TINJAC: Autonomous Shopping Cart

The motivation for this project stems from inspiration in the wave of “smart” technology (smart phones, televisions, etc.), and thinking of a current invention that could possibly benefit from the “smart” treatment. When the future is envisioned, it will be a world run by technology, and technology that can help people with every day simple tasks and make them even simpler, and that's what Tinjac is, a cart of the future. The main motivation is to make the future close to today.

The main goal of this project is to create a device that’s accessible for any type of person. The device should be able to navigate through a store at a pace comfortable enough for the customer and reach each destination without running into anything through the use of motion and proximity sensors that will be placed all around the cart in a non-distracting manner so that there is no room for error. Goals of this design include being able to save the customer time as well as money. With a simplistic LCD design, customers can easily choose the items they need, and then the cart will take the shortest path to these items. This is especially helpful for someone who is unfamiliar with the store. This design makes a 20-minute trip to the store of endlessly looking for every item, to just knowing exactly where each and every item is, which would shorten shopping times by at least seventy five percent.

The overall objective of this project is to essentially introduce a prototype that can potentially be adopted by stores in order to help make shopping easy for their customers who are handicapped, debilitated, or injured, as well as increasing the general feasibility for every customer.

Shekh Arefen

CpE

Shekh Arefen is a 22 year old soon to be University of Central Florida Computer Engineering graduate. He has accepted an offer as a Systems Engineer with Lockheed Martin in Orlando. He will be pursuing his Masters in Computer Engineering in the near future.

John McFarland

CpE

John McFarland is a 25 year old soon to be University of Central Florida Computer Engineering graduate. Right after graduation, he will be starting his PhD career in Computer Engineering with the University of Central Florida. His focus will be in Computer Architecture, working directly with Dr. Amro Awad.

James Johnson

EE

James Johnson is a 20 year old soon to be University of Central Florida Electrical Engineering graduate. His future dream goals involve working with renewable energy and the environmental as well as hardware design.

Edgar Velez

EE

Edgar Velez is a 24 year old soon to be University of Central Florida Electrical Engineering graduate. He plans to work in the subfield of signal processing and communications and later pursue both his Masters and PhD in Electrical Engineering