Locating misplaced books in a library's bookshelf is a time-consuming and menial task that takes away precious work time from librarians, time that could be better spent in other tasks. Also, finding the desired book in the shelves is not always the most pleasing experience for the library users.
LibScoutR was conceptualized as a way to solve these problems. The project consists of a robot that moves around the library, scanning the bookshelves for misplaced books. It can also direct an user towards their desired book's location upon request.
The project consists of a robot physically placed in the library, a database that manages the proper position of each book within the library, a web app for user interaction, and an embedded system for controlling the robot, defining the path it will follow, and identifying the books in the shelves.
3D representation of our model library. The "shelves" are cardboard boxes, and some of the books are folded cardboard pieces with library tags attached to them, as we don't have enough real books for our tests. 3D Rendered in Cinema4D.
Top view of our model library.
The robot has two motors with gearboxes for movement.
The robot behaves like a line follower, using IR sensors to detect black lines painted on the floor, and following these lines.
Colored squares are painted on the floor at path intersections, so that the robot can locate itself. Each intersection has a unique color associated to it.
At its bottom, the robot has an RGB color sensor that detects the color of the floor directly under the robot. It's used to identify the location of the robot at intersections.
The robot has two cameras attached to its side, pointed towards the bookshelves. It uses an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) algorithm to identify the books' spine tags.
The robot has a QR code located on its mechanical assembly. The code directs to the address of the web app in the local network.
3D render of the robot.
Overall system diagram showing the connections between the system components. Click to enlarge. The disposition of the components in this diagram are not representative of the physical look of the robot.
The embedded System will communicate with a server in the local network over Wi-Fi (through the Raspberry Pi's built-in WiFi module). This server will contain the database for the library. A web application, running at the user's mobile phone, will also connect to the server.
When not in use by an user, the robot moves around the library, scanning the shelves for misplaced books. When one is found, the librarian receives a notification in his web app, containing the position information of the misplaced book.