Automated Medicine Storage with Shadow Detection and Segmented Shelves
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automated systems face challenges in efficiently managing and storing diverse medicine products due to irregular sizes, leading to difficulties in transferring, detecting, gripping, and storing medicines within limited spaces, which complicates stock management and increases the risk of pharmaceutical errors.
Innovation Solution
An automated medicine storage and introduction/discharge management system that includes a main body with receiving shelves, a medicine introduction/discharge unit, a robot transfer unit, and a control unit, which measures medicine size using shadow detection, attaches labels, and enables horizontal and vertical movement of a robot arm for precise transfer and storage, ensuring safe handling and optimal storage conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If automated systems are used to manage medicine products, then productivity and automation extent are improved, but device complexity increases due to difficulties in detecting, gripping, and transferring medicines with irregular sizes
Solution Approach 1:
The medicine storage system is divided into multiple receiving spaces organized by size categories (first receiving space for small medicines, second receiving space for large medicines). This segmentation allows simplified detection and transfer mechanisms tailored to specific size ranges, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining high automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of medicine classification by size as the key organizing principle. By categorizing medicines into size-based receiving spaces, the system transforms the complexity of handling irregularly sized medicines into a manageable classification problem, enabling automated transfer mechanisms to operate more effectively.
2Device complexity
If manual recording of medicine products is used, then device complexity is reduced, but loss of information and pharmaceutical errors increase due to difficulty in managing enormous data
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs automatic detection mechanisms (sensors, scanners) that self-service the information gathering process. Medicine products are automatically detected, measured, and assigned to receiving spaces without manual intervention, eliminating human error in data recording while maintaining system simplicity through automated routines.
Solution Approach 2:
Manual recording processes are replaced with automated detection systems including sensors, scanners, and computer-controlled transfer mechanisms. This substitution eliminates human error in data entry and tracking, ensuring accurate medicine product management while reducing the mechanical complexity of manual operations.
3Quantity of substance
If medicines with irregular sizes are stored in limited space, then quantity of substance stored increases, but difficulty of detecting and measuring medicine size increases
Solution Approach 1:
The storage space is segmented into multiple receiving spaces categorized by size. This segmentation allows the system to handle irregularly sized medicines systematically, with each space designed for specific size ranges, thereby increasing storage capacity while simplifying the detection and measurement process through standardized size categories.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary detection and measurement of medicine size before storage. By measuring and classifying medicines in advance based on their dimensions, the system determines the appropriate receiving space beforehand, enabling efficient storage of maximum quantity while avoiding the difficulty of measuring during storage operations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system allows for efficient, automated storage and retrieval of medicine products, minimizing manual labor, reducing errors, and ensuring accurate tracking and management of medicine information, while maintaining optimal storage conditions for a variety of products, including tablets.
Implementation Method 1
measuring a size of the medicine product, which is introduced into the main body, by use of a shadow detection device
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is an automated medicine storage and medicine introduction/discharge management system, which includes a main body in which a plurality of receiving shelves is arranged, the main body having a door to enable user access, a medicine introduction/discharge unit installed in one side region of the main body to introduce or discharge a medicine product into or out of the main body, a robot transfer unit installed in the main body to transfer the medicine product, introduced via the medicine introduction/discharge unit, to each receiving space of the main body, or to discharge the medicine product received in the receiving space, and a control unit to control operations of the main body, the medicine introduction/discharge unit, and the robot transfer unit. The system is able to store a variety of medicine in a single main body and to achieve enhanced security for special medicine and efficient management of stock.