Autonomous shopping cart

A smart cart system comprising:

• a smart cart including:
• a basket supported by one or more support housings, a hinge mechanism coupling the basket with the one or more support housings, the basket configured to transition to a storage position, the storage position being configured to reduce storage space consumed by multiple smart carts when the multiple smart carts are in storage, transitioning the basket into the storage position including pivoting the basket using the hinge mechanism to allow the basket to nest with a second basket of a second smart cart,
• one or more motors coupled with the one or more support housings, the one or more motors configured to provide motive force to the smart cart,
• a user interface device coupled with the one or more support housings,
• a computing device coupled with the user interface device and the one or more motors, and
• a battery coupled with the computing device and the one or more motors;
• a charging support member coupled with the one or more support housings, the charging support member including a charging interface that interacts with a rail of a cart storage rack to charge the battery of the smart cart and the second smart cart when the basket is nested with the second basket of the second smart cart;
• and
• a smart cart controller operable on the computing device and configured to perform operations including instructing the smart cart to autonomously navigate within an operating environment.

A method comprising:

• receiving, by a smart cart controller, information describing an attribute of an item;
• providing, by the smart cart controller, the information describing the attribute of the item for presentation by a user interface device communicatively coupled with the smart cart controller;
• determining, by the smart cart controller, a location of the item in an operating environment associated with smart cart system;
• determining, by the smart cart controller, a current location of a cart in the operating environment;
• navigating, by the smart cart controller, the cart to the location of the item using a determined path between the current location of the cart and the location of the item in the operating environment, a motivator providing motive force to the cart, and a guidance system communicatively coupled with the smart cart controller;
• and
• nesting a first basket of the cart with one or more second baskets of one or more second carts in a storage position and, when in the storage position, charging a battery of the cart using a rack configured to charge the cart and the one or more second carts.