Three dimensional adjustable cavity for flexible singulation of multiple medications in an automated medication dispenser

In the development of an effective medication management system to improve medication adherence, the challenge of flexibly dispensing of medications of multiple sizes and shapes was encountered. It is found that most of the medication dispensers in the market, as well as the feeding and orienting mechanisms in manufacturing sector, are customized to be operated with objects of specific size. In view of the inflexibility of those mechanisms, we proposed a novel method to handle and singulate medications of different sizes and shapes. A three dimensional adjustable cavity is designed as a carrier to separate and dispense one pill at a time. Rotational reciprocating vibration is then designed to provide centrifugal effect to the objects in hopper, in order to assist the singulation. An angle inclination test has been performed on the prototype built to investigate the optimum inclination of the feeding hopper. Preliminary testing has shown propitious results for dispensing round shape tablets of various sizes. The prototype built validated the concept of three dimensional adjustable cavity as a novel singulation technique. The mechanism is not only restricted to the dispensing of various sizes of pills, but has the potential to be implemented in dispensing or feeding of other objects in applications like vending machine, manufacturing system and etc.