KR0143384B1 - Managing system for automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

The plurality of vending machines 2 are managed by the controller 4 so that the controller 4 communicates with the central apparatuses 1 and 5 corresponding to the necessary managers, thereby enabling unified management.

When the IC card is inserted into the vending machine 2, the vending machine 2 inquires the personal authentication code stored in the IC card and the data of whether or not the card is stored in advance and determines whether to use the card. do.

If the card can be used, the sales operation according to the amount of money stored in the card is controlled to generate sales data according to the product sale at this time.

At the same time, the situation of the vending machine 2 is appropriately searched to create situation data.

The sales data and the situation data of each vending machine 2 are collected by the controller 4, and the controller 4 transmits the sales data to the first central device 1 and at the same time the second central device 5. Send sales data and status data.

On the other hand, the controller 4 transmits the data of the card usage from the first central apparatus 1 to the automatic judging machine 2, and the vending machine 2 transmits the card usage. Remember the data.

Description

Vending Machine Management System

1 is a block diagram of a vending machine management system according to the present invention.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the vending machine.

3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the vending machine side.

4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the controller.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

1: first central unit 2: vending machine

3: host computer 4: controller

5: 2nd Central Unit 6: Host Computer

7,8: modem 9: telephone line

10: Vending machine control unit 11: Vending machine body

12: Communication control unit 13: IC card reader

14: Memory

The present invention relates to a vending machine management system for centrally managing a plurality of vending machines, and more particularly, to centrally manage a vending machine that can purchase goods by inserting an IC card.

The sales form of the vending machine using a card has a so-called prepaid method called a prepaid type. As a transaction processing system, a structure using a magnetic card is known, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-246691.

By the way, the card is not limited to a magnetic card, but an IC card is also widely used.

In particular, in an intelligent building, a person who works in a building has an IC card that stores his / her own personal identification code, and enters and exits a specific workplace by using the IC card. Equipment such as a station can be operated, and goods can be purchased from a vending machine installed in a building using the same IC card.

However, from the standpoint of the person who manages the vending machine in the above system, in this case, there is an operator of the location of use of the building and an operator of the vending machine who sells the goods using the vending machine. To manage dually, the efficiency was bad.

Therefore, the present invention manages a plurality of vending machines as a controller, and enables the unitary management by communicating with the central apparatus corresponding to the manager who needs this controller.

In order to solve the above problems, a vending machine management system for centrally managing a plurality of vending machines of the present invention includes a controller, a first central device and a plurality of vending machines for receiving data between the controller, and a controller. A second central device for transmitting data is provided, and each vending machine is based on the personal identification code stored in the IC card when an IC card having an area for storing the personal identification code and an area for storing the amount of money is inserted. Inspection means for determining whether the card is used or not, sales control means for controlling the sales operation according to the amount stored in the IC card if available, and sales of goods At the same time as the data is created, it has a data creation means for searching the situation of the vending machine and creating the situation data. Receive the card use data, the sales data and the state data of the vending machine, and receive the card use data and the sales data necessary for the discrimination operation of the inspection means with the first central apparatus. The second central apparatus includes a system for transmitting the sales data and the situation data.

When the IC card is inserted into the vending machine, the checking means determines whether the card is used by inquiring the personal recognition code stored in the IC card and the data of whether or not the card is previously stored.

Thus, if the card can be used, the sales control means controls the selling operation according to the amount of money stored in the card, and the data creating means creates the sales data according to the merchandise sales at this time.

In addition, the data creating means appropriately retrieves the situation of the vending machine to create the situation data.

The sales data and the situation data of each vending machine are collected as a controller so that the controller transmits the sales data to the first central device and the sales data and the situation data to the second central device.

On the other hand, the controller transmits this data to the vending machine when the data of the card usage is transmitted from the first central device, and the vending machine stores the data of the card usage.

EXAMPLE

An embodiment of a vending machine management system of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 is a configuration diagram of a vending machine management system. The vending machine management system includes a plurality of vending machines 2 arranged in a limited area, a controller 4 for centrally managing the vending machine 2, and a user of a use position. It consists of the 1st central apparatus 1 arrange | positioned at and the 2nd central apparatus 5 provided in the operator side.

Each vending machine 2 is connected to the controller 4 in a busline manner via a coaxial cable, and the controller 4 transmits data collected from each vending machine to each central unit 1, 5, The data transmitted from the central unit (1) (5) is transmitted to the vending machine (2).

The first central device 1 is provided with a host computer 3 integrating all devices (not shown) including the vending machine 2 operating by using an IC card in this limited area.

In the IC card, there is an area for storing the personal identification code of the person who owns it.Each device described above checks the personal identification code when the IC card is inserted to determine whether it is used, and when the authentication is obtained, the IC card is inserted. The device is ready for operation.

In addition, the IC card has an area for storing the amount of money. In the case of the vending machine 2, it is determined whether predetermined amount of money data is recorded in the amount of money area in advance with this authentication. The operation can be performed.

The first central apparatus 1 receives the sales data for the vending machine 2 via the controller 4, and simultaneously transmits the card usage data.

The second central apparatus 5 having the host computer 6 is generally installed at the operator's base away from the same area. Therefore, the distance between the controller 4 and the second central apparatus 5 is different. The telephone line 9 is connected to the telephone line 9 via the modem 7 and 8.

Each vending machine 2 transmits the sales data to the second central apparatus 5 by the communication between the controller 4 and the host computer 6.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the vending machine 2. The vending machine 2 includes a vending machine main body 11 including a product selection unit, a merchandise sales mechanism unit, a display unit, and the like. The vending machine control unit 10 and the communication control unit 12 for controlling the operation of the large.

The vending machine control unit 10 has functions of sales control means for controlling different sales operations to the amount of money stored in the IC card, and data creation means for creating sales data in accordance with the product sale of the vending machine.

In addition, the vending machine control unit 10 as the data creating means can search the situation of the vending machine and create the situation data.

Therefore, when the vending machine control unit 10 detects a failure of the vending machine main body 11, it causes the failure data storage unit 15 to store failure data indicating the details of the failure or the failure portion.

The communication control unit 12 is connected to the IC card reader writer 13, communicates data with the controller 4, and also permits or disables card use data transmitted from the first central device 1; The sales data transmitted from the vending machine control unit 10 is stored in the storage unit 14.

The data of the use of the card is, for example, an unrecognized personal recognition code, and the first central device 1 is stored in the accident card in order to prohibit the use of the card when the accident card is contacted. A personal identification code is sent to each vending machine (2).

Therefore, the communication control unit 12 has a function as a check means for determining whether the IC card is used or not, based on the above-described personal recognition code stored in the IC card when the IC card is inserted into the vending machine.

The operation of the vending machine management system of the above-mentioned structure is demonstrated by flowchart art.

The flowchart of FIG. 3 shows the operation of the vending machine 2 side. When the IC card is inserted into the IC card reader writer 13 after the initial setting 100 by the power supply "ON" (101), the communication control unit (12) determines whether card use is possible by inquiring the personal recognition code read by the IC card reader / writer 13 with the data of the storage unit 14 (102).

As a result of this determination, if authentication is obtained, the IC card reader 13 reads the amount data from the IC card (103), and the communication control unit 12 sends the amount data to the vending machine control unit 10 (104). .

The vending machine control unit 10 inquires of the amount of money sent and the selling price of the product to determine whether the sale is possible (105). If the sale is possible, the display unit of the vending machine main body 11 is controlled to turn on the marketable lamp. (106).

Thus, when the selection button of the vending machine main body 11 is pressed 107, the vending machine control unit 10 controls the vending machine main body 11 to send out the selected product (109).

When the vending machine control unit 10 determines that the sale is impossible, the vending machine control unit 10 next determines "ON" of the return switch installed in the vending machine main body 11 (108). Is controlled (113), and the return of the IC card is returned to the IC card reader writer (13).

That is, the card return operation 114 will be described later.

However, if the return switch is not "ON", the amount of money and the selling price of the product are inquired again.

Also, even if the selectable button is not pressed even if the product is available for sale, the " ON " of the return switch is discriminated, and when the " ON "

When the selling operation is finished because the selection button is pressed, the vending machine control unit 10 calculates the balance and sends it to the communication control unit 12 (110).

As a result, the IC card reader / writer 13 records the balance data on the IC card (111), and returns the IC card after recording.

In addition, the communication control unit 12 causes the storage unit 14 to store sales information that is simultaneously transmitted as sales data (112).

Thus, the vending machine control unit 10 determines whether the vending machine main body 11 has an abnormal situation such as failure or sold out of the product (115), and if there is an error, transmits the situation data to the controller 4. (116).

In addition, the situation data is not limited to the above, but there is also data indicating the operation state of the vending machine.

4 shows the operation of the controller 4, and after the initial setting 201 by the power source "ON", the invalid personal recognition code, which is the data of the card use or not, is sent from the host computer 3. When it comes back (202), it temporarily stores this (203), and transmits it to the communication control part 12 of each vending machine 2 (204).

Thereby, in each vending machine 2, the invalid personal recognition code transmitted to the memory | storage part 14 is memorize | stored.

Then, there is a request for aggregation of sales data from the host computer 3 (205), communication with the communication control unit 12 of the vending machine 2 is performed, and the sales data stored in the storage unit 14 is aggregated ( 206).

The sales data at this time is the variation data created by the vending machine control unit 10 at every sale. When the sales data from each vending machine 2 is stored, all the sales data are transmitted to the host computer 3 (207). ).

The controller 4 transmits the failure or sold-out situation data from the vending machine 2 to the host computer 6 of the second central device 5 via the telephone line 9 when the situation data of the failure or sold out is transmitted (208). (209).

The transmission of the situation data is not caused by the aggregation request from the host computer 3, but if there is a transmission from the vending machine 2, it is performed immediately in real time.

In addition, if there is a request for aggregation of sales data from the host computer 6 of the second central device 5 (210), the controller 4 makes a request for sending the sales data to each vending machine 2, and the storage unit 14 ) Is temporarily stored and then transmitted to the host computer 6 of the second central device 5 via the telephone line 9 (212).

The sales data transmitted from the second central device 5 to the host computer 6 need not necessarily be fluctuation data, and may be the total sales amount or the number of sales for each item of the product sold by each vending machine 2.

According to the vending machine management system described above, the sales data and the situation data of each vending machine 2 are collected by the controller 4, and at the same time the sales data are transmitted from the controller 4 to the first central device 1; The second central device 5 transmits the sales data and the situation data.

As a result, the operation state of each vending machine 2 in the management area can be grasped by the first central device 1, and the sales state of each vending machine 2 is controlled by the second central device 5. Since it can be grasped, it can be used for replenishment of goods and for billing of goods to users of the use location based on this data.

According to the present invention, since a system for managing sales using an IC card and a system for collecting sales time information of a vending machine are processed in one system, data can be effectively utilized and data can be efficiently collected.

Claims (1)

In the vending machine management system which centrally manages a plurality of vending machines, there is provided a controller 4, a first central device 1 and a plurality of vending machines 2 that transmit and receive data between the controller 4 and the vending machine. And a second central device 5 through which data is transmitted from the controller 4, and each vending machine has an IC card having an area for storing an individual recognition code and an area for storing an amount of money. Check means for discriminating whether or not the use is made based on the stored personal identification code, and if the use of the IC card is possible, sales for controlling the sales operation according to the amount stored in the IC card. And a control means and data creation means for creating sales data according to the merchandise sales and at the same time searching for the situation of the vending machine to create the situation data. The controller 4 has the car between the vending machine 2 and the car. Receive data on whether or not to use the card, sales data, and status data of the vending machine, and whether or not the card usage data and the sales data are required for the discriminating operation of the inspection means between the first central device 1; And a second central device (5) for transmitting the sales data and the situation data.