Canteen Automation System: An Approach for "Smart City" Planning

The idea of a smart city is directly related to it's ability to provide services that ease the way of life through implementation of automated technologies. Creating an environment where businesses can thrive through implementing the automated system is now the focus of smart city planning. Different automation methodologies along with their influential impact on workplaces have become one of the most anticipated topics of both research and implementation [1]. Workplaces are considered as the base of any city, and an integral part of this base is their canteen where all employees spend a portion of their day; hence the significance of canteen management system is immense. The existing systems have quite a few drawbacks- such as accounting errors, long queues, and waiting times. To solve this problem, we built an automated canteen management system that will make ordering and paying for food at any canteen easier and time-efficient, which will enable users to avoid all the current problems and have an effective and well-managed system. Using a NodeMCU, RFID reader and RFID tags we proposed the solution of the aforementioned problems. NodeMCU would act as the development board and also allow seamless connection to Wi-Fi always as it comes with a built-on Wi-Fi module. The RFID reader will allow the users to swipe their respective RFID tags for initiation of the process and update their information retrieved from the database. Together the system would allow a cashless, effective and time saving approach to the currently existing long queued systems.