We all love malls, don’t we?
So, what if there was a Mall Assistant that could make it cool for us?
So How does he help the visitors

Published June 9, 2017 © GPL3+

Mall Assistant Robot

Create a hospitality robot that is capable of interacting with visitors at public spaces such as malls, rec centers, hospitals, stadium etc.

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Things used in this project

Hardware components

SP Robotic Works SPduino

Digilent Analog Discovery 2

PDX132 - 132:1 Gearmotor

UltraSonic Distance Sensor (PWM O/P)

lenovo yoga 510

Targus Car Power Inverter

Multimedia speakers 2.1

21.5 inchs touch display

lead acid 160Ah 12v battries

logitech camara

Arduino UNO

Software apps and online services

RoboRealm

RoboRealm is an application for use in machine vision, computer vision, image analysis, and robotic vision systems.

Arduino IDE

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Sheet rolling machine

Arc welding

laser sheet cutting machine

Story

We all love malls, don’t we?

Of course we do! They are swanky, cool and offer plush places options for us to hang out with our friends and beloved ones. However, the moment we get to malls, we are spoilt for choice and lost for options. With these huge multistoreyed and spacious arenas, one always has a hard time spotting where they are located within the mall.

Also, to know about most of the shops and their best deals, we have to traverse from floor to floor to arrive at the store. It is an irony that such a huge, swanky establishment usually does not pay a lot of attention to keep its guests aware of every deal and dining option available in its multiple shops and stalls.

So, what if there was a Mall Assistant that could make it cool for us?

No we are not talking about humans clad in black Tees and showing us directions ! We are talking of Robots !

We developed a mall assistant robot that redefines the landscape of the hospitality industry.

It is a Mall Assistant robot that was developed by the Kidobotikz community to be deployed as a customer assistant for various environments.

It stands tall at 5 feet 5 inches and has an array of sensors dotting its structure. It employs an assortment of Ultrasonic sensors to gain a 360° situational awareness. This helps it navigate through the spaces.

So How does he help the visitors?

As soon as visitors enter the mall, the robot greets them with a smile. It has big blue eyes and a electronic voice that talks to the customers. It also has a large 22 inch touchscreen display screen on its front which acts as an digital billboard/information kiosk/ map all-in-one. All of this expected to give an unparalleled experience to visitors and give them information at their fingertips.

Code

Obstacle Monitor and Motor Driving with Arduino

This is the Arduino program that pings the ultrasonic sensors of the robot to detect any obstacle in front/side of the robot and to stop if anything/anyone is present. If there is no obstacle, then it will listen for direction data received through Serial communication from the RoboRealm application and drives the motors accordingly. The obstacle status data (in JSON format) will be written to the Serial port continuously. The Serial communication module in RoboRealm will receive and parse this data to play the robot's voice if any obstacle/person is in front.

Object tracking using RoboRealm

This repository contains the RoboRealm project file and the necessary python script to aid the image processing. The object tracking module will track the ceiling structure using the images that were trained with the module. Camera present on the top of the robot will be used for this purpose. Based on the coordinates of the object being tracked, the direction in which the robot should move in order to keep the ceiling structure in the focus of the camera is decided. The robot will keep on moving forward as long as the oval shape ceiling structure is in the focus. If it's going out of frame, then the robot will turn left/right accordingly to keep the structure within the frame, This will ensure that the robot is roaming only in the central atrium with a virtual perimeter. The direction data generated in the form of JSON in the python script will be continuously sent to Arduino through the Serial Communication module. Arduino will be programmed to receive this data and drive the motors accordingly. Open the EA_Object_Tracker.robo file using the RoboRealm application. This will start the image processing. The images of the ceiling structure would have been trained already with the Object tracking module to track it in real time.

Mall Assistant Robot