A fully automated, unattended food cooking and vending machine

Abstract

This patent discloses an unattended food cooking and vending equipment, relating to the technical field of fully automated food cooking and vending equipment. After a customer places an order, no operation is required; the PLC controls various mechanisms of the equipment to complete the processes of feeding, cooking, serving, and dispensing. Simultaneously, equipment inventory information and fault monitoring can be pushed to a mobile app, truly achieving 24-hour unattended cooking and vending.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This patent relates to the field of automatic food cooking and vending equipment technology, specifically to an unattended food cooking and vending equipment, which is particularly suitable for cooking and selling frozen foods such as dumplings, glutinous rice balls, beef balls, and wontons. Background Technology

[0002] Currently, the cooking and selling of food on the market is mainly done manually. This is because labor costs are high, rent and decoration costs are high, and it is impossible to operate 24 hours a day. Therefore, developing a fully automated cooking and vending machine that is simple in structure, stable in operation, and can achieve unmanned operation from the moment a customer places an order, from feeding ingredients, cooking, serving, to serving, and can operate 24 hours a day, has become a technical problem that the industry urgently needs to solve. Summary of the Invention

[0003] (a) Purpose of the patent The purpose of this patent is to provide an unattended food cooking and vending equipment that realizes a fully automated system from food storage, feeding, cooking, bowling and serving. As long as there is water, electricity and food, no human intervention is required throughout the process, and it can operate 24 hours a day without human intervention.

[0004] (II) Technical Solution An unattended, fully automated food cooking and vending machine includes a storage mechanism, an automatic stirring and pressing feeding mechanism, an automatic cooking mechanism, an intelligent water supply mechanism, a paper bowl and tableware delivery mechanism, a food dispensing mechanism, and a PLC control mechanism. I will now use the cooking of frozen dumplings as an example to illustrate this.

[0005] 1. Ordering System: After a customer orders a pork and scallion dumpling online or on-site, the ordering system transmits the information to the PLC, which then commands the corresponding storage compartment's unloading mechanism to start.

[0006] 2. Storage mechanism: Taking dumplings as an example, the use of frozen storage can realize the long-term storage and sale of dumplings. After receiving the command from the PLC, the stirring device of the pork and green onion storage (1) is started to stir and break up the clumps or stuck dumplings.

[0007] 3. Automatic mixing and feeding mechanism: including a mixing device (3) and a movable turntable (2); the mixing device (3) is located below the storage bin (1), and the movable turntable (2) is located below the mixing device (3). After receiving the command from the PLC, when the turntable rotates, the receiving groove on the turntable aligns with the discharge hole of the storage bin (1). The mixing device either presses down or vibrates by rotating the propeller, allowing the dumplings to enter the receiving groove on the turntable. As the turntable continues to rotate, the frozen dumplings will not clump together due to the friction of rotation. When it rotates 180 degrees, the frozen dumplings in the receiving groove align with the discharge hole above the cooking pot, and the dumplings will leak into the cooking pot, thus completing the quantitative feeding.

[0008] 4. Intelligent water supply system: After the ingredients are poured into the pot, the PLC will also control the intelligent water supply system to automatically add water to the pot (4) according to the needs of the ingredients. Water can be added multiple times as needed when cooking dumplings. In addition, preheated hot water can be injected according to the needs of the ingredients to shorten the cooking time of dumplings. The preheating method can be instant heating or other heating methods.

[0009] 5. Automatic cooking mechanism: It is characterized by a cooking pot (4), which can provide different power according to different ingredients and different cooking methods. Under the control of PLC, after the cooking program is completed, it can automatically flip and pour the cooked food into the paper bowl below.

[0010] 6. Automatic tableware delivery and serving robot (5): It can move up and down and left and right along a predetermined track in various ways such as rack and pinion, belt, and robotic arm. Under the control of PLC, it drives the robot to accurately pick up the paper bowls in the paper bowl compartment and place them under the cooking pot (4). It receives the cooked food and delivers it to the serving port, prompting customers to pick up their food through voice or light.

[0011] 7. Auxiliary ingredient package dispensing mechanism: Bowl lids, chopsticks, takeout bags, seasoning packets, pickled vegetables, vacuum-packed beef cubes, beverages, etc. are made into auxiliary ingredient packages or boxes and placed on the spiral spring dispensing track. The PLC will push the corresponding number of auxiliary ingredient packages according to the number of meals ordered by the customer.

[0012] 8. Control mechanism: Using PLC or microcontroller, the ordering system, storage mechanism, stirring device (3), mobile turntable (2), water supply system, paper bowl gripping robot arm (5), cooking pot (4) and network are effectively connected, and the inventory balance and fault monitoring are uploaded to the mobile APP. The mechanism is controlled to work together according to the preset program to achieve unmanned operation of the whole process.

[0013] (III) Beneficial Effects Compared with existing technologies, this patent has the following beneficial effects: 1. Using PLC control, the entire process of ordering, storage, feeding, cooking, serving, and serving is fully automated and unattended, eliminating the labor, rent, and decoration costs that are the biggest in traditional operations.

[0014] 2. The equipment storage capacity is large, and the inventory and fault monitoring are visualized. As long as there is water and electricity, restocking is only required once a week, and one person can restock hundreds of machines.

[0015] 3. The equipment has a simple structure, stable operation, low failure rate, and is suitable for 24-hour operation. It is applicable to various scenarios such as subway stations, bus stations, train stations, highway service areas, shopping malls, schools, and communities, and has extremely high market promotion value. Attached Figure Description

[0016] Figure 1A schematic diagram of the overall structure of an unattended food cooking and vending equipment; Detailed Implementation

[0017] The following is in conjunction with the appendix Figure 1 Further details will be provided. Example

[0018] like Figure 1 As shown, an unattended food cooking and vending machine is provided with a storage and feeding layer, a cooking, serving and plating layer, and a water supply and auxiliary material ejection layer from top to bottom.

[0019] The storage structure includes multiple independent storage compartments (1), which are used to store various ingredients. Each storage compartment (1) is equipped with a stirring device (3) below it. The stirring device (3) adopts a rotating stirring structure and is integrated with the movable turntable compartment (2). It rotates at the same time to stir the ingredients in the corresponding storage compartment (1).

Claims

1. An unattended fully automatic food cooking and vending equipment, characterized by an ordering system, a storage silo (1), an automatic feeding mechanism (2, 3), an automatic cooking mechanism (4), an intelligent water supply mechanism (8), an automatic tableware delivery and serving robot (5), an auxiliary material package pushing mechanism (6), and a PLC automatic control mechanism.

2. The ordering system according to claim 1 includes online and offline payment and order placement by customers, and the device starts working after receiving the order placement signal.

3. The storage silo according to claim 1 can be frozen, refrigerated, or at room temperature. For example, if the contents are dumplings, wontons, meatballs, or glutinous rice balls, the storage silo is frozen; if the contents are mung bean balls or sweet potato balls, the storage silo is refrigerated or at room temperature.

4. The automatic feeding mechanism according to claim 1 includes a turntable (2) and a rotary mixing device (3).

5. The automatic cooking mechanism according to claim 1, characterized in that it includes a cooking pot (4), which can provide different power according to different ingredients and different cooking methods, and can automatically tilt and flip after cooking to pour the cooked food into the paper bowl below.

6. The intelligent water supply system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The PLC can control whether to add water, how much water to add, and whether to add cold or hot water according to different ingredients. It can also preheat the water injected into the pot as needed.

7. The automatic tableware delivery and serving robot (5) according to claim 1 is characterized in that it can move up and down and left and right along a predetermined track, and is used to pick up paper bowls and place them under the cooking pot (4) and to receive and serve meals.

8. The auxiliary material package pushing mechanism (6) according to claim 1 is characterized in that a spiral spring track feeding mechanism or a lever is used to push a corresponding number of auxiliary material packages according to the number of meals ordered by the customer.

9. The PLC automatic control mechanism according to claim 1 is characterized in that it controls the above-mentioned mechanisms to cooperate with each other to complete order processing, material feeding, cooking, food delivery, reminding customers to pick up their food, monitoring remaining inventory, and fault monitoring.

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