Development of Sensor Controlled Convertible Cart-Trolley

Abstract This research is focused on the development of a flexible and intelligent sensor controlled convertible cart-trolley to support physical distribution of goods. Transporting of homogeneous and heterogeneous commodities is a common trend in laboratories, offices, supermarkets, warehouses and industrial settings. In developing countries, handling and transporting of materials are usually done using manually operated trolleys. Such practice could be time consuming and laborious, thus this research. The unique design consists of three mechanisms, designed such that: when stretched, the system turns to a cart; when tilted it turns to incline cart with flat plate attached to make payloads stable and when folded it turns to a trolley. Both the steering and the driving of the trolley are controlled by the two wiper motors, which are attached to the two wheels and powered by 12V DC batteries. The circuit board consist of Wireless Module (ESP8266EX), relays, and wires. The wireless module (ESP8266EX) serves as the microcontroller housing the commands to be executed by the cart, while the relay controls the amount of current released by the batteries to the motors and the circuit in general. The Wireless Module (ESP8266EX) serves as a receiver. The cart-trolley was developed and tested, the result showed that the machine throughput capacity and efficiency were 550.37 kg/hr. and 52.2 % respectively.