Patent ID: 9501887
Filing Date: 2016-11-22
CPC Classification: A61J,G07F,G16H

Claim Text:
1. An object dispensing system, including: a housing comprising a rotatable carousel below a support frame, the rotatable carousel including a plurality of individually removable containers where each container provides a repository for objects therein; an access port in the support frame of the housing through which an object may be removed from each of the plurality of containers, in seriatim; a pre-dispense port in the support frame of the housing providing controlled access to one of a plurality of output containers; and a retrieval probe, said probe located within the confines of the housing and operatively sliding between the access port and the pre-dispense port, said probe including a compliant tip for releasably engaging an object in one of the plurality of containers via said access port, said probe retrieving the object from a container and then moving between the access port and the pre-dispense port to deliver the object to a dispensing receptacle via the pre-dispense port further comprising: a controller; a carousel rotation drive for causing the rotation of the carousel under the programmatic control of the controller; a retrieval probe slide motor, for causing the movement the sliding of the retrieval probe slide in a horizontal direction over the access port under the programmatic control of the controller; a vertical slide motor operatively associated with the retrieval probe to control the vertical position of the retrieval probe under the programmatic control of the controller; wherein the controller operates to alter the relative position between the retrieval probe and the container beneath the access port, thereby enabling the retrieval probe to attempt to retrieve an object from a plurality of horizontally spaced locations within a container.