JP3820838B2 - Vending machine and control method thereof - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a vending machine and a control method thereof, and more particularly to a vending machine including a hanging rack capable of selling a wide variety of products, and capable of seeing through the product and its sales operation, and a control method thereof.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, vending machines that can inspire customers to purchase products and view the products in the warehouse and their sales operations have been provided. Such vending machines are equipped with racks for storing and transporting products, and the types of such racks are known as so-called spiral racks, conveyor racks, pusher racks, etc., depending on the product transport mode. ing.
[0003]
Each of these racks is configured to be able to hold the same type of product at a predetermined pitch, and is configured to be able to transport the product by sending out the spiral, conveyor, and pusher by the pitch based on the sales command. .
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the spiral racks, conveyor racks, and pusher racks are suitable for selling similar products with the same shape and size, but are not suitable for selling a wide variety of products. There was a problem. Accordingly, the applicant of the present application has provided vending machines capable of selling a wide variety of products (Japanese Patent Application 2000-034253, Japanese Patent Application 2000-034254, etc.), and it has been desired to provide a control method therefor.
[0005]
The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object thereof is to provide a control method for a vending machine capable of selling a wide variety of products.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above-described object, a vending machine according to claim 1 of the present invention includes an endless transport body that swingably holds a hook for suspending a product, and a transport body drive that drives the transport body. An apparatus, a reference position detecting means for detecting a drive reference position of the transport body, a hook position detecting means for detecting a position of a hook held by the transport body, and an attitude of the hook held by the transport body a hanging rack having a hook attitude detecting means for, by driving the conveying member by the conveying member driving device stops driving of the carrier when the detection signal from the reference position detecting means is inputted After returning to the reference position, the carrier is further driven from the reference position, and the position information of each hook is determined based on the detection signal from the hook position detection means, and the front Based on the detection signal from the hook position detecting means is obtained by a means for detecting the presence or absence of products in the respective hook.
[0007]
By providing the reference position detection means, the hook position detection means, and the hook attitude detection means, it is possible to detect the reference position of the carrier, the address of the hook, and the presence or absence of the product on the hook. Can be sold efficiently.
[0008]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control method for a vending machine, in which the transport body is driven by the transport body driving device, and the driving of the transport body is stopped when the detection signal from the reference position detection means is input. After returning to the reference position, the carrier is further driven from the reference position, the position information of each hook is determined based on the detection signal from the hook position detection means, and the hook attitude detection means The presence or absence of a product in each hook is detected based on the detection signal.
[0009]
If the carrier returns to the reference position, it becomes easier to process the position information and posture information of each hook based on the reference position information, and the presence / absence of a product in each hook can be detected based on the information. Thereby, it becomes easy to grasp sold-out products or unsold products, and appropriate product management becomes possible.
[0010]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of a control method for a vending machine according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The present invention is not limited to the embodiments.
[0011]
1 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which a column number is set on a hook of a hanging rack according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a detection operation of a rotation reference position of the chain, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the hook position detection operation when the chain is reversed, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the product presence / absence detection operation for each hook. It is a flowchart.
[0012]
6 is a block diagram showing the main part of the vending machine, FIG. 7 is a side view showing the hanging rack, FIG. 8 is a plan view showing the hanging rack, and FIG. 9 is a front view showing the hook. 10 is a side view showing the hook, FIG. 11 is a plan view (a) and a side view (b) showing the chain structure for hanging the hook, and FIG. 12 is a plan view showing another chain structure ( FIG. 13A is a plan view showing a chain structure for a home position. FIG. 14B is a front view schematically showing a vending machine. FIG. 15 is a perspective view showing a state in which the outer door of the vending machine is opened, and FIG. 16 is a perspective view showing a main part of the hanging rack.
[0013]
First, the overall configuration of the vending machine will be described with reference to FIGS. The main body case 1 stores and stores products and carries them out as necessary. The main body case 1 includes an outer door 2 having a transparent plate 2a and an inner door 3 having a transparent plate 3a so as to be freely opened and closed. . The main body case 1 includes two hanging racks 4 on the upper inner wall surface 1a, and a spiral rack 5 and a conveyor rack 6 below the suspension rack 4. The spiral rack 5 and the conveyor rack 6 are supported by a rack support plate 1b provided in the main body case 1, and are configured so that the installation positions can be changed from each other.
[0014]
Inside the inner door 3, an XY transport mechanism 7 is provided in which the front surfaces of the racks 4, 5, and 6 are XY coordinate planes. The XY transport mechanism 7 includes an X-axis transport unit (not shown) that moves in the horizontal direction with respect to the racks 4, 5, and 6, and a Y-axis transport unit (not shown) that moves in the vertical direction. It is comprised and is controlled by the mechanism control part 86 mentioned later. The X-axis transport unit is provided with a bucket 8 that receives a product.
[0015]
In addition, on the front surface of the outer door 2, a numeric keypad 18 for selecting a product, a display 19, a bill insertion slot 20, a coin insertion slot 21, a coin return lever 22, a coin return slot 23, and a purchase desired product are confirmed. A suspension rack rotation button 24 for moving the commodity in the suspension rack 4, a commodity outlet 17 communicating with the carry-out door 16, and the like are provided. On the other hand, on the back surface of the outer door 2, a bill validator (not shown) for identifying and storing an inserted bill, a coin processing mechanism 25 for identifying and storing a coin, a cash box 26 for collecting coins, and a main control described later. A keyboard 27 for performing an input operation to the unit 80 is provided.
[0016]
Next, the hanging rack 4 will be described. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the suspension rack 4 includes a main body 30 having a substantially trapezoidal plane shape, a sprocket 32 rotatably disposed at four corners of the main body 30, and the periphery of the main body 30 by the sprocket 32. An endless chain 34 that rotates along the shaft 34, a chain drive mechanism 36 that applies a driving force to the sprocket 32 to rotate the chain 34 forward and backward, and a chain 34 that is detachable and swingable at a predetermined pitch. And a hook 38 for hanging the product G and a hook swinging mechanism 40 for swinging the hook 38 and dropping the product G.
[0017]
The main body 30 is provided with a locking hole 30a, a screw hole 30b, and a locking piece 30c for locking to the locking pieces 1c and 1d protruding from the upper inner wall surface 1a. The chain drive mechanism 36 includes a motor 41, a pulley 42 provided to the motor 41 via a speed reduction mechanism, a pulley 43 provided coaxially to one sprocket 32, and the driving force of the motor 41 from the pulley 42 to the pulley 43. And a belt 44 to be transmitted to the belt. The chain drive mechanism 36 is controlled by a mechanical control unit 86 described later.
[0018]
The hook swing mechanism 40 includes a drive device 46 that reciprocates a shaft 45, and a slide plate 48 that is connected to the shaft 45 at the rear end portion and slides on the base plate 47 of the main body 30. At the tip of the slide plate 48, there is provided a pressing piece 48a formed so that the pressed piece 38a of the hook 38 can be pressed when the slide plate 48 is operated. Further, a display 89 for displaying product information (product price, etc.) is provided on the front surface of the main body 30.
[0019]
The hook 38 is formed of resin, and as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, is integrally formed of a pressed piece 38a, an engaging projection 38b, a contact plate 38d, a hook portion 38c, and a protruding piece 38e. The engagement protrusion 38b is formed so as to be detachably and swingably engageable with an engagement recess 52a of a chain structure 52 described later. The protruding piece 38e is provided so as to cause the sensor 50 to detect that the hook 38 is flipped up by the pressing piece 48a (such as a product sold out state).
[0020]
The chain 34 is formed of resin, and as shown in FIGS. 11 to 13, a necessary number of chain components 52 for suspending the hook 38, many other chain components 53, and home position detection The one chain structure 54 is connected to each other. The engagement recess 52a of the chain structure 52 is formed so that the engagement protrusion 38b of the hook 38 is detachably and swingably engaged. The recess 52b is provided with a leaf spring (not shown) for holding the posture of the hook 38 in a state of being flipped up.
[0021]
Further, the guide pieces 52c, 53a, 54a and the contact surfaces 52d, 53c, 54c of the chain structural bodies 52, 53, 54 are provided to stabilize the operation of the chain 34. The projecting piece 52e is provided so as to project the position information (address) of the hook 38 to the sensor 58. The projecting piece 54d is provided so as to project the reference position information (home position) of the chain 34 to the sensor 61. The guide pieces 53a and 54a and the projecting piece 54d are attached to the chain structural bodies 53 and 54 by screws 53b and 54b, but may be formed by integral molding.
[0022]
As shown in FIG. 1, each hook 38 of the suspension rack 4 formed in this way has different selection numbers, that is, column numbers (m, m + 1, m + 2, m + 3,..., M + n; Integer) is set.
[0023]
A control block diagram of the vending machine configured as described above is as shown in FIG. In the figure, the members already described are given the same reference numerals. The main control unit 80 controls the entire vending machine in addition to the mechanical control unit 86 based on various data (for example, price, time, product hook address, recommended product, etc.) input from the keyboard 27. belongs to. The door switch 82 detects the open / close state of the outer door 2 (or the inner door 3), and is provided in the main body case 1. The human sensor 84 is for detecting whether or not there is a person who wants to purchase a product on the front surface of the outer door 2, and is provided on the outer door 2, for example. The mechanical control unit 86 controls the hanging rack 4 based on the transmission data from the main control unit 80. Further, control information (for example, column number, price data, sales data, address, etc.) from the mechanical control unit 86 can be stored in the memory means.
[0024]
Next, a method for controlling the vending machine will be described. Hereinafter, the operation of the hanging rack 4 which is a main part of the present invention will be described, and the description of the operations of the spiral rack 5 and the conveyor rack 6 will be omitted.
[0025]
First, the returning operation of the chain 34 to the reference position (home position) will be described with reference to FIG. The motor 41 of the hanging rack 4 is operated to rotate the chain 34 (step S10). Then, the chain 34 rotates until the chain structure 54 for detecting the home position is detected by the sensor 61 (No at Step S11). When the home position is detected (Yes at Step S11), the motor 41 is stopped (Step S12), and the home position of the chain 34 is determined.
[0026]
Next, the operation of detecting the position (address) of the hook 38 will be described separately for the case where the chain 34 is rotated forward and the case where it is rotated backward. When the chain 34 is rotated in the forward direction, as shown in FIG. 3, the movement count number up to the target hook is set (step S20), and the motor 41 of the hanging rack 4 is operated (step S21). If there is an input from the sensor 58 that detects the rotational position of the chain 34 (Yes at Step S22), the count number data is subtracted (Step S23), and the movement count number up to the target hook is determined. (Step S24).
[0027]
When the count number at the current position becomes zero, it is determined that the target hook has been reached. If the count has reached the target hook (Yes at Step S24), the motor 41 is stopped (Step S25), and is set in a standby state (Step S26). If there is no input from the sensor 58 (No at Step S22), the count data is not subtracted. Thus, if the count number has not reached the target hook (No at Step S24), the above operation is repeated until it reaches the target hook, whereby the position of the hook 38 is detected.
[0028]
On the other hand, when the chain 34 is rotated in the reverse direction, as shown in FIG. 4, the only difference is that the count data is added (step S <b> 33).
[0029]
Next, the detection operation of the presence / absence of each hook 38 will be described with reference to FIG. First, the motor 41 of the hanging rack 4 is operated to rotate the chain 34 (step S40). If there is an input from the sensor 58 (Yes at step S41), the presence / absence of the product on the hook 38 is determined based on the presence / absence of the input (product sold-out signal) from the sensor 50 for detecting the presence / absence of the product (step S42).
[0030]
If there is an input from the sensor 50 for detecting the presence / absence of the product (Yes at Step S42), data indicating no product is set in the column m (see FIG. 1) (Step S43), and the column number is added (Step S44). It is determined whether or not the chain 34 has returned to the home position (step S45). On the other hand, if there is no input from the sensor 50 (No at Step S42), the column number is added (Step S44), and it is determined whether or not the chain 34 has returned to the home position (Step S45).
[0031]
If the chain 34 returns to the home position (Yes at Step S45), the motor 41 is stopped (Step S46), and the standby state is set (Step S47). The above operations (steps S41 to S44) are repeated until the chain 34 returns to the home position (No in step S45). Thereby, the presence or absence of the product G is detected for each hook 38.
[0032]
As described above, according to the vending machine and the control method thereof according to this embodiment, the basic position (home position) of the chain 34, the position (address) of the hook 38, and the presence / absence of the product of each hook 38 are simply configured. Can be detected easily and quickly.
[0033]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the vending machine according to the present invention (Claim 1), the endless transport body that swingably holds the hook for hanging the commodity, and the transport body drive that drives the transport body. An apparatus, a reference position detecting means for detecting a drive reference position of the transport body, a hook position detecting means for detecting a position of a hook held by the transport body, and an attitude of the hook held by the transport body A suspension rack having a hook posture detection means for driving, and the transport body is driven by the transport body driving device, and the driving of the transport body is stopped when a detection signal is input from the reference position detection means. After returning to the reference position, the carrier is further driven from the reference position, and the position information of each hook is determined based on the detection signal from the hook position detection means, and the front Since a means for detecting the presence or absence of products in the respective hooks on the basis of the detection signal from the hook position detecting means it can detect the presence or absence of the product reference position and the hook of the address, in the hook of the carrier , Can sell a wide variety of products efficiently.
[0034]
According to the control method of the vending machine according to the present invention (Claim 2), the transport body is driven by the transport body driving device, and when the detection signal from the reference position detection means is input, After returning to the reference position by stopping the drive, the carrier is further driven from the reference position, and the position information of each hook is determined based on the detection signal from the hook position detecting means, and the hook attitude detection is performed. Since the presence / absence of the product in each hook is detected based on the detection signal from the means, it becomes easier to process the position information and posture information of each subsequent hook based on the reference position information of the carrier, Based on the information, the presence / absence of a product in each hook can be detected. Therefore, it becomes easy to grasp sold-out products or unsold products, and appropriate product management becomes possible.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which column numbers are set on hooks of a hanging rack according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation for detecting a rotation reference position of a chain.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a hook position detection operation when the chain is rotated forward.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a hook position detection operation when the chain is reversed.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation of detecting whether or not each hook has a product.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a main part of the vending machine.
FIG. 7 is a side view showing a hanging rack.
FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a hanging rack.
FIG. 9 is a front view showing a hook.
FIG. 10 is a side view showing a hook.
11A and 11B are a plan view and a side view showing a chain structure for hanging a hook.
FIG. 12 is a plan view (a) and a side view (b) showing another chain structure.
FIG. 13 is a plan view (a) and a side view (b) showing a chain structure for a home position.
FIG. 14 is a front view schematically showing a vending machine.
FIG. 15 is a perspective view showing a state in which the outer door of the vending machine is opened.
FIG. 16 is a perspective view showing a main part of a hanging rack.
[Explanation of symbols]
4 Suspension rack G Product 34 Chain 36 Chain drive mechanism 38 Hook 38e Projection piece 40 Hook swing mechanism 41 Motor 46 Drive device 50, 58, 61 Sensor 52, 53, 54 Chain structure 52e, 54d Projection piece 80 Main control section 86 Mechanical control unit

Claims (2)

An endless carrier that swingably holds a hook for hanging a product; and
A carrier driving device for driving the carrier;
Reference position detection means for detecting the drive reference position of the carrier;
Hook position detecting means for detecting the position of the hook held by the carrier;
Hook attitude detection means for detecting a posture of a hook held in the carrier,
And a hanging rack had,
The transport body is driven by the transport body driving device, and when the detection signal from the reference position detection means is input, the drive of the transport body is stopped to return to the reference position, and then from the reference position. Further, the carrier is driven to determine the position information of each hook based on the detection signal from the hook position detection means, and the presence / absence of a product in each hook based on the detection signal from the hook attitude detection means Means to detect
Vending machine characterized by comprising An endless carrier that swingably holds a hook for hanging a product; and
A carrier driving device for driving the carrier;
Reference position detection means for detecting the drive reference position of the carrier;
Hook position detecting means for detecting the position of the hook held by the carrier;
Hook attitude detection means for detecting a posture of a hook held in the carrier,
In a control method of a vending machine provided with a hanging rack having
The transport body is driven by the transport body driving device, and when the detection signal from the reference position detection means is input, the drive of the transport body is stopped to return to the reference position, and then from the reference position. Further, the carrier is driven to determine the position information of each hook based on the detection signal from the hook position detection means, and the presence / absence of a product in each hook based on the detection signal from the hook attitude detection means A method of controlling a vending machine, characterized by detecting

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