, the smart store will work through wireless networking. The main purpose behind using the networking is to make the project cost-effective and reliable for the vendor as well as the consumers. The main advantage of using the networking is that it helps the trolley to connect to the store cloud database to protect the system from malware and security breaches.

We will used networking because it is an efficient way to provide faster and secure network to the customer. 

• UV SENSORS

[3]The ultraviolet sensors are placed on the smart trolley to detect the motion of the hands. The UV sensors can detect the object within the set range that makes it possible to get the motion of the object and provides the signal to the raspberry pi through the VEML6075.

SOFTWARE DESIGN

• COMPUTER VISION USING PYTHON OPEN CV

[4]Computer vision is the modern technology to help the users train the machine. Through computer vision, we can easily identify the objects of the image. By detecting the image's point and distances, it will gets easier for us to easily code on python by using the openCV library.  Once we get the images from the camera, we can easily compare the images from the database and send the input result to the smart screen as well as the mobile applications.

• CLOUD DATABASE

[5]An efficient way to get a faster link to the database is to upload the data to the cloud. Cloud is the data storage facility provided by many companies that are cost-effective and prove to be a secure system.

Benefits of the Project

Automation in industrial and daily life applications has brought about a huge change in the behaviors of the consumers. We are starting to think of robots/automation systems as our friends and not the enemies. The concept of automation depriving people of employment is now changed to it being a niche concept designed for the convenience of the general public. Thus, the reason why leading industrialists and thought-leaders are investing substantial capital in automation and artificial intelligence. 

With the growing consumer demands, human-friendly automation systems with exceptional user interfaces are gaining popularity in the commercial sector. Computer-vision software, powered by artificial intelligence, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and machine learning are improving daily lifestyles while developing strong ties between humans and machines.

Automation systems are now being integrated with traditional navigation systems, IT systems, and manufacturing systems for streamlined industrial processes. However, the role of traditional technology plays an important role in the development of what we call; ‘mobile automation technology’.

An automation system has a simpler design, requires low-cost maintenance, and has the capability to streamline strenuous manual tasks. For instance, the use of image processing or vision-based software allows us to build a wireless product recognition system that can send data at various distances and to various places simultaneously.

The idea of the automated smart management store relies solely on the self-check-out system operational currently in European countries. The approach is to build a smart yet compact self-checkout system using a wallet/pay application and user interface touch screen that allows the consumer/shopper to buy the grocery items without getting them scanned. As the concept is based on the latest technology, that is image processing, the sensors automatically detect the item’s picture, price and details of the product and send the data to the wallet/pay application as well as the touch screen (showing the product’s price, picture and other details).

The consumer makes payment directly through the application and leaves the store. This project releases the pressure at the cash counters during peak hours and also allows the stores to go cashless.

The smart features of the system such as the smart search enable the user to type a product’s name to detect its location at the store. Consequently, making the shopping experience seamless and less time-consuming.

The safety and security features prevent the shopper from dragging it out of the store’s premises. In addition to that, it also safeguards the wallet details of the shopper by protecting it, using a two-way authentication system.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The leading commerce giants have explored numerous ways to implement smart solutions in brick-and-mortar stores through automation and the Internet of Things. While many solutions have been put forward, implemented, and tested out, none of the smart store solutions has been able to improve security, increase productivity, reduce labor costs and enhance consumer’s convenience, all at once.

The largest e-commerce giant in America, Amazon recently launched an Indian-specific program’ and called it ‘smart stores’. It provides local brick and mortar stores with a highly-functional software to maintain the inventory’s digital log and supply the available items after checking the availability through a QR code.

When shoppers enter the store, they connect to the Amazon App through the QR code and shop from the available items in the store. After completing the shopping, the bill gets deducted through the Amazon Pay app.

Even though the contactless payment solution rewards consumers, it happens to be a big disadvantage for the local merchants. With a third-party commerce business demanding a financial cut for providing incentives, it is hard for local store owners to earn huge profit margins.

Another smart store solution tested out, was by leading giant commerce of USA, Walmart. The approach in the solution is to provide customer convenience by eliminating the concept of queues at the tills. To keep the consumers from waiting in queues and reducing labor costs, they provide each shopper with a barcode scanner, the moment they enter the store. The consumer then scans each item and puts it in the trolley before checking out.

The Walmart smart store solution is not feasible as compared to its counterpart solution, an automated store management system. The consumers have to scan the items on their own, repeatedly, ultimately, leading to inconvenience and long shopping hauls.

However, a more feasible solution to automate brick and mortar stores is introduced by Amazon. The commerce giant is currently testing out their smart dash carts, which detect the item through the sensors while providing the product details on a touch screen attached to the dash cart. The approach of our project is based on the modified version of the dash cart with add-on automated and security features.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Food

Other Industries

Core Technology

Internet of Things (IoT)

Other Technologies

Sustainable Development Goals

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Required Resources

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