The Benchmark-Enabling Active Shopping Trolley (BEAST) is a benchmarking testbed with data acquisition and mechanical action capabilities developed in the framework of the H2020 EUROBENCH project. Its key element is an active shopping trolley which, while maintaining all the features of a standard trolley, enables quantitative characterization of the capability of a robot to manoeuver it safely and effectively. The BEAST trolley can measure its own acceleration, the geometric relationship with surrounding obstacles (distance and collisions) and the forces applied by the robot to its handle. Additionally, the active trolley can introduce repeatable disturbances in its dynamic behavior by applying torque to the wheels, allowing simulation of real-world effects such as friction, irregular floors or wheel obstructions. Unaltered functionality lets the BEAST trolley be used for real actions such as loading/unloading.

The BEAST testbed is modular and well-documented. It comprises sensors, actuators, processing, communication and power resources, plus a ROS-based software system. Modularity allows experimenters to easily implement new benchmarks or repurpose its elements: as an example of this flexibility, the BEAST package includes an active wheelchair variant of the trolley, relevant in an ageing society scenario.
BEAST’s benchmark management software is designed to be easily integrated into external benchmarking infrastructures. It includes tools to define (via scripting, i.e., without need to modify the software) and run benchmarks based on the testbed, to apply user-defined performance metrics, and to automatically generate reports. The BEAST package comprises two complete benchmarks and a Gazebo testbed simulator.