A Smart Shelf Design for Retail Store Real Time Inventory Management Automation

Abstract

Conventional retail store inventory management systems rely on stockroom actions. However, especially in big scale retail stores, a certain amount of goods is placed on the display shelves. The items placed on the display shelves are not counted until their tags are identified by a cash register and marked as sold in the inventory management system. In this study, we propose a smart shelf that is capable of counting the specific items placed on it by detecting the location and the weight of the items. Our approach assumes that specific items in a retail store are placed in a specified location on each shelf, which is a widely preferred approach. The identified product information is then transferred to the inventory management system through the local network connection, and products on the display shelves can be counted in real time. The results show that the location and weight of the items can be identified with remarkable accuracy.