Vending system and method of automatically vending

Abstract

An automated vending system comprises a physical item storage unit (130, 132,134, 136), a plurality of land-based transportation mechanisms (180, 182, 184). The plurality of transportation vehicles (180, 182, 184) are arranged to store a predicted number and assortment of items to vend. A processing resource (186) is provided and is capable of communicating with the plurality of transportation mechanisms (180, 182, 184), the processing resource (186) being arranged to support a machine learning module. A plurality of data sources is arranged to provide data to the machine learning module. The machine learning module is arranged to analyse the data provided by the plurality of data sources and to determine a plurality of respective actions for the plurality of transportation mechanisms (180, 182, 184). The processing resource (186) is arranged to generate and communicate respective control instructions to the plurality of transportation mechanisms (180, 182, 184). The selected transportation mechanism (180, 182, 184) is arranged to receive the control instruction and to operate in response to the control instruction in order to convey the item to the determined vending location.

Description

[0001] This application claims priority from UK patent application GB1702746.7, filed 20 February 2017, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. technical field [0002] The present invention relates to a vending system, for example of the type that delivers requested goods to a vending location. The invention also relates to a method of automatically vending goods, for example of the type of delivering requested goods to a vending location. Background technique [0003] As we all know, many vending systems are based on different architectures and different scales. Vending systems can range from stand-alone food and beverage vending systems to larger, distributed systems that require transportation to deliver goods. Regardless of the size of the system, there can be inefficiencies. For example, the vend availability of certain items is often limited, and in some systems the speed at which the item can be delivered to the vend location where the intended r...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Some larger systems have limited ability to use some locations

Also, some items offered through the vending system are perishable and therefore must be sold before what is commonly referred to as a "best before" date, otherwise the vending system will hold unsellable inventory once the shelf life expires

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