JP7210993B2 - Vending machine system and communication method for the vending machine system - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a vending machine system and a communication method for the vending machine system, and more particularly to a vending machine system including vending machines, an individual control center, and a common control center, and a communication method for the vending machine system.

Conventionally, a vending machine system including a vending machine, an individual control center, and a common control center, and a communication method for the vending machine system are known (see Patent Document 1, for example).

Patent Literature 1 above discloses a vending machine system that includes one vending machine and a plurality of center PCs (individual control centers). Further, the vending machine system includes a network connection repeater (common control center) that relays when the vending machine and a plurality of center PCs are communicably connected. That is, the vending machine and the center PC transmit and receive data via the network connection repeater.

Here, although not specified in Patent Document 1, it is conceivable that a plurality of vending machines and a plurality of center PCs are connected via a network connection repeater. In this case, each of the plurality of center PCs transmits and receives data to and from the corresponding one of the plurality of vending machines via the network connection repeater. Specifically, the network connection repeater relays data communication between corresponding vending machines and center PCs based on communication specifications corresponding to each vending machine (each center PC). conversion, etc.).

JP-A-2006-42045

Here, although not specified in Patent Document 1, since the types (manufacturers, etc.) of each vending machine (each center PC) are different from each other, each vending machine (each center PC) has its own communication specification. are different from each other, the network connection repeater is provided with multiple data relay functions (multiple conversion adapters corresponding to each communication specification, etc.) corresponding to each vending machine (each center PC). must be Therefore, there is an inconvenience that the configuration of the network connection repeater becomes complicated.

In addition, although not specified in the above Patent Document 1, as a method different from the method of providing a plurality of conversion functions (conversion adapters, etc.) in the network connection repeater, in the network connection repeater, each vending machine (each It is conceivable to perform data communication based on communication specifications commonly applied to the center PC). In this case, each center PC needs to have a function (such as a conversion adapter) to perform data conversion (to convert data to suit itself), which complicates the configuration of each center PC. I have an inconvenience.

As described above, in the conventional vending machine system as described in Patent Document 1, a plurality of vending machines and a plurality of center PCs (individual control centers) are connected by a network connection repeater (common control center). When the communication is relayed, there is a problem that the configuration of the vending machine system becomes complicated due to the complicated configuration of the network connection repeater and the center PC.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and one object of the present invention is to provide a system for vending machine systems due to the complication of the configurations of the common management center and the individual management centers. To provide a vending machine system and a communication method of the vending machine system capable of suppressing complication of the configuration of the vending machine.

To achieve the above object, a vending machine system according to a first aspect of the present invention transmits and receives data related to vending machines between a plurality of vending machines and corresponding vending machines, a plurality of individual control centers provided corresponding to any one of the communication methods of the above, and a plurality of vending machines, from each of the plurality of individual control centers, the communication method of the corresponding individual control center out of the plurality of individual control centers . Data relating to the communication method of the individual management center, including at least one of communication method determination information including data format information and sequence information that is the sequence of operation instructions for the individual management center, and the individual management center to be connected to simultaneously receives communication parameters including destination information, and converts data related to communication methods into post-conversion data based on communication specifications for each communication method commonly applied to each of a plurality of vending machines. and a common management center including a data conversion unit for the communication method, based on the communication specifications corresponding to the communication method determined based on the communication method determination information transmitted from the vending machine. The data is converted into post-conversion data by the data conversion unit, and the post-conversion data is transmitted to the individual management center as the connection destination determined based on the destination information of the communication parameters.

In the vending machine system according to the first aspect of the present invention, as described above, the common control center, based on the communication specifications for each communication method commonly applied to each of the plurality of vending machines, It includes a data conversion unit that converts data related to the communication method into post-conversion data. As a result, when the post-conversion data is transmitted from the common management center to the individual management centers corresponding to the common communication method, the communication specifications for creating each post-conversion data can be shared. As a result, the number of communication specifications that can be handled by the common management center can be reduced compared to the case where each post-conversion data is created based on mutually different communication specifications, thereby simplifying the configuration of the common management center. can do. In addition, since it is not necessary to provide a data conversion function in each of the plurality of individual management centers, it is possible to suppress complication of the configuration of the individual management centers. As a result, it is possible to prevent the configuration of the vending machine system from becoming complicated due to the configuration of the common management center and the individual management center becoming complicated.

In the vending machine system according to the first aspect, preferably, the data conversion unit converts the frame portion, which is the framework of converted data, based on the communication specifications corresponding to the communication method determined based on the communication method determination information. is created, and post-conversion data is created by applying data relating to the communication method of the communication parameters sent from the vending machine to the frame portion created by the data conversion unit. According to this configuration, post-conversion data corresponding to each communication method can be easily generated simply by applying the data regarding the communication method to the frame portion generated based on the communication specifications corresponding to each communication method. . It should be noted that the frame portion means a data model portion used to create post-conversion data.

In the vending machine system according to the first aspect, the communication parameters preferably include information for identifying a program for which post-conversion data is used in the individual management center to be connected. With this configuration, the common management center can easily acquire information on programs to be used by the individual management centers based on the communication parameters.

In the vending machine system according to the first aspect, preferably, the data relating to the communication method of the communication parameter includes sequence information that is a procedure for instructing operations to the individual control center, and the common control center performs the procedure based on the sequence information. It is configured to perform data communication with the individual management center, which is the connection destination, along the line. With this configuration, the common management center can easily communicate based on the sequence information included in the communication parameters.

In the vending machine system according to the first aspect, preferably, the data relating to the communication method of the communication parameter includes data format information, and the data conversion unit transmits data to the individual management center to be connected based on the data format. Configured to create post-transformation data for transmission. With this configuration, the data converter can easily perform communication based on the data format information included in the communication parameters.

A communication method for a vending machine system according to a second aspect of the present invention is provided by a plurality of individual control centers in which each of a plurality of vending machines corresponds to one of a plurality of communication methods. The communication method of the individual management center, which includes at least one of: communication method determination information including information on the communication method of the corresponding individual management center ; and sequence information that is the sequence information that is the sequence of operation instructions for the data format information and the individual management center. and the corresponding vending machine out of the plurality of vending machines, and the destination information of the individual management center that is the connection destination among the plurality of individual management centers are simultaneously transmitted to a common management center that converts the data related to the communication method into post-conversion data based on the communication specifications for each communication method commonly applied to each of the plurality of vending machines. and the common management center converts the data related to the communication method into post-conversion data based on the communication specifications corresponding to the communication method determined based on the communication method determination information transmitted from the vending machine, and transmitting the converted data to an individual management center as a connection destination determined based on the destination information of the communication parameters.

In the communication method for the vending machine system according to the second aspect of the present invention, as described above, the common management center sets the communication specifications for each communication method commonly applied to each of the plurality of vending machines. Based on this, the data regarding the communication method is converted into post-conversion data. As a result, when the post-conversion data is transmitted from the common management center to the individual management centers corresponding to the common communication method, the communication specifications for creating each post-conversion data can be shared. As a result, the number of communication specifications that can be handled by the common management center can be reduced compared to the case where each post-conversion data is created based on mutually different communication specifications, thereby simplifying the configuration of the common management center. can do. In addition, since it is not necessary to provide a data conversion function in each of the plurality of individual management centers, it is possible to suppress complication of the configuration of the individual management centers. To provide a communication method of a vending machine system capable of suppressing complication of the configuration of the vending machine system due to complication of the configuration of a common management center and an individual management center. can be done.

According to the present invention, as described above, it is possible to suppress the complication of the configuration of the vending machine system due to the complication of the configuration of the common management center and the individual management center.

1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a vending machine system according to one embodiment; FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a frame portion created in the data converter of the vending machine system according to one embodiment; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining post-conversion data created based on communication parameters in the data conversion unit of the vending machine system according to one embodiment; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining post-conversion data for HTTP (method: GET) created in the data conversion unit of the vending machine system according to one embodiment; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining post-conversion data for HTTP (method: POST) created in the data conversion unit of the vending machine system according to one embodiment; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining sequence information included in an FTP communication parameter body of the vending machine system according to one embodiment; 1 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of communication in a vending machine system according to one embodiment; FIG.

Embodiments embodying the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[This embodiment]
The configuration of the vending machine system 100 (communication method of the vending machine system 100) according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7. FIG.

(Configuration of vending machine system)
As shown in FIG. 1, the vending machine system 100 includes a vending machine 1a, a vending machine 1b, a vending machine 1c, and a vending machine 1d. The vending machine system 100 also includes an individual control center 2a, an individual control center 2b, an individual control center 2c, and an individual control center 2d.

Vending machines 1a to 1d are provided corresponding to individual control centers 2a to 2d, respectively. Specifically, for example, data relating to the vending machine 1a is transmitted and received between the vending machine 1a and the individual management center 2a. The data related to the vending machine 1a include the set temperature inside the vending machine 1a, the firmware used in the vending machine 1a, the product purchase history in the vending machine 1a, and the data for each functional unit of the vending machine 1a. Operation instructions and the like. Although the description has been made representatively for the vending machine 1a and the individual control center 2a, the same applies to the other vending machines (1b to 1d) and the individual control centers (2b to 2d).

The vending machine system 100 also includes a common control center 3 that relays data transmission/reception between the vending machines (1a-1d) and the individual control centers (2a-2d).

In this embodiment, each of vending machine 1a, vending machine 1b, vending machine 1c, and vending machine 1d and common control center 3 use a common communication method (for example, HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol ) is transmitting and receiving data.

On the other hand, it is assumed that data is transmitted and received between the individual management center 2a and the common management center 3 by TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). It is also assumed that the individual management center 2b and the common management center 3 transmit and receive data by HTTP. Further, it is assumed that data is transmitted and received between the individual management center 2c and the common management center 3 by FTP (File Transfer Protocol). It is also assumed that data is transmitted and received between the individual management center 2d and the common management center 3 using HTTP. In other words, the communication methods of the individual management center 2a, the individual management center 2b, the individual management center 2c, and the individual management center 2d are TCP, HTTP, FTP, and HTTP, respectively.

Here, the common management center 3 receives communication method determination information and communication parameters from each of the vending machines (1a-1d). The common control center 3 receives the communication method decision information and the communication parameters at the same time.

The communication method determination information includes communication method information. Specifically, for example, the communication method determination information transmitted from the vending machine 1a includes (directly ) contains the information shown. Since each of the vending machines 1b to 1d is similar to the vending machine 1a, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Further, the communication parameters include data (communication parameter body) relating to the communication method and destination information of the individual management center to be connected. Specifically, for example, the communication parameters from the vending machine 1a include a communication parameter body corresponding to TCP and destination information (communication parameter header) of the individual management center 2a. The communication parameters from the vending machines 1b to 1d are also the same as the communication parameters from the vending machine 1a, so a detailed description will be omitted. The data (communication parameter body) regarding the communication method will be described later in detail.

The common management center 3 includes a connection destination determination unit 3a, a communication method determination unit 3b, and a data conversion unit 3c. In the common management center 3, the functions of the connection destination determination unit 3a, the communication method determination unit 3b, and the data conversion unit 3c can be realized by software such as a program.

A connection destination determination unit 3a (common management center 3) analyzes communication parameters transmitted from vending machines (1a to 1d) and obtains destination information of individual management centers (2a to 2d) to be connected. . Specifically, the communication parameter includes the destination IP address of the individual management center (2a to 2d) to be connected. Note that the destination information may be information (such as a URL) that indirectly specifies the destination IP address. The connection destination determination unit 3a (common management center 3) acquires destination information of the individual management centers (2a to 2d) to be connected from the destination IP address of the communication parameters.

Here, in this embodiment, the communication parameter includes information for identifying a program that uses post-conversion data (described later) in the individual management center (2a to 2d) to be connected. Specifically, the communication parameters include the destination port number. Information for identifying a program that uses post-conversion data may be information that indirectly specifies a destination port number (communication method determination information, etc.). The connection destination determination unit 3a (common management center 3) acquires destination information of a program that uses post-conversion data in the individual management centers (2a to 2d) to be connected from the destination port number of the communication parameter. The programs of the individual management centers (2a-2d) are, for example, programs for collecting and analyzing sales information of vending machines (1a-1d).

Further, the communication method determination unit 3b (common control center 3) analyzes the communication method determination information transmitted from the vending machines (1a to 1d), Get method information. Specifically, for example, the communication method determination information from the vending machine 1a includes information that the communication method of the individual management center 2a is TCP. The communication parameters from vending machine 1b, vending machine 1c, and vending machine 1d contain information indicating that the communication methods are HTTP, FTP, and HTTP, respectively.

In addition, the data conversion unit 3c (common management center 3), based on the communication method determined by the communication method determination unit 3b, transmits data (communication parameter body) regarding the communication method transmitted from the vending machines (1a to 1d). is configured to convert The data obtained by this conversion is hereinafter referred to as post-conversion data.

Here, the data conversion unit 3c performs data conversion based on communication specifications (corresponding to the communication method) for each communication method commonly applied to each of the vending machines (1a to 1d). there is Specifically, since the communication method corresponding to each of the individual management center 2b and the individual management center 2d is common to HTTP, post-conversion data to be transmitted to each of the individual management center 2b and the individual management center 2d is created. The communication specification used at this time is a common communication specification (hereinafter referred to as HTTP communication specification).

Further, the communication specifications used when creating the post-conversion data to be transmitted to each of the individual management centers 2a and 2c are the TCP communication specifications and the FTP communication specifications, respectively. That is, the data conversion unit 3c (common management center 3) converts data according to one of the TCP communication specifications, the HTTP communication specifications, and the FTP communication specifications.

Then, the common management center 3 is configured to transmit the post-conversion data to individual management centers (2a to 2d) as connection destinations determined based on the destination information of the communication parameters.

In addition, when the common control center 3 transmits communication parameters and the like from the vending machines (1a to 1d) to the individual control centers (2a to 2d), the communication method of the vending machine (1a to 1d) as the transmission source store the information of Then, when data (responses) are transmitted from the individual control centers (2a to 2d) to the vending machines (1a to 1d), the common control center 3 performs the communication of the stored vending machines (1a to 1d). Information such as the method is referred to, and data conversion (inverse conversion) is performed so as to correspond to each vending machine (1a to 1d).

When the communication method determination information and communication parameters are simultaneously transmitted from each of the vending machines (1a to 1d) to the common control center 3, the above data conversion processing may be performed in order of priority set in advance. OK, or you can do both at the same time. Also, the transmission timing of the communication method determination information and the communication parameters from each vending machine (1a to 1d) may be set so as to be shifted.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the data conversion unit 3c creates a frame portion, which is the framework of the post-conversion data, based on the communication specifications corresponding to the communication method determined based on the communication method determination information. It is configured. That is, the data converter 3c is configured to be able to create a TCP frame portion, an HTTP frame portion, and an FTP frame portion. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2A, when the communication method determined based on the communication method determination information is TCP, the data converter 3c creates a TCP frame portion. As shown in FIG. 2(b), when the communication method determined based on the communication method determination information is HTTP, the data converter 3c creates an HTTP frame portion. As shown in FIG. 2(c), when the communication method determined based on the communication method determination information is FTP, the data converter 3c creates an FTP frame portion. That is, if the communication method of the post-conversion data (individual management center to be connected) is common, the common frame portion is created by the data conversion section 3c. It should be noted that the frame portion means a data model portion used to create post-conversion data.

Here, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the data converter 3c converts the data (communication parameter body) related to the communication method of the communication parameters transmitted from the vending machines (1a to 1d) to the data converter 3c. 3c to create post-conversion data.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3(a), the data conversion unit 3c creates post-conversion data for TCP by applying the communication parameter body for TCP to the frame portion for TCP. Further, as shown in FIG. 3B, the data conversion unit 3c creates post-conversion data for HTTP by applying the communication parameter body for HTTP to the frame portion for HTTP. Further, as shown in FIG. 3(c), the data conversion unit 3c creates post-conversion data for FTP by applying the communication parameter body for FTP to the frame portion for FTP.

Next, the data (communication parameter body) regarding the communication method will be specifically described.

As an example, the HTTP communication parameter body will be described with reference to FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the communication parameter body includes information of method=GET (a command to acquire data from the server) and URL=http://samplecenter/test. In this case, the information contained in the communication parameter body (the information enclosed by the dashed line) is applied to the HTTP frame portion (other than the portion enclosed by the dashed line in FIG. 4) created by the data converter 3c. As a result, post-conversion data for HTTP is created by the data conversion unit 3c.

In addition, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the data (communication parameter body) regarding the communication method of the communication parameters includes data format information. Based on the data format contained in the communication parameter body, the data conversion unit 3c is configured to create post-conversion data to be transmitted to the individual management center (2a to 2d) to be connected. Specifically, in the example of FIG. 5, the HTTP communication parameter body includes method=POST (a command for registering data in the server), URL=http://samplecenter/test, data format=json, body={ "param1":"data1" "param2":"data2"} information is included. In this case, the information included in the communication parameter body (the information enclosed by the dashed line) is applied to the HTTP frame portion (other than the portion enclosed by the dashed line in FIG. 5) created by the data converter 3c. As a result, post-conversion data for HTTP whose data format is json is created by the data conversion unit 3c. Note that the data format may be XML. Further, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, even with a common communication method (HTTP), different frame portions are provided for each command (for example, GET and POST). This makes it possible to create post-conversion data corresponding to various commands using the frame portion.

Further, the data (communication parameter body) relating to the communication method of the communication parameters includes sequence information which is the procedure of operation instructions for the individual control centers (2a to 2d). The common management center 3 is configured to perform data communication with individual management centers (2a to 2d) as connection destinations according to a procedure based on the sequence information. As an example, the sequence information included in the FTP communication parameter body will be described with reference to FIG.

In the example shown in FIG. 6, in the FTP communication parameter body, first execute "USER: 'admin'" and then execute "PASS: 'pass'" for the individual management center (2c). and finally "RETR:"file. txt”” is included. That is, in the FTP communication parameter body, after logging in to the individual management center (2c) with a user name of admin, a password of pass is set, and finally, the password stored in the individual management center (2c) is set. file. txt contains sequence information for obtaining data (file).

The TCP communication parameter body includes, for example, data "0123456789ABCDEF". The data included in the TCP communication parameter body means the data itself such as setting values of vending machines, for example. In addition, the TCP communication parameter body may include sequence information such as handshake (communication rate, data format, and other agreements before different devices exchange data).

Next, a communication method in vending machine system 100 will be described with reference to FIG.

First, in step S1, each of the vending machines (1a to 1d) transmits communication method determination information and communication parameters to the common control center 3. FIG.

Next, in step S2, the common management center 3 (communication method determination unit 3b) selects a communication method to be used for communication with the individual management centers (2a to 2d) based on the communication method determination information transmitted in step S1. to decide. At this time, the common management center 3 (connection destination determination unit 3a) determines the individual management centers (2a to 2d) to be connected based on the communication parameters (communication parameter header) transmitted in step S1. .

Next, in step S3, the common control center 3 (data conversion unit 3c) converts the data (communication parameter body) related to the communication method included in the communication parameters by the communication specifications based on the communication method determined in step S2. Convert to post data.

Then, in step S4, the common management center 3 transmits the post-conversion data created in step S3 to the individual management centers (2a to 2d) determined in step S2. Specifically, the created post-conversion data is added with a TCP header containing the destination port number information contained in the communication parameter header and an IP header containing the destination IP address information. (2a-2d). The converted data transmitted to the individual management centers (2a to 2d) further includes an Ethernet (registered trademark) header containing information on the physical address of the individual management center (2a to 2d) to be connected, and a communication An Ethernet trailer is added to check for errors that occur during

[Effect of this embodiment]
The following effects can be obtained in this embodiment.

In this embodiment, as described above, the common management center 3 performs communication based on the communication specifications corresponding to the communication method determined based on the communication method determination information transmitted from the vending machines (1a to 1d). Data regarding the method (communication parameter body) is converted into post-conversion data by the data conversion unit 3c. Then, the vending machine system 100 is configured so that the common management center 3 transmits the post-conversion data to the individual management centers (2a to 2d) as connection destinations determined based on the destination information of the communication parameters. . As a result, when the post-conversion data is transmitted from the common management center 3 to the individual management centers (2a to 2d) corresponding to the common communication method, the communication specifications for creating each post-conversion data are made common. be able to. As a result, the number of communication specifications that can be handled by the common management center 3 can be reduced compared to the case where each post-conversion data is created based on mutually different communication specifications. can be simplified. In addition, since it is not necessary to provide a data conversion function in each of the plurality of individual management centers (2a-2d), it is possible to suppress the complication of the configuration of each of the individual management centers (2a-2d). As a result, it is possible to prevent the configuration of the vending machine system 100 from becoming complicated due to the configuration of the common management center 3 and the individual management centers (2a to 2d) becoming complicated.

Further, in the present embodiment, as described above, the data conversion unit 3c uses the frame part (HTTP frame part for FTP, frame part for TCP, frame part for TCP). Then, the data conversion unit 3c converts the data regarding the communication method of the communication parameters transmitted from the vending machines (1a to 1d) into the frame portions (HTTP frame portion, FTP frame portion, The vending machine system 100 is configured so as to create post-conversion data by applying it to the TCP frame portion). As a result, by simply applying the data related to the communication method to the frame portion (HTTP frame portion, FTP frame portion, TCP frame portion) created based on the communication specifications corresponding to each communication method, it is possible to support each communication method. After-conversion data can be easily created.

Further, in the present embodiment, as described above, the communication parameters include information for identifying the program in which the post-conversion data is used in the individual management center (2a to 2d) to be connected. A machine system 100 is configured. As a result, the common management center 3 can easily acquire information on programs to be used by the individual management centers (2a to 2d) based on the communication parameters.

Further, in the present embodiment, as described above, the data (communication parameter body) relating to the communication method of the communication parameters includes sequence information that is the procedure of operation instructions for the individual control centers (2a to 2d), and the common control center 3 configures the vending machine system 100 so as to perform data communication with individual control centers (2a to 2d) to be connected according to the procedure based on the sequence information. Thereby, the common management center 3 can easily perform communication based on the sequence information included in the communication parameters.

Further, in the present embodiment, as described above, the data (communication parameter body) regarding the communication method of the communication parameter includes data format information, and the data conversion unit 3c becomes the connection destination based on the data format. The vending machine system 100 is configured to create post-conversion data to be sent to individual management centers (2a-2d). Thereby, the data converter 3c can easily perform communication based on the data format information included in the communication parameter.

Further, in the present embodiment, as described above, the communication method of the vending machine system 100 is such that each of the plurality of vending machines (1a to 1d) transmits the communication method determination information and the communication parameters to the plurality of vending machines. (1a to 1d) is transmitted to the common management center 3 based on the communication specifications for each communication method commonly applied to each of them. Further, the communication method of the vending machine system 100 is based on the communication specifications corresponding to the communication method determined by the common control center 3 based on the communication method determination information transmitted from the vending machines (1a to 1d). , converts the data (communication parameter body) related to the communication method into post-conversion data, and transmits the post-conversion data to the individual management center (2a-2d) as the connection destination determined based on the destination information of the communication parameters. Have a step. As a result, when the post-conversion data is transmitted from the common management center 3 to the individual management centers (2a to 2d) corresponding to the common communication method, the communication specifications for creating each post-conversion data are made common. be able to. As a result, the number of communication specifications that can be handled by the common management center 3 can be reduced compared to the case where each post-conversion data is created based on mutually different communication specifications. can be simplified. Moreover, since it is not necessary to provide a data conversion function in each of the plurality of individual management centers (2a to 2d), it is possible to prevent the configuration of the individual management centers (2a to 2d) from becoming complicated. Thus, a vending machine system capable of suppressing complication of the configuration of the vending machine system 100 due to complication of the configurations of the common management center 3 and the individual management centers (2a to 2d). 100 communication methods can be provided.

[Variation]
It should be noted that the embodiments disclosed this time should be considered as examples and not restrictive in all respects. The scope of the present invention is indicated by the scope of the claims rather than the description of the above-described embodiments, and includes all modifications (modifications) within the meaning and scope equivalent to the scope of the claims.

For example, in the above embodiment, an example was shown in which the communication method decision information and the communication parameters were simultaneously transmitted from the vending machines (1a to 1d) to the common management center 3, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the communication parameters may be transmitted after the communication system determination information notifies the common management center 3 of the post-conversion communication system.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the communication method determination information includes information directly indicating the type of communication method such as HTTP, TCP, and FTP. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Absent. For example, the communication method determination information includes sequence information corresponding to HTTP (TCP, FTP), and the common control center 3 identifies the communication method based on the sequence information described in the communication method determination information. may

Further, in the above-described embodiment, an example was shown in which the individual management center 2a, the individual management centers 2b and 2d, and the individual management center 2c correspond to different communication methods, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the individual management centers 2a-2d may correspond to a common communication method.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the vending machines 1a to 1d are exemplified as compatible with a common communication system, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the vending machines 1a-1d may support different communication methods.

Further, in the above embodiment, an example in which four vending machines and four individual management centers are provided has been shown, but the present invention is not limited to this. The number of vending machines and individual control centers to be provided is not limited to four, as long as a plurality of each are provided.

1a, 1b, 1c, 1d vending machine 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d individual control center 3 common control center 3c data converter 100 vending machine system

Claims (6)

multiple vending machines;
a plurality of individual management centers that transmit and receive data related to the vending machines to and from the corresponding vending machines and are provided corresponding to any one of a plurality of communication methods;
From each of the plurality of vending machines, communication method determination information including communication method information of the corresponding individual management center among the plurality of individual management centers , data format information, and operation to the individual management center simultaneously receiving data relating to the communication method of the individual management center including at least one piece of sequence information as an instruction procedure and communication parameters including destination information of the individual management center to be connected to; a common management center including a data conversion unit that converts data related to the communication method into post-conversion data based on communication specifications for each communication method commonly applied to each of the vending machines;
The common management center converts the data related to the communication method by the data conversion unit based on the communication specifications corresponding to the communication method determined based on the communication method determination information transmitted from the vending machine. A vending machine system configured to convert the converted data into data and transmit the converted data to the individual management center as a connection destination determined based on the destination information of the communication parameters. The data conversion unit creates a frame portion, which is a framework of the post-conversion data, based on communication specifications corresponding to the communication method determined based on the communication method determination information, and transmits the data from the vending machine. 2. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the post-conversion data is created by applying the data relating to the communication method of the communication parameter obtained from the communication parameter to the frame portion created by the data conversion unit. system. 3. The vending machine system according to claim 1, wherein said communication parameter includes information for identifying a program in which said post-conversion data is used in said individual management center as a connection destination. the data relating to the communication method of the communication parameter includes the sequence information, which is a procedure for instructing operations to the individual management center;
4. The automated system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said common management center is configured to perform data communication with said individual management center as a connection destination according to a procedure based on said sequence information. vending machine system. the data related to the communication method of the communication parameter includes information on the data format;
5. The data conversion unit according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the data conversion unit is configured to create the post-conversion data to be transmitted to the individual management center as a connection destination based on the data format. vending machine system. A communication method in which each of a plurality of vending machines includes information on a communication method of a corresponding individual control center among a plurality of individual control centers provided corresponding to one of a plurality of communication methods. data relating to the communication method of the individual control center including at least one of decision information, data format information, and sequence information that is a sequence of operation instructions to the individual control center ; Data relating to the vending machine is transmitted/received to/from the corresponding vending machine, and communication parameters including destination information of the individual control center to be connected among the plurality of individual control centers are set to the Simultaneously transmitting data related to the communication method to a common management center that converts data after conversion based on communication specifications for each communication method commonly applied to each of a plurality of vending machines;
The common management center converts data related to the communication method into the post-conversion data based on communication specifications corresponding to the communication method determined based on the communication method determination information transmitted from the vending machine. and transmitting the post-conversion data to the individual management center as a connection destination determined based on the destination information of the communication parameters.

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