While convoluting falling the commodity which is entered from the commodity

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent erroneous counting of commodities in an automatic vending machine and to accurately detect a stock quantity. SOLUTION: When a distance from a distance sensor 7 to a lowermost part of a commodity storing rack 2 is a known L0, and if a distance L to a commodity nearest to a commodity supply opening 3 and a diameter D of commodities per column can be figured out, a commodity stock quantity N per column can be determined from an arithmetic equation of N=(L0-L)/D. The distance L is determined by the principle of triangulation by using the distance sensor 7, and the diameter D is determined from an image of the commodity.