Low-Cost Autonomous Vehicle for Inventory Movement in Warehouses

Abstract

A large number of robots are used in warehouses to automate mundane tasks, reduce operating costs, make warehouses safer and more efficient. However, there is a tradeoff between cost and accuracy of the robot. A costly robot will be more accurate and precise in its working, But it cannot be used at a large scale in MSMEs in developing countries. Using cheap components would result in a lower cost but there will be a dip in accuracy. Having a low cost, fairly accurate robot would help in developing countries in MSMEs. We are building a low cost, autonomous robot that can assist us in transferring goods from one place to another within a storage facility which can also help us account for products. The robot must also be programmable to do multiple tasks if needed. In this work, We give a review of different robots currently being used in warehouses and explain the working of our robot. We also assess the cost and accuracy of our robot and show how it might be suitable for warehouses in developing countries.