A No-Touch Approach to Avoid COVID-19: A Self-Driving Trolley for A Nigerian Airport

摘要

Undoubtedly, COVID-19 has changed the way we work and live. It has alerted our minds to conscious approach of cleanliness and to avoid touching substances and surfaces with our bare hands. Technology has been a major frontier in combating COVID-19, with tools that helps us to conform to the new realities of life. Some of these technologies are not new but are being applied in new ways for reducing the spread of the virus. The airport act as a border link between countries where infected people can easily transmit the disease by handling some public facilities. Hence, prevention of the virus spread may not only be in physical (social) distancing but also a NO-TOUCH approach to facilities (like trolley) by making it autonomous. In this paper, a new design of a self-driving trolley is proposed for a standard-safe (Nigerian) airport. The implementation approach is problem-focused design methodology described as Active Design Research (ADR). This approach will engage users, practitioners, engineers and software developers to build an effective and efficient tool i.e. artefact. The proposed trolley prototype comprises embeded sensors, camera and micro-processors and will use Artificial Intelligence to implement object detection or obstruction avoidance and motor wheels control. The design of the AI-enabled trolley is coined “MotiRedy” meaning I am ready in Nigerian native language. The proposed approach and the design implementation is discussed in this paper.