JP3820839B2 - Vending machine control method - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a control method for a vending machine, and more specifically, it is possible to quickly and surely perform the operation of delivering a product from a rack such as a conveyor rack or a spiral rack to the bucket. It relates to vending machines that can be seen through.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, vending machines that can inspire customers to purchase products and view the products in the warehouse and their sales operations have been provided. As such a vending machine, there is known a vending machine provided with a conveyor rack or a spiral rack configured to convey a stored product by a conveyor or a spiral and to pay out to a bucket for conveyance to a product outlet.
[0003]
Further, the bucket is formed so as to be movable on the coordinate plane by an XY transport mechanism in which the front surface of the rack is an XY coordinate plane, and is accommodated with sensor means for detecting a product paid out from the rack. And a conveyor mechanism for carrying out the products to the product outlet.
[0004]
The product paid out by the rack is accommodated in a bucket. And after the accommodation of goods is detected with the said sensor means, a bucket is conveyed by the XY conveyance mechanism to a goods taking-out opening, and the said goods are carried out to the said goods taking-out outlet by operating the conveyor mechanism.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the spiral racks, conveyor racks, and pusher racks are suitable for selling similar products with the same shape and size, but are not suitable for selling a wide variety of products. There was a problem. Accordingly, the applicant of the present application has provided a vending machine equipped with a hanging rack that can sell a wide variety of products (Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-034253, Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-034254, etc.).
[0006]
A wide variety of products accommodated by such a hanging rack have various height dimensions, and it has been desired to provide a bucket position control method awaiting below the product to be delivered.
[0007]
This invention is made in view of the above, Comprising: It aims at providing the control method of the vending machine which can control the optimal goods accommodation position of a bucket according to the height dimension of goods.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above-described object, the control method of the vending machine according to the present invention is such that an XY transport mechanism is placed at a swinging portion of the hook in order to store a product dispensed by the hook swinging device in the bucket. After moving and adjusting the position of the XY transport mechanism based on the height information of the product hung on the hook, the product is paid out. Thereby, a bucket can be arrange | positioned in the optimal goods accommodation position, and quick and reliable goods accommodation and carrying out can be performed.
[0009]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of a control method for a vending machine according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited to the embodiments.
[0010]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part of a vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control operation of the vending machine, and FIG. 3 is a front view schematically showing the vending machine. 4 is a perspective view showing a state in which an outer door of the vending machine is opened, FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an XY transport mechanism, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a main part of a hanging rack. is there.
[0011]
First, the overall configuration of the vending machine will be described with reference to FIGS. The main body case 1 stores and stores products and carries them out as necessary. The main body case 1 includes an outer door 2 having a transparent plate 2a and an inner door 3 having a transparent plate 3a so as to be freely opened and closed. . The main body case 1 includes two hanging racks 4 on the upper inner wall surface 1a, and a spiral rack 5 and a conveyor rack 6 below the suspension rack 4. The spiral rack 5 and the conveyor rack 6 are supported by a rack support plate 1b provided in the main body case 1, and are configured so that the installation positions can be changed from each other.
[0012]
Inside the inner door 3, an XY transport mechanism 7 is provided in which the front surfaces of the racks 4, 5, and 6 are XY coordinate planes. As shown in FIG. 5, the XY transport mechanism 7 includes an X-axis transport unit (referred to as X mechanism in FIG. 1) 7a that moves in the horizontal direction with respect to the racks 4, 5, and 6, and a vertical direction. And a Y-axis transport unit (referred to as Y mechanism in FIG. 1) 7b. The X-axis transport unit 7a is provided with a bucket 8 that receives a product. This bucket 8 is fixed to a timing belt 9 and is driven by an X-axis motor 11 via a speed reduction mechanism 10. Further, the bucket 8 is provided with an opening for receiving products from the racks 4, 5, 6, and the bottom surface of the bucket 8 conveys the products to the product outlet 17 via the delivery door 16 ( (Not shown) is provided.
[0013]
The Y-axis transport unit 7b includes a rail unit 12 that slides and supports the X-axis transport unit 7a, a rotary shaft 13 that passes over the top of the rail unit 12, and a Y-axis motor 14 that rotates the rotary shaft 13. Have. The X-axis transport unit 7 a is fixed to the timing belt 15 and is driven up and down by the Y-axis motor 14. The X-axis motor 11 and the Y-axis motor 14 are controlled by a mechanical control unit 86.
[0014]
In addition, on the front surface of the outer door 2, a numeric keypad 18 for selecting a product, a display 19, a bill insertion slot 20, a coin insertion slot 21, a coin return lever 22, a coin return slot 23, and a purchase desired product are confirmed. A suspension rack rotation button 24 for moving the commodity in the suspension rack 4, a commodity outlet 17 communicating with the carry-out door 16, and the like are provided. On the other hand, on the back surface of the outer door 2, a bill validator (not shown) for identifying and storing an inserted bill, a coin processing mechanism 25 for identifying and storing a coin, a cash box 26 for collecting coins, and a main control described later. A keyboard 27 for performing an input operation to the unit 80 is provided.
[0015]
Next, the hanging rack 4 will be described. The hanging rack 4 includes a main body having a substantially trapezoidal planar shape, a sprocket rotatably disposed at the four corners of the main body, an endless chain 34 that rotates along the periphery of the main body by the sprocket, and a sprocket. A chain driving mechanism that applies a driving force to rotate the chain 34 forward and backward, a hook 38 that is detachably and swingably arranged at a predetermined pitch with respect to the chain 34, and suspends the product, and the hook 38 And a hook swing mechanism that swings the product to drop the product. The contact plate 38d of the hook 38 is formed so that the posture of the product is stabilized and the product information can be displayed, and the projecting piece 38e is formed so that the jumping state of the hook 38 can be detected by a sensor (see FIG. 6). .
[0016]
A control block diagram of the vending machine configured as described above is as shown in FIG. In the figure, the members already described are given the same reference numerals. The main control unit 80 is for controlling the entire vending machine in addition to the mechanical control unit 86 based on various data (for example, height data of each product) input through the keyboard 27.
[0017]
The mechanism control unit 86 controls the hanging rack 4, the X mechanism 7 a, the Y mechanism 7 b, and the bucket 8 based on the transmission data from the main control unit 80. Control information (for example, address counts Xc and Yc for each column number, product height correction Yh, etc.) from the mechanical control unit 86 can be stored in the memory means.
[0018]
A stop position detection sensor 90 provided in the Y-axis transport unit (referred to as Y mechanism in FIG. 1) 7b is for detecting a count number for stopping the output of the motor 14, and is a stop position. The confirmation sensor 91 is for determining whether or not the position of the Y mechanism 7b is correct when the output of the motor 14 is stopped.
[0019]
Next, a method for controlling the bucket 8 will be described with reference to FIG. First, the XY transport mechanism 7 is moved to the lower part of the hanging rack 4 (the swinging position of the hook 38) (step S10). Then, the chain 34 of the hanging rack 4 is rotated, and the corresponding hook 38 is moved to the swinging position (step S11). Next, the product is paid out to the bucket (catcher mechanism) 8 (step S12). Since the paid-out merchandise is stored in the bucket 8, the bucket 8 is moved to the merchandise take-out port 17 by the XY transport mechanism 7 (step S13), and the merchandise is paid out (step S14). (Step S15).
[0020]
In the operation of the XY transport mechanism 7 in step S10, the position of the Y mechanism 7b is corrected by the pre-input product height data (step S20). That is, as shown in the table in the figure, a count number based on the height correction of the product is obtained for each column and set to the count number of the corresponding column (step S21). Then, the output of the motor 14 is turned on (step S22), and it is determined whether or not there is an input from the stop position detection sensor 90 (step S23). If there is such an input, the output of the motor 14 is turned off (step S25), and a standby state is set (step S26).
[0021]
As described above, according to the control method of the vending machine according to this embodiment, the bucket 8 can be arranged at the optimal product accommodation position by controlling the Y-axis motor 14 according to the height dimension of the product. , Can store and carry out products quickly and reliably.
[0022]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the control method of the vending machine according to the present invention, the XY transport mechanism is moved to the swinging portion of the hook in order to store the product dispensed by the hook swinging device in the bucket. And after adjusting the position of the XY transport mechanism based on the height information of the product hung on the hook, the product is paid out, so the bucket is placed at the optimum product storage position. It is possible to store and carry out products quickly and reliably.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part of a vending machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control operation of the vending machine.
FIG. 3 is a front view schematically showing a vending machine.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a state in which the outer door of the vending machine is opened.
FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an XY transport mechanism.
FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a main part of a hanging rack.
[Explanation of symbols]
4 Hanging rack 7 XY transport mechanism 7a X-axis transport unit 7b Y-axis transport unit 8 Bucket G Product 27 Keyboard 80 Main control unit 86 Mechanical control unit 90 Stop position detection sensor 91 Stop position confirmation sensor

Claims (1)

An endless carrier that swingably holds a hook for hanging a product; and
A carrier driving device for driving the carrier;
The carrier is swinging any hook held in the hook rocking device for dropping the product hung,
A hanging rack with
A bucket for storing the paid-out goods;
An XY transport mechanism that transports the bucket formed to be movable with the front surface of the suspension rack as an XY coordinate plane;
In the control method of the vending machine equipped with
Based on the height information of the product hung on the hook, the XY transport mechanism is moved to the swinging location of the hook in order to store the product paid out by the hook swing device in the bucket. A control method for a vending machine, wherein the product is paid out after adjusting the position of the XY transport mechanism.

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