Low Cost Robotic Medicine Dispenser

This paper introduces the design and fabrication of a low cost scalable prototype of robotic medicine dispenser for the use of pharmacists. It has an automated capability to count the medicines and dispense into a vial. The novelty of this machine in terms of scalability is achieved by the utilizations of low cost materials and components that can be scaled with respect to the user end preferences. In addition to that, the custom design of the servo based cell, has more than 90% counting efficiency that were tested with ten different types of tablets/capsules of different sizes and shape which is discussed and compared to the existing machines in the market. The mechanical designs of the prototype together with the micro-controller's distributions, communication protocols and the PC application are covered in the article. (c) 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.