Design and Implementation of Smart Trolley using RFID Technology

In metro cities usually a huge rush at the shopping malls is seen during weekends. Shopping especially on holidays becomes difficult due to this rush. Customers buy several products, for which they need a shopping cart. The shopping cart or trolley is carried to the cash counter after shopping. The cashier scans all the products using a bar code reader at the counter. This is a time-consuming process, and it results in a long queue formed at the cashier counter.

The smart trolley offers a solution to this problem. For identification, each product in the mall is attached with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag. The trolley contains an RFID reader, Arduino microcontroller board and a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen module. An android based application has been developed for the customers to locate an item inside the shopping mall. This application can be accessed from anywhere outside or inside the mall. When an item is placed in the trolley it is first scanned with the help of RFID reader. The information about the product and its price is automatically displayed on the LCD module. After the shopping is complete the amount of total bill and number of items in the trolley is sent to the cashier via HC-12 Radio Frequency (RF) wireless serial port communication module.

The system has been tested thoroughly with different number of items and satisfactory results are obtained. The smart shopping trolley is a helpful solution for customers as the can easily find the products in the mall due to the android application. The long queues are automatically avoided, and bills are quickly sent to the cashier counter. The system is suitable to be used in a library, medical store, book shops, cloths shops, shoe shops and sport shops etc.