Implementation of a Human-Following Smart Trolley Using RFID with Automated Product Scanning

Shopping convenience and automation have gained much priority in the retail industry, especially with the advent of RFID and IoT. This paper presents a Human-Following Smart Trolley using RFID, together with automated product scanning, to remove general shopping hassles in the form of manual handling of a cart and delay during checkout. It proposes the integration of RFID technology for authentication, real-time scanning of products, ultrasonic sensors for tracking humans autonomously, and a microcontroller-based system to handle all operations together. This trolley follows the user at a distance and detects the items that are placed inside it with the help of an RFID tag. The overall bill is projected to calculate the value of the LCD display. The implementation demonstrates the capability of the system to work autonomously in dynamic retail environments for accurate billing and efficient navigation. It cuts down shopping time while increasing customer convenience. The system design is modular; hence, it is scalable and easy to adapt for future improvements. Besides assured accuracy, the system is cost-effective, with Arduino microcontrollers, RFID modules, and ultrasonic sensors fairly inexpensive and hence suitable for small to mid-scale retail setups. The present study investigates how the combination of automation and smart technologies is enabling the redefinition of the retail shopping experience. Further development will likely focus on obstacle avoidance, machine learning for personalization, and full checkout-free capability through mobile payment integrations that will characterize smarter, efficient retail automation in the years to come.