Patent attributes
A solution for consumer self-service merchandise order placement, payment, and pick up, integrated with a merchant's Internet e-commerce site and with an effective merchant point-of-sale management system. The solution includes a system and apparatus and of a set of specific business methods. A self-service merchandising machine for un-attended, autonomous, and automatic dispensing of retail products includes an input/output subsystem; a control subsystem having and being based upon a computer; a specially configured storage subsystem; a unique pick-and-place robotic-based product retrieval subsystem with an adaptive material handling system; and a product extraction subsystem. A related method of using the machine includes the steps of enabling self-service retail sale; permitting Internet sale with local merchandise pick-up; managing the business operations of the system; replenishing inventory using Kanban methods; restocking inventory; operating and monitoring a security camera; handling Category I error; and handling Category II error.
