KR20230106804A - Robot for ordering and serving - Google Patents

Abstract

The robot capable of ordering and serving according to the inventors of the present invention is a robot that combines ordering and serving, enables ordering and payment, easily moves the ordered contents to the customer's seat through a tray, and signals completion when the ordering customer takes the order contents. is created to return to the charging position and wait. In the case of large stores, when ordering and serving robots are used, profits are maximized by reducing labor costs in large stores, and unnecessary friction with customers and service quality problems are resolved, resulting in an overall unmanned store. And it enables the operation and management of a single-person store.

Description

Robot for ordering and serving

The present invention relates to a robot capable of ordering and serving, and more particularly, to a robot that combines ordering and serving, enabling ordering and payment, and enabling easy movement of ordered contents to the customer's seat through a tray, , It relates to an ordering and serving robot that generates a completion signal when a customer who has placed an order takes the order contents and returns to the charging position to wait.

In general, a serving robot is provided with means such as a moving means, a gripping means capable of picking up or putting down an object, a photographing means for capturing an external image, and a display means for outputting an image screen to provide a service to a user. .

However, the development performance of a serving robot that is optimized enough to provide services in areas such as restaurants is insignificant. Application fields that require complex tasks such as serving drinks, welcoming guests in the area, avoiding obstacles, and stably transporting food and beverages can be said to be less developed.

Since the function of existing serving robots is limited, they are not configured to be specialized enough to serve in restaurants, and thus serving robots are not commercialized.

Conventional serving robots are generally designed so that a display means for outputting a video screen is fixed to the front, and the user may bend his or her head in line with the fixed screen of the display means configured in such a serving robot, or There is a problem in that the inconvenience of having to move to the front is derived.

On the other hand, in the case of service companies such as restaurants, they need employees hired to entertain customers, and are conducting various training programs for their employees to provide the most friendly service to customers in order to secure regular customers competitively.

However, even with such education, there are cases in which the customer is dissatisfied because the employee does not respond appropriately depending on the customer reception situation. It is possible, but no such means has been provided yet, and if information such as customer taste or previous selection menu is actively utilized, it is possible to provide a more suitable recommendation menu to customers, but to build a customer management system for this purpose It is a reality that over-operation cannot be effectively operated due to the lack of familiarity with the system and the lack of operating personnel.

In addition, due to the recent service response problem, the introduction of the 52-hour work week, and the minimum wage increase, the labor cost burden has been aggravated, so unmanned operation that does not employ employees is rapidly progressing. A kiosk, a system, is actively used by service companies.

However, in the case of services that provide food such as food or beverages that have been completed through cooking or processing, the development of unmanned technology is insufficient. The development of technology to enable service provision is continuously required, and the development of intelligent robot technology is actively progressing for various reasons such as substituting labor costs, responding to aging, enhancing industrial competitiveness, and strengthening national defense. is used in general industries such as medicine, agriculture, safety, and marine, but the development of serving robots for serving in restaurants is lagging behind.

For this reason, along with the development of autonomous driving or robot technology, mobile robots capable of moving on their own are widely known, and in particular, research is being actively conducted to serve food with serving robots in stores such as restaurants. In particular, serving robots The mobile robot drives along a predetermined path in the store instead of a person, or recognizes an obstacle on the driving path, loads a predetermined load (eg, cooked food), and serves customers.

Conventionally, a method in which a clerk loads food into a mobile robot and directly inputs table information for ordering the food, and the mobile robot serves the food according to the input information is mainly used. There is a problem that food can be served to a table other than the table, and in the case of a clerk, various information such as menu information or precautions can be delivered to customers. , order management, etc. still need to be directly managed by humans, which limits the efficiency of the introduction of mobile robots.

As described above, since conventional mobile robots can be operated with people such as customers and shop assistants, it is essential to operate them safely and stably. There is a problem of safety accidents due to the refusal to execute the corrupted program and the inability to automatically restore the factory-shipped program. There is a problem with not being able to keep it completely secure.

Therefore, by linking the ordering system of the store and the mobile robot, the mobile robot receives order information or payment information from the ordering system without the clerk directly entering the necessary information into the mobile robot and automatically performs serving operations. Technical ideas are required, and after the mobile robot arrives at the customer's table, it can deliver detailed information about the menu ordered by the customer if necessary, so that the quality of service can be improved stably without safety accidents due to the introduction of the mobile robot. A technical idea is required.

Republic of Korea Patent Publication No. 10-2020-0054476 Republic of Korea Patent Registration No. 10-1083700 Republic of Korea Patent Registration No. 10-2301734 Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2008-0008528

The present invention is a robot that combines ordering and serving, enabling ordering and payment, easily moving ordered contents to the customer's seat through a tray, and generating a completion signal when the ordering customer takes the order contents to the filling position. The purpose is to provide a robot capable of ordering and serving to return and wait.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to enable mutual interworking between the robot and the manager terminal or management server, so that ordering and serving robots are judged for execution and the value of using big data is increased due to the smooth transmission of information data. It is to provide a robot capable of ordering and serving.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to maximize profits by reducing labor costs in large stores when ordering and serving robots are used, and to operate unmanned stores and single-person stores as a whole by resolving unnecessary friction with customers and service quality problems. And to provide a robot capable of ordering and serving that enables management.

In order to achieve the above-described technical problem, the present invention provides a robot for ordering contents desired by a customer and serving the contents ordered by the customer to the customer's table, comprising: a main body having a certain size for ordering and serving; A touch monitor that allows customers to easily place an order, a payment module for paying for the contents ordered on one side of the touch monitor, and a manager or kitchen a main processing unit for controlling delivery of ordered contents to the customer's table, a tray for stably mounting and delivering the contents ordered by the customer to the customer's table in the middle of the main body; The lower part of the body is composed of a moving means that enables the movement of the contents ordered by the customer to the customer's table and back again.

Here, the angle of the touch monitor is adjustable so as to provide overall customer convenience so that the customer can place an order while sitting at a table or standing at the table.

In addition, the main body is provided with proximity sensors at upper and lower ends so that it can move while avoiding a fixed object or a moving object located inside the restaurant when moving.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the main processing unit is further provided with a safety reinforcement unit that rejects the execution of the corrupted program and automatically restores it to a factory-shipped program when a malicious program is altered due to an external factor by a hacker. It is done.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the main processing unit is provided with a communication unit, and the communication unit can use a communication network selected from LTE, 5G, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and the main processing unit and the manager or kitchen It is possible to interoperate using a communication network.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to order and pay with a robot that combines ordering and serving, easily moves the ordered contents to the customer's seat through a tray, and sends a completion signal when the ordering customer takes the order contents. Since ordering and serving robots can be used to maximize profits by reducing labor costs in large stores, unnecessary friction with customers and service quality problems can be resolved, enabling unmanned stores and There is an effect of enabling efficient operation and management of a one-person store.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, interworking between the robot and the manager terminal or management server may be possible, so the smooth transmission of information data increases the value of determining the execution of ordering and serving robots and utilizing big data. There is hyoga.

1 is a schematic configuration example for explaining an ordering and serving robot implemented by the present invention.

Advantages and features of the present invention, and methods of achieving them, will become clear with reference to the embodiments described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed below, but may be implemented in various different forms, and only these embodiments make the disclosure of the present invention complete, and common knowledge in the art to which the present invention belongs. It is provided to completely inform the person who has the scope of the invention, and the present invention is only defined by the scope of the claims.

The terms used in this specification will be briefly described, and the present invention will be described in detail.

The terms used in the present invention have been selected from general terms that are currently widely used as much as possible while considering the functions in the present invention, but these may vary depending on the intention of a person skilled in the art or precedent, the emergence of new technologies, and the like. In addition, in a specific case, there is also a term arbitrarily selected by the applicant, and in this case, the meaning will be described in detail in the description of the invention. Therefore, the term used in the present invention should be defined based on the meaning of the term and the overall content of the present invention, not simply the name of the term.

In the entire specification, when a part is said to 'include' a certain component, it means that it may further include other components, not excluding other components, unless otherwise stated, and the singular expression Includes plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention. In addition, in order to clearly describe the present invention in the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted, and in the description with reference to the accompanying drawings, the same components are assigned the same reference numerals regardless of reference numerals, and the overlapping Description will be omitted, and in the description of the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of a related known technology may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description will be omitted.

First, the present invention is a robot that allows a customer (restaurant customer or orderer) to order desired contents (eg, food, water, alcohol, toilet paper, etc.) and serves the contents ordered by the customer to the customer's table or table, This is a robot that performs ordering and serving at the same time and combines them together, and for this purpose, ordering and payment are possible, and the contents that have been ordered and paid are placed on a multi-layered plate and moved to the table or table of the ordering customer. When the content delivered from the robot is received, a serving completion signal is generated and the robot returns to the filling position.

Accordingly, referring to FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawing, the robot for ordering and serving is composed of a main body 10 having a certain shape and size.

Here, a touch monitor 20 is provided at the upper end of the main body 10, which allows customers to easily select and order a menu, which is the content. It is located at the upper part of the center with the height standard (installed at a height of about 90 cm from the ground) to order sitting on a dining table or table, and not only promotes user convenience, but also allows customers to adjust the angle of the touch monitor so that customers can sit conveniently and selectively. You can order or stand and order.

In addition, a payment module 30 is provided on one side of the touch monitor 20, which is used to pay for the ordered contents using a payment method such as a credit card or Samsung Pay, which is Transaction forgery / falsification prevention, SSL 128bit security system and Bluetooth interlocking, easy-to-carry semi-insert IC payment and detachable MS card reader such as card reader, credit card payment signature can be achieved through the touch monitor 20 It is possible through this, and when a customer requests a receipt for a paid fee, it is possible to output through the receipt printer 31.

Accordingly, the main processing device 40 is provided inside the main body 10, which controls the delivery of the contents of the order paid through the payment module 20 to the manager or the kitchen, and transfers the contents of the order to the customer's table or For this purpose, Android quad-core, 10.1-inch capacitive touch and communication are possible, and in particular, a function to automatically learn the surrounding environment is built-in, so that after closing, the table or table is moved and When the location is changed, it is possible to control to reset the changed table or table and aisle due to the 'place scan and confirmation' function.

In addition, one or two trays 50 are provided in the middle of the main body 10, which can stably mount the contents ordered by the customer and deliver them to the customer's dining table or table, or the customer can empty the bowl. It is possible to seat the back, and for this, the weight can be up to 20kg at a time, and the inner space of the tray is secured by 28cm, so that a tall water bottle or beverage can be seated.

In addition, a moving means 60 is provided at the lower end of the main body 10, which is to facilitate the movement of the main body 10 constituting the robot, that is, the contents ordered by the customer went to the customer's table or table. It is for free movement so that it can give and return, and it is driven by installing a DC motor and battery, and when a customer calls at a table or table, a sensor is mounted on the call button, so the main body 10 is a means of transportation in front of the call button. It is possible to move through (60).

Accordingly, a plurality of proximity sensors (not shown) are provided at appropriate positions on the top and bottom of the main body 10, which avoid fixed or moving objects located inside the restaurant when moving through the moving means 60. As something that can move, it is implemented and made possible by SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Map-Building, Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) based on multi-sensors such as LiDAR, High Performance RGBD, and IMU.

In this way, according to the present invention, the order (payment processing) information completed through the touch monitor 20 and the payment module 30 is sent and output to a manager or a printer installed in the kitchen through a communication network, and the food is served in the kitchen according to the order. When this is completed, the ordering and serving robot is called, the food, which is the contents of the order, is placed on the tray 50 provided in the main body 10 of the robot, and after checking the table or table (checking the table number), the robot departs. At this time, when it moves to the table or the call button on the table and arrives, the order history is displayed on the touch monitor 20 or the table number and ordered food are announced by voice, and the customer who ordered is placed on the tray 50. When you take the food that has been seated, it will move to the original position after detecting the existing weight and wait to receive the next order.

Therefore, briefly explaining the ordering and delivery process using the ordering and serving robot according to the present invention, the ordering and serving robot first scans a place such as a corresponding restaurant and stores information.

(when ordering)

The customer calls the ordering and serving robot through the call bell at the table or table, the called robot moves to the corresponding table or table, and when the order and payment (card and pay) are completed through the robot's touch monitor, the internal communication network is The order information is delivered to the manager or the kitchen through the order information, and the order information is output to the kitchen printer so that the order information can be checked, and then the robot moves to the waiting seat and waits.

(on delivery)

Call the ordering and serving robot from the kitchen, place the ordered food on the tray, enter the table or table number (table number) of the customer who ordered through the touch monitor and move it to the corresponding location, and when it arrives, place the order through the touch monitor Displays the details or guides order information by voice, and after the ordering customer puts down all the food on the tray, touches 'Delivery Complete' through the touch monitor or detects the existing self-weight, then moves to the original position, waiting for the next You will be waiting to receive your order.

The main processing unit 40 is provided with a safety reinforcement unit (not shown), which rejects the execution of the altered program and converts it automatically into a factory-shipped program when a malicious program is altered due to an external factor such as a hacker. It is executed to restore, in particular, to prevent the alteration of the control signal driven through the main processing unit 40, and to safely maintain security.

In addition, the control signal driving for the main processing unit 40 and the execution of the safety reinforcement unit can be implemented in an operating system (OS) such as embedded Linux and at the same time in a real-time operating system (RT-OS), , It is made to make common applications written in JAVA, etc., compatible with each other regardless of the type of hardware or manufacturer by dividing it into application and middleware.

In addition, a separate communication unit (not shown) may be provided in the main processing unit 40, and communication of the communication unit may use a communication network selected from LTE, 5G, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, and the main processing unit Communication between (40) and the manager's terminal, kitchen or management server can also be linked using the communication network.

Here, since mutual interworking is possible between the main processing device 40 and the manager terminal or management server, smooth transmission of information data increases the value of determining the execution of ordering and serving robots and utilizing big data. that can be given

In addition, when ordering and serving robots are used, profits can be maximized by reducing labor costs in the case of large stores, and unnecessary friction with customers and service quality problems can be resolved, making it easier to operate and manage unmanned stores and single-person stores as a whole. it can be possible

The above description is merely an example of the technical idea of the present invention, and various modifications and variations can be made to those skilled in the art without departing from the essential qualities of the present invention. Therefore, the embodiments disclosed in the present invention are not intended to limit the technical idea of the present invention, but to explain, and the scope of the technical idea of the present invention is not limited by these embodiments. The protection scope of the present invention should be construed according to the claims below, and all technical ideas within the scope equivalent thereto should be construed as being included in the scope of the present invention.

10: body
20: touch monitor
30: payment module
31: receipt printer
40: main processing unit
50: tray
60: means of transportation

Claims (3)

A robot that orders the contents the customer wants and serves the contents ordered by the customer to the customer's table.
a main body having a certain size for ordering and serving;
a touch monitor on the top of the main body to enable customers to easily order;
On one side of the touch monitor, a payment module for paying for the ordered contents;
Inside the main body, a main processing device for controlling delivery of ordered contents paid through a payment module to a manager or a kitchen, and controlling delivery of ordered contents to a customer's table;
In the middle of the main body, a tray for stably mounting and delivering contents ordered by the customer to the customer's table; and
At the lower end of the main body, a moving means enabling the movement of the contents ordered by the customer to the customer's table and back again;
A robot capable of ordering and serving, characterized in that consisting of.
According to claim 1,
The touch monitor is a robot capable of ordering and serving, characterized in that the angle is adjustable to provide overall customer convenience so that the customer can order while sitting at the table and order while standing.
According to claim 1,
The robot capable of ordering and serving, characterized in that the main body is provided with proximity sensors at the upper and lower ends so that it can move while avoiding a fixed object or a movable object located inside the restaurant when moving.

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