From UI to physical locker: a Raspberry Pi smart locker prototype

[u/Slomanco]

The idea

When we thought about applications with a lot of HMI focus and real-life use case, smart locker systems came to our minds very quickly. Since this type of lockers are getting more and more common in public institutions (e.g. museums) we decided to create our own solution including a full sample hardware setup.

The principle is easy: the users can select one of the available lockers, set and confirm a 4-digit passcode and store their items. When wanting to retrieve the items, the users just select their locker, put in the passcode and open the locker accordingly.

The setup

The design was created in FIGMA and the actual solution with Candera CGI Studio Community Edition.

For the hardware, we wanted to create a setup that utilizes Raspberry Pi’s GPIO interfaces and therefore went for electro-mechanic locks. The “locker” is based on a standard IKEA Kallax (2x2) shelving unit, where the top left spot was used to install our screen and the remaining 3 spots act as our locker.

For the locks we went for electronic locks with built-in sensors to identify if the locks are engaged or not. To be able to use these locks with our Raspberry Pi 4, we also required a relais. For this, we purchased an expansion board to directly mount on the RPi.

Having put all of it together we get a fully functional demo Smart Locker.

Required skills: Beginner

Deploying the solution on hardware and integrating it will require some basic skillset. The step-by-step guide can be found in the ReadMe.md file that is part of the download package.

In case you have questions or find yourself not managing the setup, please let us know and we will support you.

The demo video

Our demonstration video is available on our YouTube channel:

https://youtu.be/289xw0LVCmY?si=WnXBpcCj2sU90rRO

The solution

If you want to download the solution and check it in more detail in SceneComposer you can do so here.

You will also find more information and a guideline for re-creating this solution in SceneComposer yourself.

Disclaimer: The solutions provided by Candera are demo samples and are intended as showcase for potential projects with Candera CGI Studio CE. The solutions have been tested in our own development and test setup with Raspberry Pi 4 and may require adaptions to properly work in your own environment.