TW201941727A - Beverage production equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

A beverage production equipment includes a picking unit and a beverage production machine. The picking unit includes a robot arm and a control device. The control device is configured to receive an information and convert the information into an instruction corresponding to the message to control the robot arm. The beverage production machine has a beverage outlet. The robot arm is controlled by the instruction to perform a first gripping step to place a cup to a position under the beverage outlet and perform an operation step on the beverage production machine to produce a beverage into the cup.

Description

Beverage manufacturing equipment

The invention relates to a beverage manufacturing equipment.

Nowadays, more and more services are provided by convenience stores. In addition to general merchandise purchase, they also provide instant brewing services such as coffee, milk tea, and cocoa.

However, for a long time, many stores have faced difficulties in staffing. The reason is that if sufficient clerks are deployed to cope with the rush hours, then at other times, the surplus clerks will not only have nothing to do, but will also be a heavy burden on operations. Conversely, if fewer clerks are arranged, although personnel costs can be reduced, when the rush hour of the guests, the speed of checkout and operation of the machine may be too slow to meet the needs of customers, and the customer will be lost.

It can be seen that the above existing methods obviously still have inconveniences and defects, and need to be improved. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the related fields have made every effort to find a solution, but a suitable solution has not been developed for a long time.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a beverage manufacturing device is provided, which includes an extracting unit and a beverage brewing machine. The picking unit includes a robot arm and a control host. The robot arm is electrically connected to the control host. The control host is used for receiving a message and converting it into a command corresponding to the message to control the robot arm. The beverage brewing machine has a beverage outlet. The robotic arm performs a first grabbing step under the control of the instruction to place a cup under the beverage outlet, and performs an operation step on the beverage brewing machine to brew a beverage and fill the cup.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the beverage manufacturing equipment further includes a cup holder, and in the first grasping step, the robot arm grasps the cup from the cup holder and places it under the beverage outlet.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the message includes a size of the cup, so that the command corresponding to the message controls the robotic arm in the first grasping step, and the cup grasped from the cup holder is of the size.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the message includes a kind of drink, so that the robotic arm is controlled in the operation step according to the instruction of the message, and the drink brewed out is of the kind.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the beverage manufacturing equipment further includes a beverage extraction area, and after the beverage brewing machine brews the beverage, instructs the robot arm to perform a second grasping step to place the cup in the beverage extraction Area.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the message includes one quantity of the drink, so that the robotic arm is controlled to perform an additional first grasping step, an additional operation step, and an additional second grasping step until the brewing is completed according to the instruction of the message. Drink the stated amount.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the beverage manufacturing equipment further The step includes a message transmission host having a communication link with the pick-up unit. The message transmitting host includes an input unit, a processor, and a storage device. After an order information is input through the input unit, the processor determines whether to send a message to the control host based on a rule stored in the storage device based on one of the order information.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the storage device stores a preset store number, a claimed list, and a preset number of days, and the rule includes (i) whether one of the store information in the content of the order information and the preset The store number is the same; (ii) whether one of the transaction serial numbers in the content of the order information is not included in the claimed list; and (iii) whether one of the transaction dates in the content of the order information is within a preset number of days. If the judgment results of rules (i), (ii), and (iii) are all yes, then a message is sent.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the input unit is a barcode scanner.

In some embodiments of the present invention, the content of the order information includes one type of drink, one number of drink, one size of cup, or a combination thereof.

The above description will be described in detail in the following embodiments, and further explanation will be provided for the technical solution of the present invention.

100‧‧‧beverage manufacturing equipment

110‧‧‧ Pick-up unit

111‧‧‧ robot arm

112‧‧‧Control Host

120‧‧‧Drinking machine

121‧‧‧beverage export

122‧‧‧ button

130‧‧‧cup holder

131, 132, 133‧‧‧ cups

140‧‧‧Drinking area

141‧‧‧First District

142‧‧‧Second District

150‧‧‧ messaging host

151‧‧‧input unit

152‧‧‧Processor

153‧‧‧Storage device

200‧‧‧ Method

210 ~ 260‧‧‧step

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a beverage manufacturing device according to an embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an operation method of a beverage manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In order to make the description of this disclosure more detailed and complete, the following provides an illustrative description of the implementation mode and specific embodiments of the present invention; but this is not the only form of implementing or using the specific embodiments of the present invention. The embodiments disclosed below can be combined or replaced with each other under beneficial circumstances, and other embodiments can be added to an embodiment without further description or description. In the following description, many specific details will be described in detail to enable the reader to fully understand the following embodiments. However, embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specific details.

The embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below, but the present invention is not limited to the scope of the examples.

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a beverage manufacturing apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the beverage manufacturing equipment 100 includes an extracting unit 110 and a beverage brewing machine 120. The picking unit 110 includes a robot arm 111 and a control host 112. In the connection relationship, the robot arm 111 is electrically connected to the control host 112. The beverage brewing machine 120 has a beverage outlet 121 and a plurality of buttons 122. The control host 112 is used to receive a message and convert it into a command corresponding to the message to control the robot arm 111. Therefore, during operation, the robot arm 111 performs a grabbing step under the control of instructions to place a cup under the beverage outlet 121, and performs an operation step on the beverage brewing machine 120 to brew a beverage and fill it In the cup. Specifically, when After the control host 112 receives the message and converts it into a corresponding message instruction, the instruction can control the robot arm 111 to place the cup under the beverage outlet 121, and can control the robot arm 111 to click the button 122 of the beverage brewing machine 120 to brew The beverage is filled in a cup. It should be noted that the beverage brewing machine 120 may be a common coffee machine on the market with a plurality of buttons 122 corresponding to different beverages, but it is not limited thereto, and the instructions are designed for the beverage brewing machine 120 and stored in the Control host 112. According to this, the robot arm 111 controlled by the instruction can accurately place the cup under the beverage outlet 121, and can correctly operate the beverage brewing machine 120 to brew the beverage.

In some embodiments, the beverage manufacturing apparatus 100 further includes a cup holder 130. Moreover, in the aforementioned gripping step of placing the cup under the beverage outlet 121, the robot arm 111 is used to grab the cup from the cup holder 130. In addition, in some embodiments, the cup holder 130 may include a cup 131 of a first size, a cup 132 of a second size, and a cup 133 of a third size. The message received by the control host 112 includes the size of the cup, so that the converted instruction can control the robot arm 111 to grab the cup of the size from the cup holder 130. For example, the cup holder 130 includes large cup, medium cup, and small cup size cups, and the content of the message includes the small cup size, so that the robot arm 111 is controlled in response to the command of the message from the cup, The holder 130 grabs a cup with a small cup size. It should be noted that, although in the beverage manufacturing equipment 100 shown in FIG. 1, the cup holder 130 includes only three sizes of cups 131, 132, and 133, in other embodiments, the cup holder 130 may include less Cups in three sizes, such as two sizes, or cups in more than three sizes, such as four, five or six.

In some embodiments, the message received by the control host 112 includes the type of drink, so that the converted command corresponding to this message can control the robot arm 111 to brew the type of drink. Specifically, the multiple buttons 122 of the beverage brewing machine 120 respectively correspond to different types of beverages, and the instructions including the types of beverages are converted to control the robot arm 111 to click the buttons 122 corresponding to the types of beverages. For example, the beverage brewing machine 120 includes four buttons 122 corresponding to latte coffee, American coffee, cocoa, and milk tea, and the content of the message includes latte coffee, the command corresponding to the message can control the robot arm 111 to click corresponding The button 122 of the latte coffee to brew the latte coffee.

In some embodiments, the beverage manufacturing apparatus 100 further includes a beverage extraction area 140. In addition, after the beverage brewing machine 120 brews a beverage, the instruction can control the robot arm 111 to perform another grasping step to place the cup filled with the beverage in the beverage extraction area 140. In addition, in some embodiments, the message received by the control host 112 includes the number of drinks, so that the instructions corresponding to the message can control the robot arm 111 to perform additional grabbing steps to place the cup under the beverage outlet 121, the additional The operation step is to fill the cup with the brewed beverage, and an additional grasping step to place the cup in the beverage extraction area 140 until the quantity of beverage is brewed. For example, the content of the message includes two cups of latte (the type of drink) (the number of drinks), and the command corresponding to the message can control the robot arm 111 to perform the first grasping step, operation step, and other A grasping step to place a cup filled with latte coffee in the beverage taking area 140, and then perform a second grasping step, an operation step, and another grasping step to place another filling with Iron coffee The cup is placed in the beverage extraction area 140. It should be noted that, as shown in FIG. 1, the beverage taking area 140 may include a first area 141 and a second area 142, and the robot arm 111 is to place a cup filled with a drink in the first area 141 or the first area Second district 142. However, although in the beverage manufacturing apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 1, the beverage extraction area 140 includes only two regions 141 and 142, in other embodiments, the beverage extraction area 140 may include more than two regions, such as Three, four, or five. The beverage taking area 140 includes a plurality of areas. The purpose is that when the cup filled with drinks in the first area 141 has not been removed by the consumer, the robot arm 111 may place another cup filled with drinks in the second Zone 142 so that the robot arm 111 can perform subsequent grabbing or operating steps.

In some embodiments, the beverage manufacturing apparatus 100 further includes a message transmitting host 150 having a communication link with the pick-up unit 110. The message transmission host 150 is used for transmitting messages, and the messages accepted by the aforementioned control host 112 originate from the message transmission host 150. In some embodiments, the communication link may be, for example, a wired or wireless network link, but is not limited thereto. Specifically, the message transmission host 150 includes an input unit 151, a processor 152, and a storage device 153. After an order information is input through the input unit 151, the processor 152 determines whether to send a message to the control host 112 based on the rules stored in the storage device 153 for the content of the order information. In some embodiments, the input unit 151 may be a barcode scanner, such as a two-dimensional barcode scanner. Moreover, the way to enter order information can be to scan an invoice with a two-dimensional barcode with a barcode scanner. The two-dimensional barcode includes order information, so when the barcode scanner scans the two-dimensional barcode, it is equivalent to entering the order information. In some embodiments, the processor 152 may be a central processing unit Controller 152, microcontroller or other circuit. In some embodiments, the storage device 153 may be a hard disk, a flash memory, or other recording media.

Regarding whether the processor 152 sends a message to the control host 112, in detail, the storage device 153 stores a preset store number, a claimed list, and a preset number of days. In addition to the quantity and / or cup size, a shop number, a transaction serial number, and a transaction date are also included. Moreover, the rules stored in the storage device 153 include (i) whether the store number in the content of the order information is the same as the preset store number; (ii) whether the transaction serial number in the content of the order information is not included in the claimed list ; And (iii) whether the transaction date in the content of the order information is within a preset number of days. Therefore, when the processor 152 judges the rules (i), (ii), and (iii) with respect to the content of the entered order information, and the judgment results are all yes, the transmission includes the types and drinks of the aforementioned drinks. The information such as the quantity and / or the size of the cup is sent to the control host 112 of the pick-up unit 110. For example, if you do n’t want to exchange transactions between stores and you can pick up drinks at another store, you can set a preset store number in the storage device 153. In this way, if the store in the order information entered by the consumer If the store number is different from the preset store number, the judgment result of rule (i) is no, and no message is sent to the control host 112. In addition, in order to avoid repeated collection of drinks, once the order information is input to the message transmission host 150 and the message is transmitted to the control host 112, the processor 152 records the transaction serial number in the order information in the received list in the storage device 153. According to this, if the order information with the same transaction serial number is repeatedly input, the judgment result of rule (ii) is no, and no message is sent to the control host 112. On the other hand, according to various considerations, the preset number of days can be set to 7 days, from If the difference between the transaction date of the consumer and the date of entering the order information is more than 7 days, the judgment result of rule (iii) is no, and no message is sent to the control host 112. Of course, the setting of the preset number of days can be changed according to the situation, such as 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, or 4 days.

In order to describe the operation mode of the beverage manufacturing equipment 100 in detail, it will be described below with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an operation method 200 of the beverage manufacturing apparatus 100. It should be understood that the steps mentioned in Figure 2 can be adjusted according to actual needs, except for those specifically described in order, which can be performed simultaneously or partially at the same time, and additional steps or omissions can be added.份 步骤。 Copy steps.

First, please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 at the same time. In step 210, the consumer purchases a drink from the counter and checks out to obtain an invoice with a two-dimensional bar code. This two-dimensional bar code includes the type of drink, the number of drinks, the size of the cup, the store number, the transaction serial number, and the transaction date. Next, in step 220, the consumer uses the input unit 151 of the messaging host 150 to input order information including one of the above contents. For example, the input unit 151 is a barcode scanner, and a consumer uses the barcode scanner to scan a two-dimensional barcode on an invoice to input order information. Next, in step 230, the processor 152 determines whether to send a message including the type of the beverage, the quantity of the beverage, and the size of the cup to the control host 112 based on the rules (i) to (iii). Specifically, the processor 152 determines whether the shop number in the content of the order information is the same as the preset shop number according to rule (i); whether the transaction serial number in the content of the order information is not included in the claimed list; and (iii) Whether the transaction date in the content of the order information is within a preset number of days to determine whether to send a message to Control host 112. If the judgment result of any of the rules (i) to (iii) is no, in step 240, no message is transmitted to the control host 112, and the result is reported, for example, on the display (not shown) of the message transmission host 150. The judgment result is displayed on the screen.

On the other hand, if the judgment results of rules (i) to (iii) are all yes, then in step 250, a message is sent to the control host 112. Next, in step 260, the control host 112 accepts the message and converts it into a corresponding message instruction to control the robot arm 111 to perform a grabbing step to grab a cup from the cup holder 130 under the beverage outlet 121, and the operation steps to make the beverage flush The brewing machine 120 brews beverages and fills them in cups, and another grasping step places the cups filled with beverages in the beverage extraction area 140. Therefore, the consumer can obtain the purchased beverage from the beverage pick-up area 140.

In summary, the beverage manufacturing equipment of the present invention can complete the brewing of beverages without the operation of a store clerk. This can solve the problem that when the rush hour of customers arrives, due to insufficient staff, it is impossible to operate the machine to brew beverages in real time, so that customers are lost.

Although the present invention has been disclosed in the above embodiments, other embodiments are also possible. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the requested items are not limited to the description contained in the embodiments herein.

Anyone skilled in this art will understand that, without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, various modifications and retouching can be made. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present invention shall be determined by the scope of the attached patent application.

Claims (10)

A beverage manufacturing equipment includes: a pick-up unit including a robot arm and a control host, the robot arm is electrically connected to the control host, wherein the control host is used to receive a message and convert it into a corresponding message An instruction to control the robot arm; and a beverage brewing machine having a beverage outlet, wherein the robot arm performs a first grasping step to place a cup under the beverage outlet through the control of the instruction, An operation step is performed on the beverage brewing machine to brew a beverage and fill the beverage. The beverage manufacturing equipment according to item 1 of the patent application scope further includes a cup holder, and in the first grasping step, the robot arm grabs the cup from the cup holder and places it under the beverage outlet. The beverage manufacturing equipment according to item 2 of the scope of patent application, wherein the message includes a size of the cup, so that the instruction corresponding to the message controls the robot arm to grasp from the cup holder in the first grasping step. Take the cup with the size. The beverage manufacturing equipment according to item 1 of the scope of patent application, wherein the message includes a type of the beverage, so that the instruction corresponding to the message controls the robot arm in the operation step, and the beverage brewed out is of the type . The beverage manufacturing equipment according to item 1 of the patent application scope further includes a beverage extraction area, and after the beverage brewing machine brews the beverage, the instruction controls the robot arm to perform a second grasping step to The cup is placed in the drinking area. The beverage manufacturing device according to item 5 of the scope of patent application, wherein the message includes a quantity of the beverage, so that the robot arm is controlled to perform an additional first grasping step, an additional operation step in response to the instruction of the message, and An additional second grasping step until the quantity of the beverage is brewed. The beverage manufacturing equipment according to item 1 of the scope of patent application, further comprising a message transmission host having a communication link with the retrieval unit, which includes: an input unit; a processor; and a storage device, wherein, when a After the order information is input through the input unit, the processor determines whether to send the message to the control host based on a rule stored in the storage device based on one of the order information. The beverage manufacturing equipment according to item 7 of the scope of patent application, wherein the storage device stores a preset store number, a claimed list, And a preset number of days, and the rule includes: (i) whether a store number in the content is the same as the preset store number; (ii) whether a transaction serial number in the content is not included in the claimed list; And (iii) whether one of the transaction dates in the content is within the preset number of days, and if the judgment results of rules (i), (ii), and (iii) are all yes, the message is transmitted. The beverage manufacturing equipment according to item 7 of the patent application scope, wherein the input unit is a barcode scanner. The beverage manufacturing equipment according to item 7 of the scope of the patent application, wherein the content includes a type of the beverage, a quantity of the beverage, a size of the cup, or a combination thereof.