KR100275583B1 - Apparatus for discriminating kind of goods of vending machine and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method and an apparatus for discriminating kinds of articles stored in a vending machine by giving absolute positions to each column is provided to cut down a selling waiting time by searching only a column holding required articles. CONSTITUTION: The apparatus comprises a circular shaped loading device rotated by a motor for holding various kinds of articles in each column, numerous division areas of the device, an article judging device discriminating kinds of articles loaded in each column, a hole for recognizing a standard column that is formed at a fixed column, and a standard column recognition hole sensor sensing the column recognition hole that is a photosensor. The method includes the following steps of: (i) setting a fixed column as a standard column; (ii) giving absolute numbers to each column based on the standard column when there is a purchasing request from buyers and judging the kind of article in the specialized column and if articles are sold out before saving the information and selling the article; (iii) optionally searching specific columns holding articles corresponding to a purchasing request when there is other purchasing request from a next buyer and selling the article only if the articles are not sold out.

Description

Product type discrimination apparatus and method of vending machine

The present invention relates to a product type determination apparatus and method of a vending machine, and particularly, by indicating the number of the position where the product is loaded in a vending machine having a rotary product loading method, to facilitate the determination of the position of the product and the product type. The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for determining a product type of a vending machine suitable for reducing waiting time.

In general, a vending machine having a rotary product stacking system includes a disk having perforations formed in each column, and includes an optical sensor for recognizing the goods loaded on the disk having the perforations formed thereon. In such a configuration, in order to recognize and sell a specific product, the state change of two optical sensors is recognized as a kind of product, and it is determined whether the recognized product and the buyer's selected product are identical, and if they are identical, they are sold and not the same. If not, the disc was rotated to determine the product type of the next column, which will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and an apparatus and method for determining a product type of a conventional vending machine.

1 is a plan view and a front view of a product type discrimination apparatus of a conventional vending machine, which is rotated about a rotation axis as shown in the drawing, and has a disk 1 selectively formed at the periphery of each column divided by an arc of a specific area; ; It consists of optical sensors (2, 3) for detecting the perforations formed in each column of the disk (1) divided.

The operation of the product type determination device of the conventional vending machine configured as described above will be described below.

FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart of the product type discriminating apparatus of the conventional vending machine shown in FIG. 1, and as shown in FIG. 1, a disc rotating step of rotating the disc 1 one column at a request from the buyer; After the disk 1 rotates once per column, when the value detected by the optical sensors 2 and 3 for detecting the puncturing state of a specific column does not match the request of the buyer, the disk 1 is returned to the disk rotating step. A product determination step; A sold-out decision step of judging whether the goods of the column are sold out when the kind of the goods matches the goods requested by the buyer in the product judging step; A sale and settlement step in which the product is sold and settled and then terminated if it is not sold out in the sold out decision step; If the sold out is determined to be out of stock, the sold out counter is increased. If the sold out counter is not set, the disc is returned to the rotation stage. If the sold out counter is set, the sold out is displayed and the buyer's coin is returned. Out of stock counter determination step is made.

That is, when the first purchaser inserts a coin into the vending machine and presses a button of a specific product, the disc 1 rotates once per column. At this time, the type of the product is determined according to the state of the optical sensors 2 and 3 in the same manner as shown in FIG. One disk is divided into a total of 16 columns, and four types of products can be classified according to the state of the optical sensors 2 and 3.

Next, if the product loaded in the currently detected column is the product selected by the buyer, it is determined whether the product is sold out. If sold out, the sold out counter is increased, and the disk 1 is rotated again to find a column loaded with the same goods.

In this process, since there are 4 columns loaded with the same goods, when the counter count of the sold out counter reaches 4, it is determined that the goods are sold out and the coin returned by the buyer is returned and sold out is displayed.

In addition, if the specific product is not sold out, the product is sold.

However, as described above, the apparatus and method for determining a product type of a conventional vending machine determine the specific product type by a combination of a plurality of optical sensor states, so that the number of products that can be sold is determined according to the number of optical sensors. In addition to the problem of not easy diversification, each column must be checked in order to find a single product, and it is necessary to determine whether the product loaded on the column is sold out.

In view of the above problems, the present invention has an object to provide an apparatus and method for determining a product type of a vending machine that shortens the sales waiting time.

1 is a plan view and a front view of a product type determination device of a conventional vending machine.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a product type discrimination table recognized by FIG.

3 is an operational flowchart of FIG.

4 is a plan view and a front view of a product type determining apparatus of the present invention vending machine.

5 is a flowchart of an initialization operation of FIG. 4;

6 is a flowchart of the selling operation of FIG.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

1: disc 2, 3: optical sensor

4: Hall for reference column recognition 5: Optical sensor for reference recognition

The above object is circular loading means for rotating the goods by the motor and loading the goods in each of the plurality of divided columns; An apparatus for determining a product type of a vending machine comprising product determining means for determining a kind of goods loaded on each column of the loading means, the product type discriminating apparatus comprising: a reference column recognition hole formed in a specific column among the plurality of columns; And a reference column recognition hole detecting means for detecting the reference column recognition hole, and when power is supplied to the vending machine, a standard for setting a specific column as a reference column in a plurality of columns in which the circular stacking means is divided. Column setting step; When a buyer's purchase request is made, each column is specified by specifying an absolute number based on the reference column, and the type and quantity of goods loaded in the specified column are determined and stored and sold, and the next purchase is made by the buyer. If there is a demand, it selectively searches only the columns loaded with the goods that meet the purchaser's purchase request. If it is not sold out, the column is loaded with the goods that meets the buyer's demand. This is achieved by selectively searching, which will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 4 is a plan view and a front view of a product type discriminating apparatus of the vending machine of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 1, in the conventional configuration shown in Fig. 1, a reference column recognition hole 4 formed on a specific column edge of a disc is shown. And a reference recognition optical sensor 5 for sensing the reference column recognition hole 4.

The operation of the product type discriminating apparatus of the vending machine of the present invention having such a configuration will be described.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an initialization operation of the product type discriminating device of the vending machine of the present invention shown in FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 5, the disc 1 is rotated by a column in a process in which power is supplied to the vending machine and initialized. The reference column recognition hole 4 formed in the specific column is detected. At this time, the column number of the detected column is designated as 1 and waits for sale.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the present invention shown in FIG. 4. As shown in FIG. 4, when the buyer inserts a coin into the vending machine and presses a select button of a specific product, the current column number is displayed. A product type determining step of determining whether the type is the same; A column specification step of rotating the disc 1 one column by one and increasing the column number if it is determined that they are not the same in the product type determination step; A product comparison step of determining whether the column number and the type of the product are the same after the column specification step and returning to the column specification step if they are not the same; If the result of the comparison in the product comparison step is the same, it is determined that the column is out of stock, and if not sold out, sells the product and waits for sale again; If it is determined that it is out of stock in the out of stock determination step, it is determined whether all the specific products are out of stock, and if not out of stock, it returns to the column specification step, and if a specific product is out of stock, a coin is returned and sold out is displayed. Out of stock display step.

That is, when power is supplied to the first vending machine, the reference column recognition hole 4 formed in the disc 1 by the motor is searched through the reference recognition optical sensor 5. In this way, the column number provided with the reference column recognition hole 4 is recognized as 1, and the absolute position of each column is designated. In this way, the absolute number of each column becomes a kind of product, which makes it easier to find a product.

For example, the first column, which is a reference column, the fifth column located in the fourth direction in a specific direction from the column, the ninth column located in the eighth, and the thirteenth column located in the twelfth, are required to be purchased by the buyer. In the case of a product corresponding to, all the columns are not searched, and only the 1, 5, 9, 13 columns are searched to check whether or not it is out of stock. As such, when the confirmation of the sold out is completed, the information is stored. If the goods of the first column and the fifth column are out of stock, the next sale does not search for the first column and the fifth column, and moves directly to the ninth or thirteenth column to check whether it is out of stock. If you sell a product.

This process is to specify the reference column of the disk 1, and to specify by specifying a unique number in the column of the absolute position accordingly, will be described in more detail.

First, in the product type determination step, when the buyer inserts a coin into the vending machine and presses a selection button of a specific product, it is determined whether the current column number is the same as the type of the product sold.

Then, in the column specification step, if it is determined that they are not the same in the product type determination step, the disc 1 is rotated one column by one column, and the column number is increased and stored. In this way, the column number is increased.

Next, in the product comparison step, the product type of the buyer's purchase request is compared with the product type of the column, and if it is not the same, the disk 1 is rotated once per column by returning to the column specification step. Through this process, all kinds of goods loaded in a plurality of columns which are partitions of the disc 1 are specified, and a unique number of the column is specified.

Next, in the out of stock determination step, if the result of the comparison in the commodity comparison step is the same, it is determined whether the corresponding column is out of stock, and if the out of stock is out of stock, the corresponding product is sold and sold again. At this time, if it is determined that it is out of stock, it is determined whether all the specific products are sold out, and if not sold out, returning to the column specification step, specifying all the unsearched columns, and searching all columns, the specific products are all If sold out, the coin will be returned and sold out.

After all columns have been specified in the same way as described above, if there is a purchase request from another buyer, it is possible to determine whether the product is out of stock by selectively searching the columns loaded with the products requiring the purchase, without searching all the columns. For example, do not store and retrieve out of stock columns.

As described above, the present invention forms a reference column recognition hole in a specific column, and includes a sensing means for sensing the same, so that the reference column is formed on the specific column where the reference column recognition hole is formed as a reference position to all columns. After assigning an absolute position, by searching for the type of goods and whether or not to run out of stock, it is possible to selectively search only the columns specified in the subsequent sales process to sell the goods to reduce the product sales waiting time.

Claims (4)

Circular loading means which rotates by a motor and loads goods in each of a plurality of divided columns; An apparatus for determining a product type of a vending machine comprising product determining means for determining a kind of goods loaded on each column of the loading means, the product type discriminating apparatus comprising: a reference column recognition hole formed in a specific column among the plurality of columns; And a reference column recognizing hole detecting means for detecting the reference column recognizing hole. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the hall detecting means for recognizing the reference column is an optical sensor. A reference column setting step of setting a specific column as a reference column in a plurality of columns in which circular loading means are divided when power is supplied to the vending machine; When a buyer's purchase request is made, each column is specified by specifying an absolute number based on the reference column, and the type and quantity of goods loaded in the specified column are determined and stored and sold, and the next purchase is made by the buyer. If there is a request, the product type determination method of the vending machine, characterized in that it consists of a product selection and sales step of selling if the product that meets the purchase needs of the buyer selectively searches only columns loaded. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the product determining and selling step comprises: a product type determining step of determining whether a current column number is the same as the type of the selling product when the buyer inputs a coin into the vending machine and presses a selection button of a specific product; A column specification step of rotating the goods loading means one column by one and increasing the column number if it is determined that they are not the same in the product type determination step; A product comparison step of determining whether the column number and the type of the product are the same after the column specification step and returning to the column specification step if they are not the same; If the result of the comparison in the product comparison step is the same, it is determined that the column is out of stock, and if not sold out, sells the product and waits for sale again; If it is determined that it is out of stock in the out of stock determination step, it is determined whether all the specific products are out of stock, and if not out of stock, it returns to the column specification step, and if a specific product is out of stock, a coin is returned and sold out is displayed. Out of stock display step; After selling in the out of stock determination step, or displaying out of stock in the out of stock display step, if there is a purchase request from another buyer, selectively searching only the column on which the product meets the purchase request is loaded to determine whether it is out of stock. If it is not sold, the product type determination method of the vending machine, characterized in that consisting of a product sales step after the characterization to return to the sold out display step.