NIYANTRA Documents
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Contact Information
Name of the College : Vivekanand Education Society's Institute of Technology, Chembur, Mumbai.
Name of the Team Members along with their respective current semester : Raja Chowdhury, Dnyanesh Deo, Pratik Shirke, Mohit Suranglikar, Sriram Viswanathan (ALL SEMESTER 7)
E-Mail Address & Phone Number of the Team Leader : sriramv2@gmail.com, 9869020952
Name of the Faculty Guide : Mr. Gopalkrishnan Narayanan
E-Mail Address & Phone Number of the Faculty Guide : naray23@yahoo.com, 7208891599
Project Information
Project Title: Robotic Shelf Stock Monitor
Hardware & Software Used:
Hardware for Line follower Robot - Atmega8, FTDI USB to serial converter, 12V DC motors, Photoelectric proximity sensors.
Other hardware - USB Webcam, Aluminium frame robot, wheels, Stepper Motor for vertical movement of camera with a pulley system.
Software - NI LABVIEW with Vision Assistant.
Embedded C Compiler and Uploader for Atmega8 line follower.
What challenge/problem are you trying to solve through your application:
- In large mall stores, there is a need to cut down on costs by reducing the number of personnel, especially in huge malls. Usually, the store shelf becomes empty and sales are reduced despite that product being in the stock room. (MAIN APPLICATION)
- Also, in large warehouses of big companies, unnecessary stock piles up even before the current stock has depleted. (ANOTHER POSSIBLE APLICATION)
- Another problem that we could address in the area of big parking lots. Usually, the driver of a car has to scout the entire area for available slots for parking. there needs to be a system that displays the available slots, so that he can directly go there without wasting time. (ANOTHER POSSIBLE APPLICATION)
How does your application solves the above mentioned challenge/problem:
The application will consist of an autonomous robot that will roam in the mall along a line, and monitor shelves for stock content through image processing in LABVIEW. In case of empty or near empty shelves, it will send a message to the control room to fll the stock.
Another area where this could be used is in a big parking lot, to analyze empty slots for available parking slots, again through image processing in LABVIEW.
Description of Project:
The application consists of a line follower robot, that will roam in the mall store, analyzing the shelves for stock content.
We have programmed LABVIEW with Vision Acquisition and Vision Assistant using OCR/OCV pattern recongnition feature. The symbols for recognition will first be embebbed on the shelves at regular intervals based on Region of Interest area of our robot. No symbols will be detected if the shelf is full. The degree of emptiness of the shelf will be calculated on the basis of the number of symbols that have been recognised or detected.
The line follower robot movement will cover the horizontal extent of the shelves, while the camera's vertical pulley system will cover the vertical extent of the shelf.
The autonomous robot communicates with the control room by sending signals through serial communication UART protocol, also programmed in LABVIEW. Reverse communication is also possible (i.e, between the control room and robot) in case of emergencies like power up/down, etc.
The robot also will be equipped with Photoelectric Proximity sensors for crowd detection.
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