Authomated pill-dispensing apparatus

A pill-dispensing apparatus for automatically dispensing solid pills, comprising:

• an outer container;
• a track positioned at a bottom of the outer container;
• a hopper movably positioned within the outer container for movement toward and away from the track;
• a dock for holding the storage unit;
• an oscillator for vibrating the track to motivate the pills along the track;
• and
• a lift for lifting the hopper to increase a gap between the track and the hopper when pills bridge up and stop moving along the track.

A bulk storage unit useful for automatically dispensing solid pills, comprising:

• an outer container with parallel first walls;
• a linear track adapted to feed singulated pills along its length and that is positioned in a bottom of the outer container;
• and
• a hopper movably positioned within the outer container for movement toward and away from the track, the hopper having second walls positioned parallel and close to the first walls.

A bulk storage unit useful for automatically dispensing solid pills, comprising:

• a linear track adapted to feed singulated pills along its length when pills in bulk are fed onto a leading end of the track;
• a hopper having an opening positioned over the track for feeding pills onto the leading end of the track, the hopper including at least one flange;
• and
• an adjustable gate movably attached to the flange and adjustable to change a size of a gap between the gate and the track, for adjustably controlling movement of pills along the track.

A pill-dispensing apparatus for automatically dispensing solid pills, comprising:

• a mobile frame on wheels;
• a plurality of storage units movably stored on the frame for storing pills in bulk;
• an x-y-z direction retriever module on the frame for retrieving the storage units one at a time based on prescription information;
• a pill-dispensing module on the frame, including a dock for receiving and holding a selected one of the storage units and for dispensing pills from the selected one storage unit, the retriever being adapted to position the selected one storage unit in the pill-dispensing module for dispensing pills and then being adapted to replace the selected one storage unit in its storage position on the frame;
• a vial handler module on the frame for holding a vial under the pill-dispensing module for receiving the dispensed pills;
• and
• a controller for operating the pill-dispensing module, the retriever module, and the vial handler module.

A pill-dispensing apparatus for automatically dispensing solid pills, comprising:

• a frame with storage locations;
• a plurality of storage units movably stored in respective ones of the storage locations, the storage units being adapted to hold pills in bulk, the storage units having a depth and being arranged in first and second vertical parallel planes with a space therebetween at least as deep as the depth of the storage units;
• an x-y-z direction retriever module operably mounted on the frame for movement in the space, the retriever module including a carrier adapted to carry a selected one of the storage units, the retriever further including first, second and third actuators operable to move the retriever in x, y, and z orthogonal directions, respectively, and further including a coupler operable to grip the selected one storage unit as the selected one storage unit is pulled from its respective storage location onto the carrier;
• a pill-dispensing module on the frame, including a dock for receiving and holding the selected one of the storage units and a pill-dispensing mechanism for dispensing pills from the selected one storage unit;
• and
• a controller for controlling the first, second, and third actuators, the gripper, and the pill-dispensing mechanism.

A method of dispensing prescriptions, comprising steps of:

• providing bulk storage of pills in storage units under a countertop and above a floor surface;
• automatically retrieving selected ones of the storage units and then automatically dispensing pills from the selected storage units into vials, the steps of the retrieving and dispensing both being performed automatically and under the countertop;
• and
• presenting vials filled with dispensed pills to a person standing adjacent the countertop.

A method of automatically refilling containers of solid pills in bulk, comprising steps of:

• providing bulk storage of pills in a plurality of storage units stored under a countertop and above a floor surface;
• sensing that one of the storage units is empty and unable to dispense pills;
• and
• automatically retrieving the empty storage unit and presenting the retrieved storage unit to a pharmacist for filling with a new supply of pills.