Automated product locker for inventory control

An automated product locker, comprising:

• a housing;
• a drawer configured to be slidably stowable within the housing, the drawer defining a storage area comprising a plurality of slots configured to house a plurality of different products such that the plurality of different products may be placed at random in the storage area;
• a plurality of visual indicators configured to indicate respective positions of respective units of the products within the storage area;
• a machine vision system arranged within the housing and configured to capture information about the products;
• and
• a controller arranged within the housing and operably coupled to the machine vision system, the controller comprising a processor and a memory, the memory having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the controller to:
• detect an opening or closing of the drawer by a user, and, upon detecting the opening or closing to:
• (i) cause the camera to capture at least one image of the products, wherein the at least one image comprises information about the products;
• and
• (ii) inventory the products based, at least in part, on the information about the products, wherein inventorying the product based, at least in part, on the information about the product comprises:
• receiving images of the products captured by the camera;
• analyzing the images of the products to identify respective product identifiers associated with respective units of the product or an absence of product previously stored in the housing;
• decoding the respective product identifiers associated with the respective units of the products;
• and
• using the respective product identifiers, associating the respective units of the product with the respective positions within the storage area;
• determining a product inventory update based on the respective product identifiers or the absence of product previously stored in the housing;
• causing the controller to transmit the product inventory
• update over a network to a database of a remote system;
• and
• cause one or more of the visual indicators that are associated with a desired unit of the products to actuate;
• and
• wherein inventorying the products based, at least in part, on the information about the products further comprises analyzing the images of the products to determine, using a machine learning algorithm, a source of each of the respective units of the products.