Energy-efficient systems and methods for producing and vending ice

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11922388-B2
Application number	US-202318116567-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 2, 2023
Priority date	Feb 5, 2020
Publication date	Mar 5, 2024
Grant date	Mar 5, 2024

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided herein for producing and vending ice in an energy-efficient manner. A system for producing and vending ice comprises: an ice-making device configured to manufacture ice; a reservoir coupled to the ice-making device and configured to store the manufactured ice manufactured; and a control circuit communicatively coupled to the ice-making device, the control circuit configured to: determine a beginning ice inventory at a first time; determine a predicted ice demand for a first period, wherein the predicted ice demand is a function of at least a historical factor, a weather factor, a customer social event factor, and a public social event factor; determine an ice manufacturing quantity based on the beginning ice inventory, the predicted ice demand, and a manufacturing capacity of the ice-making device; and cause the ice-making device to produce an amount of ice consistent with the determined ice manufacturing quantity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An energy-efficient system for producing and vending ice, the system comprising:
an ice-making device configured to manufacture ice;
a reservoir coupled to the ice-making device and configured to store the ice manufactured by the ice-making device; and
a control circuit communicatively coupled to the ice-making device, the control circuit configured to:
determine a beginning ice inventory at a first time;
determine an ice manufacturing quantity based on the beginning ice inventory, a predicted ice demand for a first period, and a manufacturing capacity of the ice-making device, wherein the predicted ice demand is a function of at least one of a historical factor, a weather factor, a customer social event factor, and a public social event factor; and
cause the ice-making device to produce an amount of ice consistent with the determined ice manufacturing quantity.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the ice manufacturing quantity is further determined based on an estimated energy cost of storing excess manufactured ice.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a user interface communicatively coupled to the control circuit, the user interface configured to allow a customer to select an amount of ice manufactured by the ice-making device; and
a payment system communicatively coupled to the control circuit and the user interface, the payment system configured to execute a payment transaction for the amount of ice selected by the customer.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
determine an ending inventory at a second time; and
vary a price of the manufactured ice displayed on the user interface based on the ending inventory and an estimated energy cost associated with storing the manufactured ice forming the ending inventory.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a packaging system coupled to the ice-making device and the control circuit, the packaging system configured to individually package amounts of ice manufactured by the ice-making device.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to instruct the packaging system to individually package various amounts of manufactured ice based on one or more of the factors associated with the predicted ice demand.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to instruct the packaging system to package a particular amount of manufactured ice based on a customer's selection via the user interface.

8. The system of claim 3 , further comprising:
a historical database comprising data relating to past ice demand for determining the historical factor;
a weather engine configured to collect and provide data for determining the weather factor;
a customer database comprising data for determining the customer social event factor; and
a public social event database comprising data for determining the public social event factor;
wherein the historical database, weather engine, customer database, and public social event database are communicatively coupled to the control circuit associated with the ice-making device via a remote server.

9. The system of claim 8 , further comprising an inventory database communicatively coupled to the control circuit, wherein the inventory database identifies products historically associated with a purchase of ice, and the control circuit causes the user interface to display a suggested item for purchase based on one or more of the products historically associated with a purchase of ice, the data for determining the customer social event factor, and the data for determining the public social event factor.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the ice-making device, reservoir, and control circuit are housed in a standalone self-service kiosk located outside of a retail facility.

11. An energy-efficient method of producing and vending ice, the method comprising:
providing an ice-making device configured to manufacture ice and a reservoir coupled to the ice-making device and configured to store the ice manufactured by the ice-making device;
determining, using a control circuit associated with the ice-making device, a beginning ice inventory at a first time;
determining, using the control circuit, an ice manufacturing quantity based on the beginning ice inventory, a predicted ice demand for a first period, and a manufacturing capacity of the ice-making device, wherein the predicted ice demand is a function of at least one of a historical factor, a weather factor, a customer social event factor, and a public social event factor; and
automatically producing an amount of ice using the ice-making device, wherein the amount of ice produced is consistent with the determined ice manufacturing quantity.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the ice manufacturing quantity is further determined based on an estimated energy cost of storing excess manufactured ice.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the ice-making device and control circuit are further coupled to:
a user interface communicatively coupled to the control circuit, the user interface configured to allow a customer to select an amount of ice manufactured by the ice-making device; and
a payment system communicatively coupled to the control circuit and the user interface, the payment system configured to execute a payment transaction for the amount of ice selected by the customer.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
determining, using the control circuit, an ending inventory at a second time; and
automatically varying a price of the manufactured ice displayed on the user interface based on the ending inventory and an estimated energy cost associated with storing the manufactured ice forming the ending inventory.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the ice-making device and control circuit are further coupled to a packaging system configured to individually package amounts of ice manufactured by the ice-making device.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising providing an electronic instruction to the packaging system to individually package various amounts of manufactured ice based on one or more of the factors associated with the predicted ice demand.

17. The method of claim 15 , further comprising providing an electronic instruction to the packaging system to package a particular amount of manufactured ice based on a customer's selection via the user interface.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the control circuit associated with the ice-making device is communicatively coupled, via a remote server, to:
a historical database comprising data relating to past ice demand for determining the historical factor;
a weather engine configured to collect and provide data for determining the weather factor;
a customer database comprising data for determining the customer social event factor; and
a public social event database comprising data for determining the public social event factor.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising electronically displaying on the user interface a suggested item for purchase based on one or more of the data for determining the customer social event factor, the data for determining the public social event factor, and products historically associated with a purchase of ice, wherein the products historically associated with a purchase of ice are identified in an inventory database communicatively coupled to the control circuit associated with the ice-making device.

20. The method of claim 11 ,

Assignees

• Walmart Apollo Llc

Inventors

• Jalali Rohit
• Ferrell Jeffrey B
• George Sonney

Classifications

• G06Q20/203 Primary

  Inventory monitoring · CPC title

• B65B25/007

  packaging of ice-cream · CPC title

• F25C5/24

  for storing bins (ice bins F25C5/182) · CPC title

• G06Q10/06315 Primary

  Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis · CPC title

• G06Q20/18

  involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals · CPC title