Have you ever been to the grocery store and been pissed off that your shopping cart stayed on the ground most of the time, didn’t make any noise, and never ran out of battery? Maybe you have. Maybe everyone has. But what can you do about it other than the passive-aggressive move of shoving the cart into the cart return and tipping it over?
Until recently, we thought this was the best we could do with modern cart technology. But now, thanks to a group of researchers at Seoul University of Science and Technology in South Korea, there’s hope! Geonwoo Park, Hyungeun Park, Wooyong Park, Dongjae Lee, Murim Kim, and Seung Jae Lee co-authored the paper “Palletroncart: Air Cargo Transportation Based on Human-Robot Interaction,” and based on their findings, we think there might be a better way.
Researchers have developed what is essentially a hovering grocery cart, somewhat bizarrely called the Palletrone (a portmanteau of pallet and drone), which is exactly what a hovering cart is, as it doesn’t move on its own but instead requires human input to steer and move it.
Here is the abstract of their paper:
In this paper, we present a novel cargo transportation solution based on human-robot physical interaction, leveraging a new fully actuated multirotor platform called Palletrone.
The platform features a large flat surface on top for easy loading of cargo and a rear handle reminiscent of a shopping cart. Flight trajectory control is achieved by a human operator holding the handle and applying three-dimensional forces and torques to maintain a stable cargo transport with zero roll and pitch attitude during flight.
To facilitate physical human-robot interaction, we employ admittance control techniques. Rather than relying on complex force estimation methods as in most admittance control implementations, we introduce a simple yet effective estimation technique based on a disturbance observer robust control algorithm.
We conducted an analysis of flight stability and performance against changes in system mass due to arbitrary cargo loading. We ultimately demonstrated that an individual can effectively control the system’s trajectory by applying appropriate interaction forces and torques. Furthermore, we present the system’s performance through various experimental scenarios.
What’s particularly interesting about this control system is that it reads the various torques and pressures applied to the guidance handles by the human guiding the hovering platform, while at the same time distinguishing those forces from those applied by the cargo on the platform itself. The platform is designed to remain stable and level in all circumstances, even if the cargo on it is unbalanced.
And speaking of cargo on top, the researchers claim that even if the entire palleteer were covered in matter, airflow to the rotors would only be reduced by 5% thanks to the presence of air inlets along the sides that, through a happy accident of skeuomorphism, look a bit like the shopping carts we’re all familiar with.
This is all pretty impressive, and you can see it in action (slow and deliberate, to be sure) here, all narrated by one of the synthetic voices.
As you can see from the video, which shows the cart contentedly pushing a traditional shopping cart down a flight of stairs in about 12 seconds, the Palletrone’s big advantage is that it won’t budge on stairs, won’t have any trouble on uneven terrain, and won’t send your groceries flying out into the parking lot because you missed the curb.
In the test shown in the video, the cart appears to be carrying about 6.6 pounds of cargo. It’s not a lot, but it’s a start. No word on how long the batteries will last, but the team has developed a system that allows another drone to fly over to the cart and swap out a new battery.
Seoul National University of Science and Technology
While this type of activity seems like a lot in the aisles of a grocery store, it might make sense in a warehouse with lots of stairs.
I’m not sure whether I think this is a good idea or just ridiculous. These kinds of hover carts have been in sci-fi movies and other media for decades, but I’ve always thought they were kind of silly. Given all the technology it takes to make something that just floats, using anti-gravity and other exotic technologies, you’d think it would be easy to make it self-propelled or something, but usually it’s not, it’s just a cart that floats.
Paramount
Are they much better than wheeled carts that don’t use energy? I guess it all depends on the terrain. Take stairs and other uneven surfaces into account and these advantages become understandable.
But will these be as easy to steal from a grocery store, or will they just shut off if they hit some kind of geofence, can they slip into the side of a car, or if they get lost, will they just keep going up and up and eventually end up hitting the door of a 737?
I’m interested to see how this develops. Self-stabilizing propeller-driven drones are already much more capable than I ever imagined. Maybe these drones will finally free us from the tyranny of squeaky wheels and the inability to sprint down an escalator with a shopping cart full of snacks.
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