JPH04156697A - Automatic cooking sale system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently perform an appropriate operation corresponding to status by controlling each means based on a schedule stored in a schedule storage part, and carrying and cooking goods. CONSTITUTION:When money or a card is inserted from a throw-in port and the goods is designated by a goods designation key group 9, thrown in amount and a goods price are displayed. Simultaneously, an order content is sent to a central processing unit 6, and is stored in an order storage part 19. At this time, a schedule generating part 21 refers to the content of the storage part 19, the required operating time of each means stored in a data storage part 20, the cooking procedure of the goods, the information of a rule for schedule generation, and the working status of the whole system supplied from a system control part 23f. Thereby, the procedure and the schedule time of the operation for cooking/carrying of ordered goods are generated. In such a way, a system in which a generated schedule is checked again, and it can be corrected, and the appropriate operation can be performed corresponding to the status can be obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to an automatic cooking and sales system used for unmanned sales in restaurants, fast food shops, and the like.

(b) Conventional technology In general, vending machines for processed foods such as soft drinks, hamburgers, and pizza pies have already been developed and put into practical use. It is set up as follows. The customer can receive the product by inserting currency or a prepaid card into a vending machine for the desired food and selecting the desired product. However, with such vending machines, the types of products that can be sold are limited, and the quality of the products is not necessarily satisfactory.

On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-105993 proposes an automatic cooking and sales system in which a robot cooks, transports, and delivers ordered products.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the conventional example, customer orders are processed in order, so for example, when multiple orders are placed in succession, the product of one order is cooked. While the food is being cooked by the heating means, other processing cannot be performed until the cooking is completed, and therefore, other means such as the delivery means and conveyance means of the system must be operated during that time. This was not possible and was inefficient in terms of time.

The present invention can increase time efficiency when multiple consecutive orders are placed, and can also reduce efficiency loss due to a failure of a part of the equipment. The present invention provides an automatic cooking and sales system that operates appropriately depending on the situation.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems The automatic cooking and selling system of the present invention includes a storage means for storing products, an order receiving means for receiving customer orders, a cooking means for cooking the products, and a delivery means for delivering the cooked products. a delivery means for transporting the product from the storage means to the cooking means and the delivery means; and a control means for controlling the operation of each of the means, and the control means controls the contents of the order by the order receiving means. an order storage unit that stores the order storage unit; a schedule creation unit that creates a schedule for operations such as cooking and transporting the ordered products based on information such as the stored content of the order storage unit and the required operation time of each of the units; and each of the units. an abnormality detection unit that detects an abnormality in the order receiving unit; a schedule update unit that cancels the schedule created by the schedule creation unit and creates a new schedule according to the order status of the order receiving means and the detection result of the abnormality detection unit; The present invention is characterized by comprising a schedule storage unit that stores the schedule created by the creation unit and the schedule update unit, and a main control unit that controls each of the means based on the schedule stored in the schedule storage unit.

(e) Operation When the order receiving means receives an order from a customer, the contents of the order are stored in the order storage section, and the schedule preparation section prepares a schedule for the operations of the cooking means, conveyance means, etc. Then, according to the schedule, the main control section performs control, and the conveyance means conveys the product from the storage means to the cooking means, and cooking is performed.

When a new order is placed after the previous order, or when a failure occurs in a part of the operating equipment, the scheduling section stores the order storage section that stores both the previous order and the subsequent order. The schedule stored in the schedule storage section is reviewed by referring to the stored contents. If it is possible to create a more efficient schedule overall, the schedule update unit cancels the previously created schedule and creates a new more efficient schedule. Therefore, the entire system will operate properly according to its schedule.

(F) Embodiment The automatic food preparation and sales system of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings with regard to an example of an unmanned fast food food preparation and sales store.

1 is a storage device as a storage means for storing food products and their ingredients; 2 is an order receiving device as an order receiving means for receiving orders from customers and transmitting them to a control means to be described later; and 3 is a device for cooking products under the control of the control means. cooking equipment as a means of cooking;
Reference numeral 4 denotes a sales device as a delivery means for delivering cooked products to customers; 5 a mobile robot as a transport means for transporting products from the storage device 1 to the cooking device 3 and the sales device 4; and 6 the operation of each of the above-mentioned means. This is a central processing unit that acts as a controller stage.

The order receiving device 2 settles the payment according to the customer's order, issues an order card displaying a menu, and transmits the details of the order to the control device, and as shown in FIG. input lower, input amount display section 8, product specification key group 9, specified product price display section 10, waiting time display section 11, execution confirmation key 12, cancellation confirmation key 13, prepaid card return slot 14, A change outlet 15, an out-of-change display section 16, and a sales discontinuation display section 16 are attached to the front panel.

The cooking device 3 is used to cook products as needed, and includes two microwave ovens 3a and 3b, a gas oven 3c, and the like.

The vending device 4 is comprised of a counter, where customers who place orders wait for the completion of cooking.

The mobile robot 5 moves on a movement path 17 formed by arranging magnetic guide wires in an annular shape under the floor so as to pass near the storage device 1 , the cooking device 3 , and the vending device 4 .
Under this control, the products are transported from the storage device 1 to the cooking device 3 and the vending device 4.

Reference numeral 18 denotes a tray delivery device held by the mobile robot 5.

As shown in FIG. 1, the central processing unit @ 6 includes an order storage unit 19 that stores the order details input by the order receiving device 2, the required operating time of each of the above-mentioned means, cooking procedures for each product, and preparation of a cooking schedule. Based on the data storage unit 20 that stores information such as rules, the system timer 24 that outputs time information, the order storage unit 19, the information stored in the data storage unit 20, and the time information that the system timer 24 outputs. , a schedule creation unit 21 that creates and calculates operation procedures and scheduled times for operations such as cooking and transporting ordered products, cancels the created procedures and schedules as necessary, and creates new schedules; A schedule storage unit 22 stores created and calculated procedures and scheduled times, and determines whether or not the stored scheduled times have arrived; It is comprised of a main control section 23 that determines the availability and controls each of the above-mentioned means according to the schedule.

For example, when a new order is placed after a previous order, the schedule creation unit 21 refers to the stored contents of the order storage unit 19 that stores both the previous order and the subsequent order, and updates the schedule storage unit 2
The schedule storage unit 22 can also be used to review the schedule stored in the schedule storage unit 22, or when a failure occurs in a part of the operating device.
Review the schedule that has been memorized. Then, if necessary, if it is possible to create a more efficient schedule overall, the previously created schedule is canceled and a new more efficient schedule is created. In other words, this schedule creation section 21
is looking for the schedule update section.

The schedule storage unit 22 is an individual schedule storage unit 2 that individually stores operation schedules for the storage device 1, the cooking device 3, the vending device 4, the mobile robot 5, and the delivery device 18, respectively.
2a to 22e; on the other hand, the main control unit 23 includes a storage device 1, a cooking device 3, a vending device 4, a mobile robot 5,
The individual main controllers 23a to 23e individually control the operations of the sending devices 18, and the individual main controllers 23a to 23e exchange control status information with each other to grasp the operating status of the entire system. The system controller 23f provides the information. For example, when the cooking device 3 is composed of multiple devices such as two microwave ovens 3a and 3b, and a gas oven 30, the schedule storage section 22 and the main control section 23 are individually configured for each device. It is set up to correspond to.

The operation will be explained below.

First, when the customer inserts currency or a prepaid card into the input slot and specifies one of the products 1 to 9 using the product specification key group 9, the input amount and product price are displayed on the display section 8 and the price display section 10. Is displayed. At the same time, the order details, that is, the data of the specified product, are sent to the central processing unit 6.
The order is stored in the order storage section 19.

At this time, the schedule creation unit 21 stores the order details stored in the order storage unit 19, the required operation time of each means stored in the data storage unit 2o, the cooking procedure for each product, and the rules for creating a cooking schedule. Based on such information and the operational status of the entire system given from the system control unit 23f, the procedure and scheduled time for operations such as cooking and transporting the ordered products are created by arithmetic processing. FIG. 4(a) shows the cooking procedure for pizza pie A, which is an example of what will be prepared here. The operation execution start data calculation unit 25 calculates the operation start time, required time, and total cooking time of each means according to this cooking procedure. time,
In calculating the time, specifically, the time when the mobile robot 5 starts transporting the ordered product from the storage device 1 to the cooking device 3 and the time required for it (procedure numbers AOI to AO7)
, calculate the time required for cooking in the cooking device 3 (procedure number AO8) and the time required for the mobile robot 5 to transport the cooked product from the cooking device 3 to the vending device 4 (procedure numbers AO9 to A12). , and then add them to calculate the waiting time required until the product is ready. The schedule creation unit 21 displays the calculated waiting time on the waiting time display unit 11 after the schedule creation is completed. At this time, the customer is asked whether to execute or cancel the order by displaying the waiting time and other characters or synthesized speech by a speech synthesizer (not shown).

If the customer does not approve of the displayed waiting time and instructs cancellation by operating the cancellation confirmation key 13, the order receiving device 2 initializes the contents of the order storage section 19, etc., returns the payment, and, on the other hand, cancels the reservation. The creation unit 21 cancels the created schedule.

The customer approves the displayed waiting time and presses the execution confirmation key 1.
2 to instruct the execution, the schedule creation unit 21 divides the created schedule shown in FIG. 4(a) and the scheduled start time of each operation for each means and device, and divides them into the schedule shown in FIG. 4(b). ) is sent to the individual schedule storage units 22a to 22e for each means and device and stored therein.

Here, if there is no other order, each individual main control unit 2
3a to 23e exchange information with the system control unit 23f to monitor the overall system status, and are controlled by the cooking procedures for each means stored in the individual schedule storage units 22a to 22e. The cooking is performed by controlling the operations of the storage device 1, cooking device 3, vending device 4, mobile robot 5, and delivery device 18. Each of the schedule storage units 22 is
It has a judgment function that inputs time information sent from the system timer 24 and judges whether the input current time coincides with the scheduled operation start time. When the current time coincides with the scheduled operation start time, the schedule storage unit 22 sends a time matching signal to the corresponding main control unit 23. The main control unit 23 has a determination function that determines whether the cooking procedure execution start conditions shown in FIG. 4(a) are satisfied. However, upon receiving this time coincidence signal, the main control unit 23 further determines whether or not the execution start conditions for the cooking procedure are satisfied, and determines whether or not each means can operate according to the stored procedure. to decide. Then, when the cooking procedure execution start conditions are satisfied, the main control unit 23 performs corresponding means,
Controls the operation of the device and executes cooking. In this embodiment, the schedule storage section 22 and the main control section 23 are configured by individual schedule storage sections 22a to 22e for each controlled object and individual main control sections 23a to 23e for each controlled object, respectively. Each controlled object can be controlled individually and simultaneously in parallel. Therefore, an abnormality in a part of the system has less influence on the whole system, and safety is high. Furthermore, it is relatively easy to change part of the system depending on the scale of the unmanned store.

A case will now be described in which an order for pizza pie B is placed following the order for pizza pie A described above.

Although the cooking procedure for pizza pie B is not shown here, it is expressed by the same content as the cooking procedure for pizza pie A shown in FIG. 4(a), with procedure numbers BOI to B12 attached.

When an order for pizza pie B is placed following an order for pizza pie A, the order for pizza pie B is additionally stored in the order storage section 19 that has already stored the order for pizza pie A.

In such cases, it may be possible to create a more efficient cooking schedule overall if you recreate the cooking schedule by including the previously ordered and memorized cooking schedule when creating the cooking schedule for additional orders. be.

However, at this time, the schedule creation section 21 checks both orders stored in the order storage section 19 and determines whether a more efficient cooking procedure can be created for both orders. For example, in this case, the cooking device 3
It is determined whether a more efficient cooking procedure can be created based on the rule of minimizing the time during which the mobile robot 5 is not operating. That is, the schedule creation unit 21 also serves as a schedule update unit, and the schedule storage unit 2 that has already been created according to the operating status of the entire system.
The system has a determining section that reviews the schedules stored in 2 and determines whether or not to cancel the schedule and create a new schedule, and a creating section that actually creates the schedule based on the determination.

In this case, a more efficient cooking procedure (
(see Figure 5) can be created.

During the cooking of pizza pie A, from when the mobile robot 5 transports the pizza pie A to the first microwave oven 3a of the cooking device 3 and starts heating it until the time when the heating is finished and the pizza pie A is taken out (i.e. execution of step number AO8). (middle), in the cooking procedure for pizza pie B, the operation (procedure number BOI-BO8) of transporting pizza pie B from the storage device 1 to the second microwave oven 3b of the cooking device 3 by the mobile robot 5 and starting heating is performed. Do it at the same time.

By the time you start heating pizza pie B, heating of pizza pie A will have finished, so you can finish heating pizza pie B between the time you start heating pizza pie B and the time you finish heating it and take it out (that is, while executing step number BO8). At the same time, the mobile robot 5 carries out the operation (procedure numbers AO8-2 to A11) of transporting the pizza pie A from the first microwave oven 3a to the vending machine @4.

Note that cooking procedures AO8-2 and BO3-2 are for moving the mobile robot 5 to the microwave oven.

In this case, the cooking procedure shown in Figure 5 is better for pizza pie A.
Compared to the cooking procedure in which the cooking of pizza pie B is started after all the cooking of pizza pie B is completed, it is possible to complete the cooking of both pizza pie B more efficiently and in a shorter time as a whole. Therefore, in this case, the schedule creation unit 21 stores the schedule that has already been created and the schedule storage unit 2
The schedule stored in 2 is canceled and the schedule shown in FIG.
A new more efficient schedule is created again, the new schedule is stored in the schedule storage section 22, and cooking is started based on the new schedule. Here, cooking steps AO8-2, BO8
-2 step needs to be added, but step number AO7
If it is possible to finish executing procedure numbers BO1 to BO7 between and AO9, and it is possible to finish executing procedure numbers AO8-2 and A09 to All between procedure numbers BO7 and BO9, then both The actual time required for cooking is shorter than the cooking procedure in which cooking of pizza pie B begins after pizza pie A has been completely cooked.

In addition to rules for improving efficiency, such as minimizing the time during which the mobile robot 5 is not operating while the cooking device 3 is in operation, the rules for creating a cooking schedule include There may also be considerations for customer sentiment, such as ensuring that the product is not ready before the product is finished, or that the waiting time is not exceeded as previously approved by the customer.

Now, let us consider a case where the microwave oven 3a breaks down during the cooking operation of pizza pies A and H according to the schedule. For example, assume that the microwave oven 3a breaks down at the stage when the mobile robot 5 puts pizza pie A into the microwave oven 3a (time 10:02:00 in FIG. 5). The occurrence of such a failure is reported from the individual main control section 23b corresponding to the microwave oven 3a to the system control section 23f, and the system control section 23f transmits the information to the schedule preparation section 21. That is, the main control section 23
serves as the abnormality detection section. In such a case, if the cooking of pizza pie A is stopped just because the microwave oven 3a is out of order, it will not be possible to sell it, which will reduce sales efficiency and cause inconvenience to customers. Therefore, upon receiving such failure information, the schedule creation unit 21 reviews the previously created schedule. Here, the schedule creation unit 21 reviews the schedule stored in the schedule storage unit 22 while monitoring the operating status of each means and device. Then, the previously created schedule is canceled and a new, more efficient schedule is created. That is, in this case, the time is 10:02:0
0, the mobile robot 5 has already started the transport operation for cooking pizza pie B, so the schedule creation unit 21 starts the last step of cooking pizza pie B (as shown in FIG. 6).
Step No. B11) Create a procedure and scheduled time to newly execute cooking of pizza pie A using the microwave oven 3b after the completion of the procedure. Then, the created procedure and scheduled time are sent to the schedule storage section 22 to be stored, and cooking continues.

In this case, if it was known early on that the microwave oven 3a would be broken, a procedure could be created so that pizza pie A, which was ordered earlier, would be cooked before pizza pie B. . In addition, if a malfunction occurs in the microwave oven 3a for some reason, the individual control unit 23b can notify the system control unit 23f of the failure.
If the mobile robot 5 is unable to convey the message to the sales bag N4 from the microwave oven 3a at 10:05:00 according to the schedule shown in FIG. 2). However, step number A
Since the execution start condition of O8-2, ``end of heating operation execution'', is not met, the individual main control unit 23d corresponding to the mobile robot 5 determines that step number A08-2 cannot be executed, and the microwave oven It is determined that a failure has occurred in 3a. Such judgment is communicated to the system control unit 23f,
A new schedule is created by the schedule creation unit 21. In this case as well, the main control section 23 also serves as an abnormality detection section.

In addition, reviewing the cooking schedule you have created is not necessarily done only when multiple orders are placed or when a malfunction occurs.
For example, when it is determined that the cooking in progress has failed, a new schedule may be created to repeat the same cooking, as appropriate.

(g) Effects of the invention According to the present invention, the created schedule is reviewed as necessary, and if it is possible to create a more efficient schedule overall, the previously created schedule is canceled. Since a new appropriate schedule is created based on the information provided, it is possible to provide an automatic cooking and sales system that operates appropriately depending on the situation, such as increasing time efficiency.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a control block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a schematic plan view of the system, Figure 3 is a front view of the order receiving device, Figure 4 is a schematic diagram showing the cooking procedure and its memory state, and Figures 5 and 6 are the schedule memory. It is a schematic diagram which shows the storage state of the cooking procedure and scheduled time in a part. ■...Storage device, 2...Order receiving device, 3...Cooking device, 4...Vending device, 5...Mobile robot (transport means), 6...Central processing unit, i9...・Order storage unit,
21... Schedule creation section (schedule update section), 22... Schedule storage section, 23... Main control section (abnormality detection section).

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A storage means for storing products, an order receiving means for receiving orders from a customer, a cooking means for cooking the products, a delivery means for delivering the cooked products, and a delivery means for transferring the products from the storage means to the cooking means and the It consists of a conveying means for conveying to the delivery means, and a control means for controlling the operation of each of the above means, and the control means includes an order storage section for storing the contents of the order by the order receiving means, and the storage contents of the order storage section. a schedule creation unit that creates a schedule for operations such as cooking and transportation of ordered products based on information such as required operation time of each of the means; an abnormality detection unit that detects abnormalities in each of the means; and an order status of the order receiving means. and a schedule update unit that cancels the schedule created by the schedule creation unit and creates a new schedule according to the detection result of the abnormality detection unit, and a schedule that stores the schedule created by the schedule creation unit and the schedule update unit. An automatic cooking and sales system comprising: a storage section; and a main control section that controls each of the means based on the schedule stored in the schedule storage section.