Patent ID: 7637078

Claim:
A medicine supply apparatus, comprising: a plurality of tablet cases, each having an accommodating container of medicine, a discharging device for discharging medicine from the accommodating container by a discharging operation, and a drive motor which is coupled to the discharging device so as to be able to drive the discharging device and which is rotated in a predetermined direction to make the discharging device perform the discharging operation; and a control device that directs the driving motor to rotate in the predetermined direction for a time interval to perform the discharging operation, the control device being configured to periodically perform an abnormality detection operation in which an energized current is supplied to the driving motor for driving the driving motor in a direction opposite of the predetermined direction for a predetermined period of time which is less than the time interval to perform the discharging operation, a value of the energized current at the motor is measured, and an abnormality of the motor is detected if the value of the energized current is outside a predetermined range.