A self-service code scanning shopping system and control method of a cash register

Abstract

The present application relates to a kind of cash register self-service code scanning shopping system and method.The system includes self-service settlement box, at least one settlement channel including commodity turnover cylinder and identification module is arranged in it, and processing host, bagging robot, code scanning payment module and commodity placement position.The core is that processing host triggers bagging robot to start bagging immediately after commodity identification succeeds, and only release the bagged commodity after receiving payment completion signal.Cam assembly that can actively disturb commodity posture is arranged in commodity turnover cylinder to improve identification rate.The method includes: triggering bagging immediately after identifying commodity, and releasing commodity after payment completion.The present application greatly improves settlement efficiency and prevention ability through the parallel automation process of "identification and bagging, release after payment", and realizes the user experience of "pay and go".

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of automated retail and checkout technology, and more specifically, to a self-service barcode scanning shopping system and control method for cash registers. Background Technology

[0002] With the increasing automation in the retail industry, self-checkout machines have been widely used in supermarkets, convenience stores, and other locations. Traditional self-checkout machines typically require customers to hold their items, scan each item against a barcode at a fixed scanning window, check the generated item list on a screen, and finally complete payment by scanning a barcode or swiping a card, then bag the items themselves. This process has the following significant drawbacks:

[0003] 1. Inefficiency: Customers must complete the sequential process of "scanning-checking-paying-packing" item by item, which takes a long time to check out and can easily cause congestion during peak hours.

[0004] 2. Poor user experience: The operation is cumbersome and unfriendly to customers unfamiliar with electronic devices or with mobility issues. It is difficult to scan irregular, soft, or large items by hand, and manual bagging is required, increasing the burden.

[0005] 3. Weak loss prevention capabilities: Relying primarily on customer integrity, there are risks such as intentional omissions during scanning or replacement of goods after scanning. Existing solutions, such as weighing verification, are only suitable for bulk goods and have limited effectiveness in preventing damage to pre-packaged goods.

[0006] 4. Recognition success rate is greatly affected by the product's posture: When the product barcode is hidden or the product is not in good posture within the scanning area, recognition often fails, requiring customers to make repeated adjustments, which affects the smoothness of the process.

[0007] To improve efficiency, self-checkout kiosks equipped with conveyor belts or multi-view scanners have emerged in the market. However, customers still need to place goods in designated areas, failing to achieve true "hands-free" operation, and the loss prevention problem remains unresolved. Another solution proposes automated bagging robotic arms, but bagging usually only begins after the customer has completed all scanning and payment, not running in parallel with the identification process, resulting in limited overall efficiency improvements.

[0008] Therefore, there is an urgent need for a new self-service checkout system that can automatically adjust the posture of goods, achieve high success rate recognition, bagging while recognizing, and allow immediate pickup after payment. Summary of the Invention

[0009] The technical problem this invention aims to solve is to provide a self-service barcode scanning shopping system and its control method for cash registers, addressing the aforementioned deficiencies of existing technologies. This system integrates a rotating roller that can actively agitate the posture of goods, multi-angle image recognition, and an automated robot bagging function triggered immediately after recognition. This achieves full automation and parallelization of the entire process from product placement to retrieval, significantly improving checkout efficiency, recognition success rate, and loss prevention reliability, providing an ultimate "pay and go" user experience.

[0010] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention adopts the following technical solution:

[0011] In a first aspect, the present invention provides a self-service QR code scanning shopping system for cash registers.

[0012] A self-service checkout system includes a self-service checkout box with at least one checkout channel, each checkout channel comprising:

[0013] Product flipping roller;

[0014] A product recognition module is provided corresponding to the product flipping roller;

[0015] A goods inlet is provided on one side surface of the self-checkout box and communicates with the goods flipping roller;

[0016] A product outlet is located on the other side surface of the self-checkout box, connected to the product flipping roller.

[0017] The system also includes:

[0018] The processing host is communicatively connected to the product identification module;

[0019] A bagging robot is installed on the side of the product outlet and is communicatively connected to the processing host to perform automatic bagging of the products;

[0020] The QR code payment module is communicatively connected to the processing host.

[0021] Placement area for bagged goods.

[0022] The processing host is configured to execute the following core control logic:

[0023] (a) After the product is successfully identified by the product identification module, the product flipping roller is controlled to move the product out through the product outlet, and the bagging robot is triggered to start performing a bagging operation on the product;

[0024] (b) Upon receiving a payment completion signal from the QR code payment module, control the transfer of the bagged goods to the bagged goods placement position.

[0025] The core improvement of this invention lies in changing the originally sequential processes of "product identification" and "robotic bagging" into parallel processing. Once a product is successfully identified, it is released and processed by the bagging robot, while the customer can continue to add the next item or proceed with payment. By the time payment is completed, the bagging process is usually completed or nearly completed simultaneously, allowing the customer to immediately take their goods. This achieves a near-zero-wait checkout experience and fundamentally eliminates human error before payment.

[0026] Preferably, there are multiple settlement channels, which are set up in parallel and share the bagging robot and the placement position of the bagged goods.

[0027] Preferably, the product recognition module includes one or more image acquisition units for capturing images of products inside the product flipping roller to identify product information. The image acquisition units can be arranged at multiple positions circumferentially and axially on the roller to ensure that the product appearance or barcode is captured from various angles, improving the recognition success rate.

[0028] As a key improvement of this invention, the merchandise flipping roller is angled and lower on the side near the merchandise outlet; a drive motor for rotating the merchandise flipping roller is installed inside the self-checkout box. The inner wall of the merchandise flipping roller is provided with a first cam assembly and a second cam assembly for agitating the merchandise's posture. The first cam assembly includes multiple first cams and a first cam motor that drives the multiple first cams to rotate; the rotation plane of the first cams is perpendicular to the axis of the merchandise flipping roller. The second cam assembly includes multiple second cams and a second cam motor that drives the multiple second cams to rotate; the rotation plane of the second cams is parallel to the axis of the merchandise flipping roller. During operation, the protrusions of the first cams and the protrusions of the second cams both have a first state higher than the inner wall of the merchandise flipping roller and a second state lower than the inner wall of the merchandise flipping roller.

[0029] The ingenuity of this design lies in its use of an angled roller and two sets of cam assemblies with mutually perpendicular motion planes. This allows for the superposition of fine, multi-directional local disturbances on top of the overall roller rotation (enabling large-scale movement and flipping of the product). The protrusions of the first cam assembly (with its rotation plane perpendicular to the roller axis) create a "lifting" or "lateral pushing" effect on the product surface; while the protrusions of the second cam assembly (with its rotation plane parallel to the roller axis) create a "vertical pushing" or "rolling resistance" effect. The coordinated operation of these two components simulates the manual flipping and adjustment of the product's posture, enabling products (especially those with irregular shapes or tricky barcode placements) to be exposed to the image sensor at multiple angles during the rolling process. This significantly improves the initial recognition success rate for complex products and reduces process interruptions or manual intervention due to recognition failures.

[0030] Preferably, the system also includes a bagged goods buffer area for temporarily storing goods bagged by the bagging robot. Upon receiving a payment completion signal, the processing host controls the transfer of goods from the bagged goods buffer area to the bagged goods placement position. The introduction of the buffer area allows the bagging action to be performed asynchronously, completely independent of the payment time. Even if the customer delays payment after all goods have been identified, the bagging process can be completed ahead of schedule, further ensuring the "pay and pick up immediately" experience.

[0031] Preferably, the bagged goods buffer area is integrated with the bagging robot, or it is set as a separate temporary storage area located between the bagging robot and the bagged goods placement position. This provides flexibility in system layout.

[0032] Preferably, the bagging robot includes a robotic arm, a gripper or suction cup connected to the robotic arm, and a bag feeding mechanism. The processing host controls the robotic arm to drive the gripper or suction cup to pick up a bag from the bag feeding mechanism and move it to the product outlet to collect the product and complete the bagging. This structure is a reliable and mature implementation scheme for automated bagging.

[0033] As a loss prevention measure, the processing host is also configured to maintain physical isolation between the bagged goods and their placement location when no payment completion signal is received. This can be achieved, for example, by locking the buffer zone exit gate or controlling the bagging robot to temporarily store the bagged goods in a non-customer-accessible area, ensuring that "goods cannot be retrieved without payment."

[0034] Preferably, the product inlet and / or product outlet are equipped with controllable gates controlled by the processing host. The gates are closed during non-input / output periods, enhancing the system's sealing and security, and preventing external interference.

[0035] Secondly, the present invention provides a control method for a self-service barcode scanning shopping system for cash registers based on any of the above-mentioned claims.

[0036] A control method, characterized by comprising the following steps:

[0037] S1. Product identification steps: The product identification module identifies the products that are fed into the product flipping roller;

[0038] S2. Bagging Triggering Step: After successful product recognition, immediately control the product flipping roller to remove the product and trigger the bagging robot to start bagging;

[0039] S3. Payment Confirmation Steps: Complete the payment via the QR code payment module and generate a payment completion signal;

[0040] S4. Goods Release Step: After receiving the payment completion signal, control the transfer of the bagged goods to the bagged goods placement position.

[0041] This method solidifies the core process of parallel "identification-bagging" and linked "payment-release", which is the key to achieving efficient and secure self-service settlement.

[0042] The beneficial effects of this invention are as follows:

[0043] 1. Revolutionary improvement in checkout efficiency: By using the parallel processing logic of "successful identification triggers bagging", the time-consuming bagging process is completely hidden in the customer's subsequent operations, so that the checkout time perceived by the customer is almost only the payment time, which greatly shortens the service time per customer and alleviates the pressure of queuing during peak hours.

[0044] 2. Extremely high product recognition success rate: The innovative inclined flipping roller, combined with two sets of orthogonal motion cam components, can actively and multi-angle disturb the product, effectively solving the recognition problem caused by the hidden position of the barcode and the poor posture of the product, and improving the smoothness and reliability of the process.

[0045] 3. Establish a proactive, mandatory loss prevention system: Once a product enters the roller scanner, it is physically taken over by the system and cannot be taken away by the customer until payment is completed. This "physical isolation before payment" mechanism fundamentally eliminates all losses that occur in traditional self-checkout systems due to customer access to the products.

[0046] 4. Extremely simplified user experience: The customer operation is simplified to two steps: "put in the goods" and "scan the code to pay". There is no need for any cumbersome operations such as scanning, checking, or bagging. It truly realizes "hands-free" checkout and is extremely friendly to all types of customers.

[0047] 5. Flexible and efficient system configuration: The design of a central bagging robot shared by multiple checkout channels improves the utilization rate of expensive automated components and reduces the cost per channel. The introduction of a buffer area enables the system to smoothly handle the speed difference between bagging and payment, ensuring a seamless experience. Attached Figure Description

[0048] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention or the prior art, the present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments. The drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort:

[0049] Figure 1 This is a top view of a self-service barcode scanning shopping system for cash registers according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0050] Figure 2 This is a front view of the self-checkout box of the self-service checkout system of the cash register according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0051] Figure 3 This is a cross-sectional view of the self-checkout box of the self-service checkout system of the cash register according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0052] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram showing the distribution of the first cam assembly and the second cam assembly of the self-checkout box in the self-service checkout system of the cash register according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

[0053] Figure 5 This is a flowchart of the control method for a self-service barcode scanning shopping system for cash registers, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0054] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, a clear and complete description will be provided below in conjunction with the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some, not all, of the embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without creative effort are within the protection scope of the present invention.

[0055] Example 1:

[0056] See Figures 1-4 This embodiment provides a self-service barcode scanning shopping system with three parallel checkout channels 2. The self-service checkout box 1 has three product inlets 22 on the front and three product outlets 23 on the lower back. Each checkout channel 2 contains an obliquely arranged product tilting roller 21, with its high end near the product inlet 22 and its low end near the product outlet 23. A drive motor 25 drives the roller 21 to rotate around its axis.

[0057] On the inner wall of the roller 21, a first cam assembly 211 and a second cam assembly 212 are arranged axially and circumferentially. For example... Figure 4 As shown, the first cam assembly 211 includes multiple first cams driven by a first cam motor, with its rotation plane perpendicular to the axis of the roller 21. The second cam assembly 212 includes multiple second cams driven by a second cam motor, with its rotation plane parallel to the axis of the roller 21. The processing host 6 can independently control the protrusions of these two sets of cams to switch between "above the inner wall of the roller" and "below the inner wall of the roller". When the roller 21 rotates as a whole, the cams act according to a predetermined program, generating multi-directional disturbances to the goods inside the roller, causing them to continuously tumble and change their posture. Multiple image acquisition devices (cameras) 24 arranged around the roller 21 capture images of the goods from different angles, and the processing host 6 runs a recognition algorithm to obtain the goods information.

[0058] The three checkout lanes 2 share a bagging robot 3 and a bagged goods placement area 5. It should be noted that the bagging robot 3's function of bagging goods is existing technology, and this application does not involve improvements to this part; existing components can be used, such as a combination of a six-axis robotic arm, a vacuum suction cup, and a roll-type bag feeding mechanism. A bagged goods buffer area 4 is located next to the bagging robot 3.

[0059] The workflow is as follows (in combination with) Figure 5 ):

[0060] Product identification: Customer A inserts product A into roller 21 of channel one through inlet 22, and the inlet gate closes. The main processing unit 6 controls the drive motor and cam assembly to operate, causing the roller to rotate and agitate the product. Image acquisition unit 24 successfully identifies product A.

[0061] Triggering bagging: Upon successful identification, the processing host 6 immediately opens the exit gate of channel one, and product A rolls out. At the same time, the processing host 6 dispatches the bagging robot 3 to move to the exit, picks up the bag, catches product A, completes the bagging, and then places the bagged product A into the buffer area 4.

[0062] Parallel processing: While product A is being bagged, customer A can insert a second product B, and the system repeats steps 1-2. The bagging robot 3 is centrally scheduled by the processing host 6 to serve each channel.

[0063] Payment and Release: After customer A has placed all the goods, they confirm the list on the interactive display screen 7 and complete the payment via the QR code payment module 8 (e.g., scanning a mobile payment code). A payment completion signal is sent to the processing host 6.

[0064] Product Release: After receiving the signal, the processing host 6 controls the bagging robot 3 (or other transfer mechanism) to transfer the bagged products (A, B, etc.) belonging to customer A from the buffer area 4 to the corresponding bagged product placement position 5 in channel 1 in one go. Customer A takes the products, and the process ends. If the customer does not pay, the products will remain locked in the buffer area 4.

[0065] Example 2:

[0066] In high-traffic areas of large supermarkets, more checkout lanes can be set up, and 2-3 bagging robots can be configured to form a "bagging unit," with the processing host 6 coordinating task allocation to meet higher throughput demands. The image recognition module can integrate a deep learning model, which can not only recognize barcodes but also directly recognize the appearance of goods, serving as a supplementary means when barcode recognition fails.

[0067] It should be understood that those skilled in the art can make improvements or modifications based on the above description, and all such improvements and modifications should fall within the protection scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A self-service barcode scanning shopping system for cash registers, characterized in that, The system includes a self-checkout box, which is equipped with at least one checkout channel, each of which includes: Product flipping roller; A product recognition module is provided corresponding to the product flipping roller; A goods inlet is provided on one side surface of the self-checkout box and communicates with the goods flipping roller; A product outlet is provided on the other side surface of the self-checkout box, which is connected to the product flipping roller. The system also includes: The processing host is communicatively connected to the product identification module; A bagging robot is installed on the side of the product outlet and is communicatively connected to the processing host to perform automatic bagging of the products; The QR code payment module is communicatively connected to the processing host. Placement area for bagged goods; The processing host is configured as follows: After the product is successfully identified by the product recognition module, the product flipping roller is controlled to move the product out through the product outlet, and the bagging robot is triggered to start bagging the product. After receiving a payment completion signal from the QR code payment module, the system controls the transfer of the bagged goods to the bagged goods placement position.

2. The self-service barcode scanning shopping system for cash registers according to claim 1, characterized in that, There are multiple settlement channels, which are set up in parallel and share the bagging robot and a bagged goods placement position.

3. The self-service barcode scanning shopping system for cash registers according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The product recognition module includes one or more image acquisition devices for acquiring images of products inside the product flipping drum to identify product information.

4. The self-service barcode scanning shopping system for cash registers according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The product flipping roller is angled and lower on the side near the product outlet; the self-checkout box is equipped with a drive motor that drives the product flipping roller to rotate. The inner wall of the product tumbling roller is provided with a first cam assembly and a second cam assembly for agitating the posture of the product. The first cam assembly includes a plurality of first cams and a first cam motor that drives the plurality of first cams to rotate; the rotation plane of the first cams is perpendicular to the axis of the merchandise tumbling roller; The second cam assembly includes a plurality of second cams and a second cam motor that drives the plurality of second cams to rotate; the rotation plane of the second cams is parallel to the axis of the commodity tumbling roller; During operation, the protrusions of the first cam and the protrusions of the second cam both have a first state that is higher than the inner wall of the product tumbling roller and a second state that is lower than the inner wall of the product tumbling roller.

5. The self-service barcode scanning shopping system for cash registers according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The system also includes a bagged goods buffer area for temporarily storing goods bagged by the bagging robot. After receiving a payment completion signal, the processing host controls the transfer of goods from the bagged goods buffer area to the bagged goods placement position.

6. The self-service barcode scanning shopping system for cash registers according to claim 5, characterized in that, The bagged goods buffer area is integrated with the bagging robot, or it is set as an independent temporary storage location between the bagging robot and the bagged goods placement position.

7. The self-service barcode scanning shopping system for cash registers according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The bagging robot includes a robotic arm, a gripper or suction cup connected to the robotic arm, and a bag supply mechanism. The processing host controls the robotic arm to drive the gripper or suction cup to pick up the bag from the bag supply mechanism and move it to the product outlet to pick up the product to complete the bagging.

8. The self-service barcode scanning shopping system for cash registers according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The processing host is also configured to maintain physical isolation between the bagged goods and the bagged goods placement position when no payment completion signal is received.

9. The self-service barcode scanning shopping system for cash registers according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The import and / or export points of the goods are equipped with controllable gates controlled by the processing host.

10. A control method for a self-service barcode scanning shopping system for cash registers according to any one of claims 1-9, characterized in that, Includes the following steps: Product identification steps: The product identification module identifies the products that are fed into the product flipping roller; Bagging triggering steps: After successful product recognition, immediately control the product flipping roller to remove the product and trigger the bagging robot to start bagging; Payment confirmation steps: Complete the payment through the QR code payment module and generate a payment completion signal; Product release procedure: After receiving the payment completion signal, control the transfer of the bagged product to the bagged product placement position.

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