Cool coke machine adaptation

[Dschwabe]

Hello, I'm brand new to the cnc world. I was wondering what kind of things go into a mechanism like the one in the video that I posted below. What kind of cost do you think would go into a homemade version? I am mostly concerned with the X and Y aspect of this machine. I have a similar use in my shop for picking bags of hardware and thought this may be a cool adaptation. I will not be doing the design. I have an ME friend but I wanted to see what anyone would say before I brough it up to him.


[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVgIGT5LkXQ&feature=related"]YouTube - vending[/nomedia]

[vger]

Cool machine... Reminds me of a robotic tape archiver to some extent. Many years ago (1979) in Zurich, I came across a convenience store that was behind glass and fully automated like that. It had 4 windows about 5 feet square with merchandise in racks behind them and the little robotic retrival machine would run up/down/left/right grab the selected item and deliver it just like your coke machine. One tape archiver I took apart used continious length timing belts run on servo motors for X/Y motion. Thats probably the easy part. Building the mechanism to handle the "bags" may be a bit more difficult.

Now if someone would just design a coke machine where a humanoid looking hand/arm would retrive your drink....

Steve

[LeeWay]

We have had a similar one in our bowling alley for a few years now.
It has a conveyor though rather than moving across in the Y. Product always lands in a similar upright fashion.
They are fun to watch, but nothing complicated at all. Just basic mechanics and simple program that it runs.

[Dschwabe]

Thanks for the replies! I'm glad there are others than can appreciate my humble addition to the forum. I think it's a neat device as well. To your point vger, I assumed that servos would be the way to go due to the speed with which the gantry moves. Again, I am very new to the cnc/automation world. Could that be acheived with steppers? If I built a similar system, cost savings is a high priority and that means steppers. The parts of this machine look to very light weight which helps.