Year : 2019
Mentors : Sachin Gajjar
Students involved : 16BEC046 - Ishan Lakhwani, 16BME052 - Dhruv Shah, 17BEE041-Keval Vora
Project : Link
Abstract: A weight-based retail vending machine that can replace a large mass of current vending machines is designed, developed and tested in this project. The presently available vending systems are (i) product specific, (ii) require periodic maintenance, (iii) have complex user interface, (iv) does not come with inventory feedback system (v) is costly. To solve these a weight based retail vending machine is designed using Raspberry Pi, 16 x 2 LCD Screen, Relays, Magnetic locks, Weighing Machine, RFID Reader/writer, SMPS(Switched Mode Power Supply) and Keypad. The weight based vending machine has shelves in which products are placed and users after logging on can open a shelf and take the product. According to the difference in weights of before and after opening of the shelf the user is billed. Billing is done using an NFC card based payment system. The vending machine has minimum moving parts which includes shelf door hinges. This makes it free from mechanical failures, periodic services and is free from problems of stuck products. Users can purchase multiple products in one transaction. Use of NFC cards decreases buying time compared to cash payments. The seller can frequently change products to be sold. Cost of the retail vending machine is half of the commercially available retail vending machines. The machine includes inventory feedback and theft detection facilities. The system automatically sends email and mobile messages to the supplier when stock of the product is about to get exhausted. A camera mounted on the machine prevents theft of items. The system has a stock requirement prediction system which analyses trends and patterns of previous transactions. The analysis is used to forecast future transactions which in turn is used to predict product stock requirements.