Technology Changes Life, Shanlong Speeds Up Intelligent Vending Machines

Walking in the streets and alleys, it's difficult not to find vending machines. Select the product, scan the QR code for payment (or directly deposit money), and then we can get the product we want. This is a part of our daily life. From the vending machine, we can buy drinks, fruits, snacks, bentos, and so on, which can be said to be everything and very convenient.

Vending Machine (VEM) is a machine that can automatically pay for goods based on payment. It is a commonly used device in commercial automation, which is not limited by time and location. It can save manpower and facilitate transactions. It is a new form of commercial retail, also known as a 24-hour mini supermarket.

According to the access methods of vending machines, there are several types

Type 1: Self extracting

The vending machine has many small compartments, each with an independent door. You choose which compartment for the product, and after paying, the door automatically opens and the user retrieves the product themselves. 

Type 2: Push out

Each grid contains a row of identical products. After the customer chooses to pay, they use a DC motor to push the items out and drop them into the retrieval box.

However, vending machines are making progress, and the two types of vending machines mentioned above are now facing the following problems:

1. No one sells goods, so how can we ensure that what is sold is genuine, especially valuable items such as cigarettes and alcohol? How to ensure that products sold within their shelf life, such as fruits, milk, etc., have a shorter shelf life?

2. How do businesses know how many items are left in unmanned vending machines?

3. Previously, merchants did not monitor products from 'outbound' to 'customer purchase', although the products still belonged to the merchants. How to solve this blind spot?

In order to solve the above problem, a third type of vending machine appeared!

Type 3: Automatic gripping type

This type of vending machine can automatically store and retrieve goods through internal conveyor belts and robotic arms. During the storage and sales process, the goods are scanned with barcodes. At the same time, the inventory and sales data of each vending machine are transmitted in real-time to the cloud database.

Advantages:

1: The product will not be injured by falling;

2: By scanning the code to read product information, ensure that the products stored and sold are genuine and qualified;

3: Improved product sales data, real-time monitoring of product inventory, and extraction of sales data enable merchants to conduct sales analysis better and faster;

4: Better Big data collection.

The basic structure of an automatic pickup vending machine is shown in the following figure: composed of an interaction layer, an execution layer, and a physical layer

(Due to project confidentiality reasons, the original image cannot be displayed)

Interaction layer:Interactive interface+control system, which accepts instructions sent by operators, then converts them into action instructions and sends them to the execution layer, such as scanning code, paying, sending operation instructions, etc

Execution layer:Receive interaction layer instructions and convert them into specific logical actions, such as fixed point inventory, fixed point pickup, fixed point code scanning, etc.

Physical layer:Including shelves, conveyor structures, etc.

Based on years of experience in the field of motion control, Shanlong Intelligent Control provides a complete solution for the execution layer of this latest vending machine. We provide motion controllers and servo systems.

The motion controller converts the instructions of the interaction layer into specific logical actions, including servo motion and IO output.

Program Features

1. Network connection: The interaction layer connects to our control system through the network;

2. Efficiency improvement: The movement of multiple single axis linkage compensates for the low efficiency of the grabbing vending machine, and the storage and retrieval time has been shortened from nearly 60S/time to about 10S/time (different positions may have slight differences in time);

3. Compared to vending machines with articulated robotic arms, they have lower costs and occupy less space;

4. The universal controller has rich interfaces and can easily match with various interactions.

Main components