Promotional Tag Tracking in Store Shelves Using Robotic Imaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current stock keeping methods fail to accurately track and maintain promotional states of slots in inventory structures within stores, leading to discrepancies in promotional tags, which can frustrate customers and reduce sales by not honoring expected prices.
Innovation Solution
A robotic system autonomously navigates the store to capture images of inventory structures, detect shelf and promotional tags, and compare their features to verify alignment with scheduled promotions, generating prompts for store associates to correct or replace tags as necessary.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If manual tracking of promotional tags is used, then store operations are simple, but promotional information accuracy deteriorates leading to customer frustration and sales loss
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical tracking of promotional tags with an automated robotic system equipped with imaging devices and processing units. The robotic system autonomously navigates store aisles, captures images of shelf tags and promotional tags, and automatically verifies their alignment, eliminating the need for manual inspection while significantly improving accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The robotic system creates digital copies of promotional tags through imaging and uses image processing to verify their presence and accuracy. By comparing captured images against expected promotional schedules, the system validates promotional information without physical manual verification, maintaining accuracy while reducing operational complexity.
2Reliability
If frequent manual verification of promotional tags is performed, then promotional tag accuracy is maintained, but labor time and operational efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic system performs self-service verification by autonomously navigating, capturing images, processing data, and identifying discrepancies without human intervention. The system independently verifies promotional tag accuracy continuously, maintaining high reliability while freeing store employees from manual verification tasks and improving overall operational efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The robotic system provides continuous verification of promotional tags by operating on scheduled cycles throughout store hours. Unlike intermittent manual checks, the automated system maintains constant surveillance of promotional accuracy, ensuring reliability while allowing store operations to proceed uninterrupted, thereby improving productivity.
3Measurement precision
If automated robotic systems are deployed, then promotional tracking accuracy is improved, but system complexity and initial investment increase
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic system is divided into functional modules: navigation module for autonomous movement, imaging module for capturing tag images, processing module for image analysis, and verification module for comparing against promotional schedules. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and simplifies maintenance while maintaining high tracking accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The robotic system performs multiple functions: it tracks promotional tags, verifies their accuracy, monitors product placement, and generates reports. This multi-functionality consolidates several manual tasks into a single automated platform, improving tracking accuracy while the integrated design manages system complexity through shared hardware and software resources.
Data Source
AI summary
One variation of a method for tracking promotional states of slots in inventory structures within a store includes: accessing an image of an inventory structure within a store; detecting a shelf tag on the inventory structure in the image; extracting a set of features from the shelf tag detected in the image; detecting a promotional tag on the inventory structure in the image; extracting a set of features from the promotional tag detected in the image; detecting a deviation between the shelf tag and the promotional tag based on a difference between the sets of features; and, in response to detecting the deviation between the shelf tag and the promotional tag, identifying the first promotional tag as erroneous, and notifying a store associate to replace the first promotional tag with a second promotional tag at the first slot, the second promotional tag correcting the difference.