Medicine management system and processing method thereof

• US 7,555,875 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2007
• Issued: 07/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: JVM Company Limited
• Original Assignee: JVM Company Limited
• Inventors: Kim, Jun Ho
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong; Thanh K
• Application Number:
  US11/716,390
• Publication Number:
  US 20080115456A1
• Time in Patent Office: 851 Days
• Field of Search: 531/54, 532/37, 53/55, 534/73, 534/93, 221/92, 221/123, 221/124, 221/133, 221/2, 221/7, 221/9
• US Class Current: 53/154
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 5/103 for packaging pills or tablets
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00

Abstract

A medicine management system includes a medicine storage unit, keeping at least one new cassette in which medicines are accommodated; a robot unit including a gripper for gripping the new cassette; an automatic medicine packing apparatus, dispensing and packing medicines from a dispensing cassette thereof, and requesting replenishment of medicines when there is no medicine in the dispensing cassette; and a central control unit, controlling the robot unit to transmit movement control commands to the robot unit upon receiving the replenishment request, to mobilize the robot unit to transfer the empty dispensing cassette to a conveyer and gripping a new cassette in which the corresponding medicines are accommodated from the medicine storage unit and mounted to the automatic medicine packing apparatus.

Claims

1. A medicine management system, comprising:

a medicine storage unit storing at least one new cassette in which medicines are accommodated;

an automatic medicine packing apparatus having a receipt processing portion, a determining portion, a transmission processing portion, and a plurality of dispensing cassettes each having a medicine stored therein, the dispensing cassettes being mounted to a plurality of cartridges and configured to dispense medicines to be packed according to an external preparation request data received by the receipt processing portion, the transmission processing portion transmitting a medicine replenishment request signal when the determining portion determines one of the dispensing cassettes is empty;

a robot unit moving along a predetermined robot movement line and including a gripper for gripping the new cassette and the dispensing cassette, respectively;

a central control unit operable to transmit movement control commands to the robot unit when the transmission processing portion of the automatic medicine packing apparatus generates and transmits the medicine replenishment request signal to the central control unit, the central control unit transmitting movement control commands to the robot unit corresponding to the medicine replenishment request signal to mobilize the robot unit, the robot unit gripping the empty dispensing cassette requested to be replenished from the automatic medicine packing apparatus and transferring it to a conveyer and gripping a new cassette in which the corresponding medicines are accommodated in the medicine storage unit, and transferring and mounting the new cassette to the automatic medicine packing apparatus, in response to the movement control commands.

2. The medicine management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein a bar code for representing medicine information and cassette identification information is attached to the dispensing cassette and the new cassette.

3. The medicine management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the central control unit includes a storage portion operable to store medicine information for the medicines stored in the medicine storage unit and cassette identification information for the new cassettes in which the medicines are accommodated, an interface portion communicating with the automatic medicine packing apparatus, the medicine storage unit and the robot unit, a receipt processing portion operable to receive the medicine replenishment request signal from the transmission processing portion of the automatic medicine packing apparatus, a retrieval portion operable to receive the cassette information on the new cassette, in which the corresponding medicines are accommodated, from the medicine storage portion according to the received medicine replenishment request signal, and a transmission processing portion operable to transmit the movement control commands, including the cassette information for the dispensing cassette requested to be replenished with the medicines, the cassette information for the new cassette retrieved from the storage portion, and conveyer position information, to the robot unit through the interface portion.

4. The medicine management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the central control unit further includes an update processing portion operable to update the storage portion with new cassette identification information for the new cassette to be mounted according to the medicine replenishment request signal originating from the automatic medicine packing apparatus.

5. The medicine management system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the central control unit further includes a stock checking portion operable to check a stock of the medicine storage unit after the new cassette in which the medicines are accommodated and which is kept in the medicine storage unit is mounted to the automatic medicine packing apparatus by the robot unit.

6. The medicine management system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a medicine replenishing center to which the conveyor leads for delivering the empty dispensing cassette, the central control unit including a screen, the medicine replenishing center transmitting medicine and cassette identification information of the empty dispensing cassette to the central control unit to display the medicine and cassette identification information on the screen.

7. A medicine management system, comprising:

a medicine storage unit housing at least one new cassette in which medicines are accommodated;

an automatic medicine packing apparatus having a plurality of dispensing cassettes containing a plurality of medicines, respectively, the automatic medicine packing apparatus operable to pack medicines according to a preparation request data externally received and request replenishment of medicines when there is no medicine in the respective dispensing cassettes, the automatic medicine packing apparatus configured such that the plurality of dispensing cassettes are arranged in and mounted to a plurality of cartridges configured to be intermittently controlled, respectively, the medicines prescribed dose by dose being discharged through respective passages formed in the cartridges, the medicines discharged from the cartridges collected to a hopper, and the medicines collected to the hopper being discharged to the bottom side of the hopper and packed by a packing device and packing paper;

a robot unit operable to move along a predetermined robot movement line in order to advance toward the medicine storage unit, the automatic medicine packing apparatus and a conveyor, and to grip respective empty dispensing cassettes required to be replenished with corresponding medicines and the new cassette stored in the medicine storage unit;

a medicine replenishing center for reading medicine and cassette identification information on the empty dispensing cassette using a reader operable to read a bar code attached to the empty dispensing cassette, and transmit the read medicine and cassette identification information; and

a central control unit operable to control the robot unit and transmit movement control commands to the robot unit when the automatic medicine packing apparatus requests the empty dispensing cassettes to be replenished with corresponding medicines such that an empty dispensing cassette requested to be replenished is gripped in the automatic medicine packing apparatus and transferred to the conveyer, and the new cassette in which the corresponding medicines are accommodated is gripped in the medicine storage unit and mounted to the automatic medicine packing apparatus, the central control unit displaying medicine and cassette identification information of the empty dispensing cassette received from the medicine replenishing center on a screen.

8. The medicine management system as claimed in claim 7 wherein the central control unit includes a storage portion storing medicine information for the medicines stored in the medicine storage unit and cassette identification information for the new cassette in which the medicines are accommodated, an interface portion communicating with the automatic medicine packing apparatus, the medicine storage unit and the robot unit, a receipt processing portion operable to receive the medicine replenishment request signal from the automatic medicine packing apparatus, a retrieval portion operable to receive the cassette information on the new cassette, in which the corresponding medicines are accommodated, from the medicine storage portion according to the received medicine replenishment request signal, and a transmission processing portion operable to transmit the movement control commands, including the cassette information for the dispensing cassette requested to be replenished with the medicines, the cassette information for the new cassette retrieved from the storage portion, and conveyer position information, to the robot unit through the interface portion.

9. The medicine management system as claimed in claim 7 wherein the central control unit further includes an update processing portion operable to update the storage portion with new cassette identification information for the new cassette to be mounted according to the medicine replenishment request of the automatic medicine packing apparatus.

10. The medicine management system as claimed in claim 7 wherein the central control unit further includes a stock checking portion operable to check a stock of the medicine storage unit after the new cassette in which the medicines are accommodated and which is kept in the medicine storage unit is mounted to the automatic medicine packing apparatus by the robot unit.

11. The medicine management system as claimed in claim 7 wherein the automatic medicine packing apparatus includes a determining portion for determining whether or not there are medicines in the respective dispensing cassettes, and a transmission processing portion for generating the medicine replenishing request signal and transmitting it to the central control unit through the interface portion when there is no medicine in the respective dispensing cassettes.