Automatic air meal delivery system
The automated aerial food delivery system uses walking and lifting mechanisms to deliver food from a high position to the table, solving the problem that food delivery robots are easily affected by obstacles, and achieving fast food delivery and low-cost operation.
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Utility models(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Filing Date
- 2025-04-25
- Publication Date
- 2026-03-06
AI Technical Summary
Existing smart restaurant delivery robots and smart delivery vehicles are easily affected by people and obstacles in the store while moving around, resulting in low delivery efficiency and high costs, and there is a risk that food may be accidentally spilled.
An automated aerial food delivery system is adopted, which uses a walking mechanism and a lifting mechanism to deliver food from a high position in the kitchen to the table. The walking mechanism achieves horizontal movement through guide components and a moving platform, while the lifting mechanism achieves vertical movement through telescopic components and lifting components. Combined with guide components, synchronous belt or chain drive and hoisting structure, collisions with people and obstacles are avoided, thus improving food delivery speed and reducing costs.
It effectively avoids customer traffic and obstacles in the restaurant, improves food delivery speed, reduces the risk of food collisions, reduces labor costs, and has a simple structure with low maintenance costs.
Smart Images
Figure CN223973728U_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] This utility model relates to the field of automated catering equipment technology, specifically to an automated aerial food delivery system. Background Technology
[0002] In traditional restaurants, chefs prepare food in the kitchen, and waiters deliver it to customers' tables. This requires a certain number of chefs and waiters, resulting in significant labor costs. With technological advancements, semi-automated / fully automated smart restaurants are becoming increasingly common. These smart restaurants utilize automated equipment to cook food according to pre-set processes, and then delivery robots and smart delivery carts deliver the food to tables. While these smart restaurants reduce the number of employees and lower labor costs, the delivery robots and smart delivery carts still have some issues. A prominent problem is that they are easily affected by pedestrian traffic and obstacles, frequently needing to maneuver around customers, increasing the risk of food being accidentally spilled, and their relatively slow movement speed hinders delivery efficiency. Furthermore, higher levels of automation generally lead to higher costs. Utility Model Content
[0003] The purpose of this invention is to overcome the shortcomings in the above-mentioned background technology and provide an automated aerial food delivery system. This food delivery system has the technical characteristics of simple structure, fast delivery speed and low operating cost.
[0004] The technical solution adopted in this utility model is as follows:
[0005] An automated aerial food delivery system includes:
[0006] tray;
[0007] The traveling mechanism includes a guide component, a moving platform that fits on the guide component, and a traveling assembly that drives the moving platform to slide along the guide component.
[0008] The lifting mechanism has a telescopic component and a lifting assembly. The upper end of the telescopic component is connected to the mobile platform, and the lower end is connected to the tray. The lifting assembly is set on the mobile platform and connected to the telescopic component. When the lifting assembly moves, the telescopic component extends or retracts. When it extends, the tray descends, and when it retracts, the tray rises.
[0009] In a further embodiment, the walking assembly includes a first power source, a drive wheel, a tension wheel, and a traction component. The first power source is fixed on the moving platform, the drive wheel is fixed on the output shaft of the first power source, the traction component is wound around the drive wheel and tensioned by the tension wheel, and the two ends of the traction component extend a distance in a direction parallel to the guide component, and then the positions of the two ends are fixed.
[0010] In a further embodiment, the drive wheel is a synchronous pulley and the traction component is a synchronous belt; or, the drive wheel is a sprocket and the traction component is a chain.
[0011] In a further embodiment, the walking assembly includes a first power source and a gear and a rack. The rack and the guide component are arranged in parallel. The first power source is fixed on the moving platform, and the gear is fixed on the output shaft of the first power source and meshes with the rack.
[0012] In a further embodiment, the walking assembly includes a first power source, walking wheels, and a support component. The first power source is fixed on the mobile platform, the walking wheels are fixed on the output shaft of the first power source, and the support component and the guide component are arranged in parallel. The walking wheels move along the support component under the drive of the first power source.
[0013] In a further embodiment, the tray is provided with at least one of an indicator light and a speaker.
[0014] In a further embodiment, the walking mechanism is provided with two guide components, which are arranged in parallel and maintain a distance. The two guide components are fixed to the mounting base by several brackets. A shielding strip is provided between the guide components. The two ends of the shielding strip are connected to the two ends of the moving platform to form a closed loop structure. Guide rollers for guiding the shielding strip are provided on each bracket and between the guide components.
[0015] In a further embodiment, the lifting assembly includes a second power source, a drum, and a lifting rope. The drum is rotatably mounted on the mobile platform and connected to the second power source. The upper end of the lifting rope is fixed to the drum, and the lower end is connected to the lower part of the telescopic component.
[0016] In a further embodiment, the telescopic component includes at least two telescopic joints that are nested together, with an anti-rotation structure between the telescopic joints to prevent circumferential rotation.
[0017] In a further embodiment, the drum is located above the telescopic component, and a clearance opening is provided on the moving platform. The lower end of the lifting rope passes through the clearance opening into the inner hole of each telescopic joint and connects to the lowest telescopic joint.
[0018] The beneficial effects of this utility model are:
[0019] (1) This utility model can be installed at a high position in the restaurant, such as the ceiling or beam of the restaurant. The food is kept at a high position during the process of moving from the kitchen to the table, and then descends vertically after arriving at the table. This can effectively avoid the flow of customers and obstacles such as tables and chairs in the restaurant, reduce the possibility of food colliding with customers and obstacles, and help ensure the safety of customers.
[0020] (2) The walking mechanism uses the walking components to drive the mobile platform to slide back and forth, which can run at a relatively fast speed. The lifting components of the lifting mechanism can drive the tray to lift and lower through the telescopic parts, and deliver the food in the tray to the designated table. The telescopic parts have an anti-rotation structure, so the tray will not rotate during the lifting and lowering process. The operation is stable. The overall structure and operation mode are relatively simple, the procurement and maintenance costs are low, and the number of service personnel can be reduced, thus reducing labor costs.
[0021] Additional aspects and advantages of this invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. Attached Figure Description
[0022] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application, the accompanying drawings used in the embodiments of this application will be briefly introduced below. It should be understood that the following drawings only show some embodiments of this application and should not be regarded as a limitation of the scope. For those skilled in the art, other related drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.
[0023] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the main structure of an embodiment of the present utility model.
[0024] Figure 2 This is a top view of an embodiment of the present invention.
[0025] Figure 3 This is a partial structural schematic diagram of an embodiment of the present utility model.
[0026] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of the layout of a restaurant according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0027] The diagram includes: 1. Lifting motor; 2. Traveling motor; 3. Guide rail; 4. Slider; 5. Synchronous pulley; 6. Synchronous belt; 7. Pallet; 8. Telescopic component; 9. Drum; 10. Belt; 11. Coupling; 12. Reducer; 13. Indicator light; 14. Speaker; 15. Profile; 16. Bracket; 17. Guide roller; 18. Tensioning wheel; 19. Connecting plate; 20. Clearance opening; 21. Kitchen; 22. Dining table; 100. Automated aerial food delivery system. Detailed Implementation
[0028] To enable those skilled in the art to more clearly understand the purpose, technical solution and advantages of this utility model, the present utility model will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and embodiments, but the present utility model is not limited to the following embodiments.
[0029] In the description of this utility model, it should be noted that the terms "upper", "lower", "inner", "outer", "front end", "rear end", "both ends", "one end", "the other end", etc., indicate the orientation or positional relationship based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the accompanying drawings. They are only for the convenience of describing this utility model and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, or be constructed and operated in a specific orientation. Therefore, they should not be construed as limitations on this utility model.
[0030] In this utility model, unless otherwise explicitly specified and limited, terms such as "installation," "connection," "joining," and "fixing" should be interpreted broadly. For example, they can refer to a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integral part; they can refer to a direct connection or an indirect connection through an intermediate medium; they can refer to the internal communication of two components or the interaction between two components. Those skilled in the art can understand the specific meaning of the above terms in this utility model according to the specific circumstances.
[0031] like Figure 1 , Figure 2 , Figure 3 As shown, this embodiment provides an automated aerial food delivery system, mainly used in semi-automatic / fully automatic smart restaurants, to deliver food from the kitchen 21 to the table 22, including a tray 7, a walking mechanism and a lifting mechanism.
[0032] The function of the walking mechanism is to realize the horizontal movement of the food. The walking mechanism is installed at a high place in the restaurant, such as the ceiling or beam, and includes a horizontally arranged guide component, a moving platform that slides on the guide component, and a walking component.
[0033] In this embodiment, the guiding component can be an existing guiding component such as a guide rail or optical axis, and the moving platform can be equipped with a corresponding sliding component to cooperate with the guiding component, such as a slider or sliding sleeve. Figure 3 The diagram shows the cooperation between the guide rail 3 and the slider 4. To ensure the straightness of the guide rail 3, this embodiment also includes a profile 15 to fix the guide rail 3 to the profile 15. It should be noted that if the strength of the guide component is sufficient to maintain its straightness, the profile 15 can be omitted.
[0034] In this embodiment, the number of guide components is set as needed. Figure 3The illustrated traveling mechanism has two guide components arranged in parallel with a lateral distance between them. These components are fixed to the ceiling or beam via several gantry-shaped brackets 16. To improve aesthetics, a shielding strip (a belt 10 of suitable width can be used) is installed between the two guide rails 3. The two ends of the shielding strip are connected to the two ends of the moving platform to form a closed loop. Each bracket 16 has a guide roller 17 for the shielding strip, and a guide roller 17 for the shielding strip is also provided between the two guide rails 3. It is important to note that the guide rollers 17 between the guide rails 3 must be positioned outside the travel range of the moving platform to avoid interference. When the moving platform moves towards one end of the guide rails 3, the shielding strip at that end shortens, while the other end lengthens, thus accommodating the movement of the moving platform while consistently shielding the gap between the two guide rails 3.
[0035] In this embodiment, the function of the walking component is to drive the mobile platform to slide back and forth along the guide rail 3. The walking component can be implemented in various ways.
[0036] Implementation method one: such as Figure 3 As shown, the walking assembly adopts a belt drive method, including a first power source, a synchronous pulley 5 as a drive wheel, a tensioning pulley 18, and a synchronous belt 6 as a traction component. The first power source is fixed to the moving platform, including a walking motor 2 and a reducer 12 connected to it. The synchronous pulley 5 is fixed on the output shaft of the reducer 12, and the synchronous belt 6 is wound around the synchronous pulley 5. Tensioning pulleys 18 for tensioning the synchronous belt 6 are provided on both sides of the synchronous pulley 5. The two ends of the synchronous belt 6 extend forward and backward a certain distance in a direction parallel to the guide rail 3, and then the positions of the two ends are fixed to other structures (such as brackets 16, walls, etc.).
[0037] When the travel motor 2 is working, the synchronous pulley 5 rotates. Since the position of the synchronous belt 6 is fixed, the synchronous pulley 5 will move, causing the moving platform to slide along the guide rail 3. During this process, the forward and reverse rotation of the travel motor 2 will cause the sliding direction of the moving platform to be opposite.
[0038] Implementation Method 2: The difference from Implementation Method 1 is that the belt drive is replaced with a chain drive, the drive wheel is replaced with a sprocket, and the traction component is replaced with a chain. When the sprocket rotates, it can drive the mobile platform to slide back and forth along the guide rail 3.
[0039] Implementation Method 3: The difference from Implementation Method 1 is that the belt drive is replaced with a gear and rack drive. The rack is arranged parallel to the guide rail 3 (the rack is fixed by the profile 15 or the bracket 16). The gear is fixed on the output shaft of the reducer 12 and meshes with the rack. When the gear rotates, it can drive the moving platform to slide back and forth along the guide rail 3.
[0040] Implementation Method 4: The difference from Implementation Method 1 is that the belt drive is replaced with a traveling wheel. The traveling wheel is fixed on the output shaft of the reducer 12. The traveling wheel is equipped with a support component (it is recommended to use a long strip of steel plate or a steel channel that is compatible with the traveling wheel). The support component is arranged parallel to the guide rail 3 (the support component is fixed by the profile 15 or the bracket 16). Its function is to provide friction for the traveling wheel. When the traveling motor 2 is started, the traveling wheel moves along the support component, carrying the moving platform to slide back and forth along the guide rail 3.
[0041] In this embodiment, the lifting mechanism is used to move the food vertically. The lifting mechanism includes a telescopic component 8 and a lifting assembly. The telescopic component 8 includes at least two interlocking telescopic joints. To prevent circumferential rotation between the circular telescopic joints, an anti-rotation structure is provided between them. For example, grooves along the generatrix are stamped on each telescopic joint, and the grooves of each telescopic joint are nested sequentially to achieve the anti-rotation function. Alternatively, other telescopic joints with edges can be used directly, such as... Figure 3 The lifting guide rod shown, composed of multiple square telescopic joints, achieves anti-rotation without the need for stamping grooves. In this embodiment, the telescopic component 8 is located between two guide rails 3. The uppermost telescopic joint is fixedly connected to the bottom of the moving platform, and the lowermost telescopic joint is fixedly connected to the bottom or side of the tray 7 via a connecting plate 19. The tray 7 is used to place tableware containing food and has upward-folded edges around its perimeter.
[0042] The lifting assembly is mounted on the mobile platform. The lifting assembly is a winch structure, including a lifting motor 1 (as a second power source), a drum 9, and a lifting rope. The drum 9 is rotatably mounted on the mobile platform via a support. The shaft of the drum 9 is connected to the lifting motor 1 mounted on the mobile platform via a coupling 11. The drum 9 is located above the telescopic component 8. A clearance opening 20 is provided on the mobile platform. The upper end of the lifting rope is fixed to the drum 9, and the lower end of the lifting rope passes through the clearance opening 20 into the inner hole of each telescopic joint and connects to the lowest telescopic joint. After the lifting motor 1 of the lifting assembly is started, the drum 9 rotates. When rotating in one direction, the drum 9 gradually retracts the lifting rope, the telescopic component 8 shortens, and the tray 7 rises. When rotating in the other direction, the telescopic component 8 extends, and the tray 7 descends under gravity.
[0043] The tray 7 is equipped with an indicator light 13 and a speaker 14, which provide sound and light prompts during food delivery or after the food has been delivered, thereby reminding customers.
[0044] It should be noted that in this embodiment, the actions of the indicator light 13, the speaker 14, the walking mechanism, and the lifting mechanism are all completed under the control of the controller.
[0045] like Figure 4As shown, the automated aerial food delivery system 100 provided in this embodiment, when applied in a restaurant, has one end of the walking mechanism located in the kitchen 21 and the other end extending to the top or side of the dining table 22 in the restaurant. One food delivery system can be arranged for each row of dining tables 22, or two rows of dining tables 22 can share one automated aerial food delivery system 100. Multiple automated aerial food delivery systems 100 can be arranged in the restaurant.
[0046] Once the food is prepared, automated equipment or manual labor in kitchen 21 places the food-filled tableware into a tray 7 that has been lowered to a set height. The control unit then moves the lifting mechanism to raise the tray 7 to the set height. The traveling mechanism then moves the tray 7 above the customer's table 22. The lifting mechanism lowers the tray 7 back to the set height, allowing the customer to retrieve their food. Throughout this process, indicator lights 13 and speakers 14 provide continuous alerts, either during or after the tray 7 has descended with the food, minimizing the possibility of collisions. After the customer has retrieved their food, the tray 7 is raised back to the set height, returns to kitchen 21, and lowers again to await the next delivery.
[0047] Obviously, in addition to food delivery, this embodiment can also realize the recycling of tableware from the table 22 to the kitchen 21 according to the requirements of the application scenario. After the customer finishes eating, he / she can put the tableware in the tray 7, which is then sent back to the kitchen 21 for processing by manual or automated equipment. The workflow of this recycling process is basically the opposite of the food delivery process, and will not be described again here.
[0048] The above description is merely a preferred embodiment of this utility model. For those skilled in the art, various modifications and variations are possible. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, or improvements made within the spirit and principles of this utility model should be included within the protection scope of this utility model.
Claims
1. An automated over-the-air food delivery system, comprising: The utility model relates to a kind of movable platform and lifting mechanism, including: Tray (7); Walking mechanism, with guide component, mobile platform is matched on guide component, walking assembly driven mobile platform slide along guide component; Lifting mechanism, with telescopic component (8) and lifting assembly, the upper end of telescopic component (8) is connected with mobile platform, lower end is connected with tray (7), lifting assembly is set on mobile platform and is connected with telescopic component (8), lifting assembly act when telescopic component (8) lengthens or shortens, lengthens when tray (7) drops, shortens when tray (7) rises.
2. The automated over-the-air food delivery system of claim 1, wherein: The walking assembly includes a first power source, a drive wheel, a tensioning wheel (18), and a traction member. The first power source is fixed on the mobile platform. The drive wheel is fixed on the output shaft of the first power source. The traction member is wound around the drive wheel and is tensioned by the tensioning wheel (18). The two ends of the traction member extend a distance in a direction parallel to the guide component, and then the positions of the two ends are fixed.
3. An automated over-the-air food delivery system according to claim 2, wherein: The drive wheel is a synchronous belt wheel (5), and the traction member is a synchronous belt (6). Alternatively, the drive wheel is a sprocket, and the traction member is a chain.
4. The automated over-the-air food delivery system of claim 1, wherein: The walking assembly includes a first power source and a gear and a rack. The rack is arranged parallel to the guide component. The first power source is fixed on the mobile platform. The gear is fixed on the output shaft of the first power source and is engaged with the rack.
5. The automated over-the-air food delivery system of claim 1, wherein: The walking assembly includes a first power source, a walking wheel, and a support member. The first power source is fixed on the mobile platform. The walking wheel is fixed on the output shaft of the first power source. The support member is arranged parallel to the guide component. The walking wheel is driven by the first power source to walk along the support member.
6. The automated over-the-air food delivery system of claim 1, wherein: The tray (7) is provided with at least one of an indicator light (13) and a loudspeaker (14).
7. The automated over-the-air food delivery system of claim 1, wherein: The walking mechanism is provided with two guide components. The two guide components are arranged in parallel and maintain a distance. The two guide components are fixed on the mounting base by a plurality of supports (16). A gap between the guide components is provided with a shielding belt. The two ends of the shielding belt are connected to the two ends of the mobile platform to form a closed loop structure. Guide rollers (17) for guiding the shielding belt are arranged on each support (16) and between the guide components.
8. An automated over-the-air food delivery system according to any one of claims 1-7, wherein: The lifting assembly includes a second power source, a winding drum (9), and a lifting rope. The winding drum (9) is rotatably installed on the mobile platform and is connected to the second power source. The upper end of the lifting rope is fixed on the winding drum (9), and the lower end is connected to the lower part of the telescopic component (8).
9. An automated over-the-air food delivery system according to claim 8, wherein: The telescopic component (8) includes at least two telescopic sections that are sleeved with each other. Anti-rotation structures are arranged between the telescopic sections to prevent circumferential rotation.
10. The automated over-the-air food delivery system of claim 9, wherein: The winding drum (9) is located above the telescopic component (8). An avoidance opening (20) is formed in the mobile platform. The lower end of the lifting rope passes through the inner holes of the telescopic sections from the avoidance opening (20) and is connected to the lowermost telescopic section.