Logistical Integration of Smart Homes for Automated Consumer Goods Supply Based on Smart Refrigerators

Abstract

Supply with daily consumer goods is a time consuming and quite inefficient task. Furthermore, some people may be dependent on caregivers resulting in additional costs. Hence, it offers opportunities for developing e-commerce solutions in order to enable customers to use otherwise wasted time for replenishment of their private food stocks more efficiently. Although, some digital stores for consumer goods have evolved recently, still only a small part of total sales, especially in food retail, is realized online. Due to inappropriate packaging there still are problems with the quality of fresh products. Also, current solutions for depositing parcels if the customer is absent are not suitable for fresh or cooled goods. Therefore, we show state of the art and developments necessary to establish the logistical integration and thereby enabling automated consumer goods supply in smart home environments. As smart appliances are playing an important role for enabling the automation, our focus is set on such hardware. To demonstrate customer acceptance of smart stocks in their private households, market research has been performed on smart refrigerators in place for every conceivable appliance capable of capturing consumer goods. Our results prove that especially younger generations are very interested in and willing to pay for intelligent appliances.