Towards Intelligent Retail: Automated on-Shelf Availability Estimation Using a Depth Camera

Efficient management of on-shelf availability and inventory is a key issue to achieve customer satisfaction and reduce the risk of profit loss for both retailers and manufacturers. Conventional store audits based on physical inspection of shelves are labor-intensive and do not provide reliable asses...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE access 2020, Vol.8, p.19353-19363
Main Authors: Milella, Annalisa, Petitti, Antonio, Marani, Roberto, Cicirelli, Grazia, D'orazio, Tiziana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3D reconstruction and modeling
Automated stock monitoring
Automation
Availability
Baskets
Cameras
Consumer goods
Customer satisfaction
Embedded systems
Estimation
Image reconstruction
Inspection
intelligent retail
Monitoring
Occupancy
Replenishment
RGB-D sensors
Robot sensing systems
Shelving
Solid modeling
Three dimensional models
Three-dimensional displays
Training
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Summary:Efficient management of on-shelf availability and inventory is a key issue to achieve customer satisfaction and reduce the risk of profit loss for both retailers and manufacturers. Conventional store audits based on physical inspection of shelves are labor-intensive and do not provide reliable assessment. This paper describes a novel framework for automated shelf monitoring, using a consumer-grade depth sensor. The aim is to develop a low-cost embedded system for early detection of out-of-stock situations with particular regard to perishable goods stored in countertop shelves, refrigerated counters, baskets or crates. The proposed solution exploits 3D point cloud reconstruction and modelling techniques, including surface fitting and occupancy grids, to estimate product availability, based on the comparison between a reference model of the shelf and its current status. No a priori knowledge about the product type is required, while the shelf reference model is automatically learnt based on an initial training stage. The output of the system can be used to generate alerts for store managers, as well as to continuously update product availability estimates for automated stock ordering and replenishment and for e-commerce apps. Experimental tests performed in a real retail environment show that the proposed system is able to estimate the on-shelf availability percentage of different fresh products with a maximum average discrepancy with respect to the actual one of about 5.0%.
ISSN:2169-3536
2169-3536
DOI:10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2968175