Handling medication receptacles by pharmaceutical dispensing system and method

Abstract

A medication dispensing system, having a medication panel, a plurality of docking ports for accommodating medication containers, a gripper, and a receptacle carrier having a mount for holding the receptacle and movable by one or more actuators. In some embodiments, the system includes control circuitry, outputting positioning signals to move the receptacle carrier, and outputting dosage-manipulation signals to move the gripper to pick and manipulate a medication dosage out of the medication container, and the horizontal distance between the opening of the receptacle and the medication dosage is less than 20 cm at least prior to outputting the dosage-manipulation signals. The method includes extracting a medication out of the medication container, positioning a receptacle by a receptacle carrier in a horizontal distance of less than 20 cm between the medication and the opening of the receptacle, at least prior to the extracting, and dispensing the medication in the receptacle.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.