An automatic vending machine includes a cabinet, a plurality of item columns, a pickup port and a delivery apparatus, and the delivery apparatus includes a hopper and a hopper drive mechanism. An item dispensing method of the automatic vending machine includes: determining, according to items to be purchased, all of item combination manners having a lowest number of item dispensing operations as candidate item combination manners; determining all of pickup manners for picking up items in each of the candidate item combination manners; determining all of item dispensing paths in one-to-one correspondence to all of pickup manners of all of the candidate item combination manners; and selecting, from all of the item dispensing paths, an item dispensing path having a highest efficiency as a target item dispensing path, and controlling, based on the target item dispensing path, the hopper to dispense items.

An automatic vending machine includes a cabinet, a plurality of item columns, a pickup port and a delivery apparatus, and the delivery apparatus includes a hopper and a hopper drive mechanism. An item dispensing method of the automatic vending machine includes: determining, according to items to be purchased, all of item combination manners having a lowest number of item dispensing operations as candidate item combination manners; determining all of pickup manners for picking up items in each of the candidate item combination manners; determining all of item dispensing paths in one-to-one correspondence to all of pickup manners of all of the candidate item combination manners; and selecting, from all of the item dispensing paths, an item dispensing path having a highest efficiency as a target item dispensing path, and controlling, based on the target item dispensing path, the hopper to dispense items.

Disclosed is an automated pill dispenser, which provide a plurality of pill dispensing modules. The plurality of pill dispensing modules may have a first pill dispensing module and a second first pill dispensing module, and the first pill dispensing module has a first dispensing belt that dispenses a first individual pill and the second pill dispensing module having a second dispensing belt dispenses a second individual pill. One or more sensors may be used to monitor operation of the automated pill dispenser for dispensing medication by the plurality of pill dispensing modules. Also disclosed is a cloud-based resource and information tracking services for medical patients and healthcare providers and a hardware device that solves significant healthcare problems.

A system and method for participating in and operating a distributed computing pool are disclosed. Computing pools combine computational resources from a plurality of computing devices over a network by splitting jobs into smaller jobs and distributing those smaller jobs to the computing devices so that they can be solved in parallel with little or no overlap in the work performed. The computing devices attempt to find solutions to the smaller jobs. Solutions found are signed and submitted back to the pool. The pool uses the signature to confirm the true origin of the solution and that the solution has not been tampered with.

A system of the present disclosure has a housing that has at least one vertical channel for housing a plurality of medicine bottles laterally stacked in the channel, the channel has a first gate positioned above a trough and positioned such that when open, the first gate is beneath a first of the plurality of medicine bottles. Further, the channel has a second gate positioned above the first gate and positioned such that when open, the second gate is beneath a second of the plurality of medicine bottles, the second of the plurality of medicine bottles atop the first of the plurality of medicine bottles. The housing further comprising a trough for catching falling medicine bottles. The system further has a processor that sends a signal to a first servo motor coupled to the first gate at a predetermined time, the servo motor opening the first gate and allowing the first of the plurality of medicine bottles to fall into the trough. The processor further sends a signal to a second servo motor coupled to the second gate, the second servo motor opening the second gate and allowing the second of the plurality of medicine bottles to fall into a position where the first of the plurality of medicine bottles was held before the first of the plurality of medicine bottles fell into the trough.

A system of the present disclosure has a housing that has at least one vertical channel for housing a plurality of medicine bottles laterally stacked in the channel, the channel has a first gate positioned above a trough and positioned such that when open, the first gate is beneath a first of the plurality of medicine bottles. Further, the channel has a second gate positioned above the first gate and positioned such that when open, the second gate is beneath a second of the plurality of medicine bottles, the second of the plurality of medicine bottles atop the first of the plurality of medicine bottles. The housing further comprising a trough for catching falling medicine bottles. The system further has a processor that sends a signal to a first servo motor coupled to the first gate at a predetermined time, the servo motor opening the first gate and allowing the first of the plurality of medicine bottles to fall into the trough. The processor further sends a signal to a second servo motor coupled to the second gate, the second servo motor opening the second gate and allowing the second of the plurality of medicine bottles to fall into a position where the first of the plurality of medicine bottles was held before the first of the plurality of medicine bottles fell into the trough.

A novel food station comprises first and second pluralities of cubbies, each sized to enclose a food portion container, and a food collection hatch that is selectively externally accessible. A heating system can controllably heat one or more of the first plurality of cubbies independently of the first plurality of cubbies, and a cooling system can cool one or more of the second plurality of cubbies independently of the first plurality of cubbies. An internal transport system including an end effector that temporarily couples to the portion container carrier of a selected cooled cubby of the second plurality of cubbies and can controllably move the food portion container carrier to a selected heated cubby or to the food collection hatch.

A novel food station comprises first and second pluralities of cubbies, each sized to enclose a food portion container, and a food collection hatch that is selectively externally accessible. A heating system can controllably heat one or more of the first plurality of cubbies independently of the first plurality of cubbies, and a cooling system can cool one or more of the second plurality of cubbies independently of the first plurality of cubbies. An internal transport system including an end effector that temporarily couples to the portion container carrier of a selected cooled cubby of the second plurality of cubbies and can controllably move the food portion container carrier to a selected heated cubby or to the food collection hatch.

Provided is a coffee vending machine including: a plurality of capsule stacking parts arranged in a lattice form to stack capsules therein in a first direction, a capsule feeding unit disposed at the centers of the bottoms of the capsule stacking parts to feed the capsules quantitatively, a coffee brewing part for seating the capsule fed from the capsule feeding unit, feeding water to the capsule, and brewing coffee to be provided for a consumer, and a cup discharging part for discharging a cup in which the coffee is contained to the outside. The coffee brewing part allows the capsule to be seated onto a seating groove when first and second portion seating parts are adjacent thereto or contacted with each other and allows the capsule to be freely fallen through a space formed between the first and second portion seating parts when they are spaced apart from each other.

An automatic warehouse (1), comprising: a frame (2), defining a prismatic-shaped containment volume (V), with a vertical axis (X); an elevator (3), arranged inside the containment volume (V), comprising a flat bed (4), movable along a vertical direction; a locking device (101), interposed between the frame (2) and the elevator (3), which is operable between a locking configuration, in which the elevator (3) is constrained to the frame (2) with respect to the vertical movements and cannot move vertically, and a release configuration, in which the elevator (3) can move vertically. The locking device (101) can be activated on command from a predetermined zone of the frame (2), which can be positioned with great flexibility, based on any access needs.