JPH09297889A - Controller of cup type vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically perform rinsing and drying in an optimum time zone at all times without requiring administrator's trouble. SOLUTION: Sales are predicted on the basis of sale data and on the basis of the sale predicted value, the rinsing start time of an extraction device 4, a wipper 20, etc., and the drying start time of a storage tank 12 are automatically determined. Then those start times are so determined that the rinsing and drying are carried out in a predicted time zone of the least sales.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a controller for a cup-type vending machine which sells coffee made from powdered raw materials, cocoa, regular coffee extracted from ground beans, syrup beverages made from syrup raw materials, and the like. It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of cup type automatic vending machine, in order to maintain a good hygiene condition, the beverage brewing device, the brewing device, the inside of the liquid feeding pipe, etc. are regularly rinsed.
I am trying to do it. Also, in the case of regular coffee extracted from ground beans for sale, it is equipped with a storage tank to store the coffee extracted in advance so that it can be sold quickly even during concentrated sales hours. However, in such a vending machine, it is necessary to dry the storage tank once a day for 2 hours or more.

The autorinse sets a start time so that the autorinse is automatically performed at a time when the vending machine is not used, such as at night. It takes about 1 hour to perform once, and is performed 1 to 3 times a week. During rinsing work, sales of all products are stopped.

Further, the drying of the storage tank is also performed automatically at a time when the vending machine is not used, such as at night, as in the case of rinsing. One drying time is a minimum of 2 hours, it is performed once a day, and regular coffee sales are stopped during the drying period.

As a conventional document relating to such a control device for a cup type vending machine, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
There is a publication 6-176265 (G07F 13/06).

[0006]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional technique, the usage situation of the vending machine varies depending on the location, season, etc., and the administrator sets the start time one by one in consideration of them. There was a problem that it took a lot of time. In addition, it is not always possible to set the optimum time zone, and if rinsing and drying are performed in an inappropriate time zone,
During that time, there was also a problem that sales were restricted and sales opportunities were reduced.

An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem and to make it possible to always perform rinsing and drying automatically in an optimum time zone without the trouble of an administrator. It is a thing.

[0008]

In order to solve the above problems, in the control device for a cup type vending machine of the present invention, the rinse start time or the drying start time of the storage tank is automatically determined based on the sales data. I decided. In addition, the sales forecast is made based on the sales data, and the start time is determined so that the rinse or the drying is performed in the time period when the sales are predicted to be the smallest.

Further, the starting time is set to be different from the previous time.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a cup type vending machine. In FIG. 1, 8 is a filter, 9 is a storage tank, and 18 is an addition guide. It should be noted that coffee beans containers 1 and 2 contain beans of different types.

A predetermined amount of coffee beans taken out from the coffee bean container 1 (or 2) is ground by a mill 3 and dropped on a filter 8 of an extracting device 4. In this state, the hot water supply valve 6 is opened, hot water is poured from the hot water tank 5, steamed while being stirred in the extracting device 4, and then coffee is extracted. When supplying it to the cup 21, the supply valve 11 is opened and put in the whipper 20, and further sugar or cream is added to the whipper 20 from the sugar container 17 or the cream container 16 as needed, and then the cup is cooled. 21.

On the other hand, when sending the extracted coffee to the storage tank, the storage valve 10 is opened and the coffee is sent to the storage tank 12. The coffee stored in the storage tank 12 is sent to the whipper 20 by opening the supply valve 14. In addition, when a certain period of time has passed after the storage in the storage tank 12, the discard valve 15 is opened and the old coffee is discarded in the waste container 22. Pressure sensor 13
Detects the pressure at the bottom of the storage tank 12 to detect the remaining amount of coffee in the storage tank 12.

The extraction device 4 has the ability to extract a plurality of cups at a time, and when storing in the storage tank 12, the extraction capacity can be maximized to improve the storage efficiency. On the other hand, the coffee extracted directly into the cup 21
For example, when it is supplied to the container, it can be extracted one by one.

Although not shown, the vending machine includes a sales forecasting means. The sales predicting means predicts what kind of coffee and what kind of coffee will be sold at what time on the next day based on the past sales data.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control device of the cup type vending machine. The main control device 30 has a CPU (not shown), a memory 31 including a ROM and a RAM, and a clock circuit 32, and controls terminal control devices such as a sales control device 34 and a coin processing device 35 in an integrated manner. To do. Memory 31
Holds sales data showing the sales status for a certain period in the past, and holds the sales forecast value for the day calculated based on the sales data and the rinse start time and drying start time determined using the forecast value. It is supposed to do. The calculation of the sales forecast value and the determination of the rinse start time and the drying start time are processed in the main controller 30.

In such a cup type vending machine,
When the rinse start time arrives, main controller 30 displays all sold-outs, stops selling, and causes sales controller 34 to perform a rinse. Upon receipt of the rinse start instruction, the sales control device 34 opens the water supply valve 24 to inject water from the cistern 23 into the hot water tank 5, and the hot water tank 5 boils it. At the same time, the water supply valve 25 is opened to wash the pipe for sending water for dilution from the cistern 23 to the whipper 20. After that, when the hot water in the hot water tank 5 boils,
The hot water supply valve 6 is opened to allow hot water to flow, and the equipment from the extraction device 4 to the whipper 20 and the pipes connecting them are washed. Next, open the hot water supply valve 7 and the whipper 20
The pipe and the whipper 20 that connect to and are washed. After these operations are completed, the sale is stopped for a certain period of time for drying.

At the time when the drying of the storage tank 12 is started, the hot water supply valve 26 is opened and the hot water tank 5 is moved to the storage tank 1.
The storage tank 12 is washed by pouring hot water into it, and when it is finished, the supply valve 14 and the waste valve 15 are opened and the pipes connected thereunder are washed. Storage tank 12 for the next 2 hours
The product using the storage tank 12 is stopped for drying. Meanwhile, during that time, other products can be sold.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the predicted value calculation process. This processing is executed every day at a predetermined time, for example, at midnight. Step 1 ... It is determined whether or not the clock circuit 32 indicates 0:00. Step 2: The pointer is moved to the beginning of the data on the day before one of the sales data stored in the memory 31.

Step 3 ... It is determined whether or not the day indicated by the pointer is a weekday. Step 4: If it is a weekday, set the number of cups sold on that day to 0.
From 0:00 to 23:59, add up in 5 minute units, 28
Eight pieces of data (24 hours / 5 minutes) are created and added to the sales time zone buffers provided corresponding to them. Step 5 ... If it is a holiday in Step 3, the data is written in the holiday sales time zone buffer. There are 2 holidays
If there are more than one day, write the average value for each time period.

Step 6 ... Move the pointer to the next day. Step 7 ... It is determined whether or not the day pointed by the pointer is the day when this process is being executed. Step 8: On the execution day, it means that the sales data for the last one week has been aggregated in the sales time zone buffer for each time zone of 5 minutes. Therefore, the value of the buffer is calculated for each time zone. The average value is calculated by dividing by the added number of days, and these are set in the memory 31 as sales forecast values.

In the present invention, the following processing is performed using the sales forecast value thus obtained. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the rinse start time determination process. This process
The processing is started at a preset processing start time, for example, midnight.

Step 1 ... It is determined whether or not this day is the day before the day of the week preset as the day for rinsing. Step 2 ... On the day before that, out of the sales forecast values stored in the memory 31 in units of 5 minutes, first, the data for the rinse work required time (for example, 1 hour) is aggregated from 0:00. The first data is created, and then the data for the rinse work required time is aggregated from 0:05 to create the second data. In the same manner, while sequentially shifting by 5 minutes each, 288 pieces of data are aggregated and stored in the memory 3
Hold in the buffer in 1.

Step 3: The counter is set to 0. Step 4: The head data of the above 288 data is held as a temporary minimum data.

Step 5 ... Increment the counter. Step 6 ... It is determined whether or not the next data of the above 288 data is smaller than the held minimum data. Step 7 ... If the data is small, the time of the data and the predicted total number are held as the minimum data.

Step 8 ... It is judged whether or not the value of the counter has reached 288, and if it has not reached 288, Step 5
Return to Step 9: When the value of the counter reaches 288, it means that all the data have been compared, so the time held as the minimum data at that time is set in the memory 31 as the rinse start time.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the drying start time determination process. This processing is also started at a preset processing start time, for example, at midnight. Step 1 ... It is determined whether or not the vending machine is a storage type vending machine having a storage tank, and if it is not the storage type vending machine, the process is not executed. Step 2 ... If it is a storage type vending machine, it is determined whether or not the storage tank has been used the day before, and if not, the process is not executed.

Step 3: If used, first of the sales forecast values stored in the memory 31 in units of 5 minutes,
The first data is created by aggregating data for 2 hours, which is the minimum drying time, from 0:00, and then the second data is created by aggregating data for 2 hours from 0:05. . In the same manner, while sequentially shifting by 5 minutes each, 288 pieces of data are created by aggregation and held in a buffer in the memory 31.

Step 4: The counter is set to 0. Step 5: The data at the head of the above 288 data is held as temporary minimum data.

Step 6 ... Increment the counter. Step 7 ... It is determined whether or not the next data of the above 288 data is smaller than the held minimum data. Step 8 ... If smaller, the time of the data and the predicted total number are held as the minimum data.

Step 9 ... It is judged whether or not the value of the counter has reached 288, and if not, step 5
Return to Step 10 ... When the value of the counter reaches 288, the time held as the minimum data at that time is set in the memory 31 as the drying start time.

In the above embodiment, once the rinsing start time and the drying start time are determined based on the sales forecast value, the rinsing and drying are performed thereafter during that time period, so that the sales are surely restricted. Therefore, even if there are changes in the situation after that, and customers come to that time zone, it is not possible to sell during that time zone, and the sales forecast value remains low. As a result, sales opportunities are lost. Therefore, when the rinsing start time and the drying start time are next determined, the time period may be shifted such that the time period different from the previously determined time period is selected and determined. In addition, there are vending machines equipped with a human body sensor in order to detect people passing in front of the vending machine and determine whether it is a weekday or a holiday. The sensor data may be counted for each time zone and statistics may be obtained, and the time zone for rinsing or drying may be determined or shifted using the statistics.

Further, when the sale is stopped due to rinsing or drying, the vending machine lighting is turned off or dimmed to notify that the sale is stopped and to save electricity. Good. Further, during rinsing or drying, a message such as “rinsing”, “storage tank drying”, or the like may be displayed.

[0033]

As described above, according to the controller of the cup type vending machine of the present invention, the rinse start time and the drying start time are automatically determined based on the sales data. You can always perform cleaning and drying automatically at the optimum time without any trouble.

Further, if the sales forecast is made based on the sales data and the start time is determined so that the rinsing or drying is performed in the time period when the sales are expected to be the least, the sales will be affected. You can do those tasks without. Furthermore, by setting the start time of the rinse and drying to be different from the previous time, the rinse and drying will not be fixed in a certain time zone, and when there is a change in the time when the customer comes after that. Will be available.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 Schematic configuration diagram of a cup-type vending machine

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control device for a cup-type vending machine.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a predicted value calculation process.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of rinse start time determination processing.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a drying start time determination process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2 Coffee bean container 3 Mil 4 Extractor 5 Hot water tank 8 Filter 9 Storage tank 12 Storage tank 13 Pressure sensor 16 Cream container 17 Sugar container 18 Mix powder container 19 Addition guide 20 Whipper 21 Cup 22 Waste container

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A controller for a cup-type vending machine, which automatically determines a rinse start time or a storage tank dry start time based on sales data. 2. Sales forecast based on sales data,
The control device for a cup-type vending machine according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the start time is determined so that the rinsing or the drying is performed in a time period when the sale is expected to be the least. 3. The control device for a cup-type vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the start time is different from the previous time.