Modular In-Vehicle Vending Storage With Partition Access Control
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing in-vehicle vending systems face challenges such as space constraints, complexity, and safety concerns in public transportation vehicles, requiring significant installation space, driver involvement, and lack of control over individual items, leading to security and inventory management issues.
Innovation Solution
A compact, portable, and transformable vending apparatus with flexible storage partitions and access management devices, including sensors and locking mechanisms, that can be securely installed on vehicle seats, allowing individual access to each partition and enabling contactless transactions through a software program connected to a controller board for secure and efficient inventory management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a traditional vending apparatus is installed in a vehicle, then vending functionality is provided, but the apparatus occupies significant installation space and requires driver involvement
Solution Approach 1:
The vending apparatus is divided into multiple storage compartments, each capable of independently storing and dispensing different items. This segmentation allows the system to provide comprehensive vending functionality while maintaining a compact overall structure that fits within limited vehicle space constraints.
Solution Approach 2:
The apparatus is designed to serve multiple functions: it stores various items, provides automated dispensing, integrates with the vehicle's existing systems, and eliminates the need for driver involvement in the vending process, thereby providing a universal solution for in-vehicle retail needs.
2Reliability
If access management devices are added to control individual partitions, then security and inventory control are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple access management devices are integrated into a single unified control system that manages all storage compartments. This merging approach maintains individual partition control for security and inventory tracking while avoiding the complexity of separate independent control systems for each compartment.
Solution Approach 2:
The access management system operates autonomously, automatically tracking inventory levels, controlling compartment access, and managing item dispensing without requiring external intervention. This self-service capability enhances security and inventory control while minimizing the complexity of external control mechanisms.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the vending apparatus is made compact and portable, then installation flexibility is improved, but the quantity of items that can be stored is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
Storage compartments are arranged in a nested configuration where smaller compartments are positioned within or alongside larger ones. This nesting strategy maximizes the use of available vertical and horizontal space, allowing the compact apparatus to maintain adequate inventory capacity while preserving installation flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The apparatus utilizes three-dimensional space efficiently by arranging storage compartments in multiple levels and orientations. This dimensional optimization allows the compact design to accommodate a sufficient quantity of items while maintaining the portability and installation flexibility required for vehicle deployment.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to the area of vending technologies, in particular to the vending apparatuses, that can be installed in passenger carrying vehicles, as well as to the means and methods of vending using such apparatuses that enable automated sales of items, including the sales happening during ride-hailing, ridesharing, an autonomous taxi ride and use of a public transportation. Technical result achieved when the claimed group of inventions used is in increasing safety and integrity of the vending system, that is installed in a vehicle and used by both a passenger and a driver (or by a supplier, an independent vending service provider), while maintaining both the reliability of the system elements and the ergonomics of the vehicle interior. Thus claimed result is achieved by realization of the vending apparatus tailored to be placeable in a vehicle cabin as a removable transformable medium for storing and selling items, that contains the flat base, to which the plurality of the storage partitions is attached to, with individual access to each partition's content, and at least one closure element for the set of storage partitions that secures at least one partition by reversable fastening of its edge to the flat base, as well as the access-management devices associated with the a closure element, which perform functions of a sensor and/or a lock and/or a locking-sensor, connected with at least one board controller that manages the aforementioned devices of the vending apparatus's with the capability of data or signals exchange. The system for vending items in a vehicle cabin includes at least one vending apparatus described above, personal computing devices of a user and/or a supplier, equipped with installed software program enabling data exchange with the databases of the vending system, as well as a means of identifying a specific vending apparatus and/or a specific user that is to use it. The apparatus claimed, as well as the vending system based on it, are characterized by a high degree of ergonomics and transformability, as well as modularity of elements, which enable ease of transportability of the vending apparatuses or its elements, high level of safety and integrity of the vending system operation from each participant's side (a user and a driver or a vending service supplier).