Realising the Benefits of Remote Access

Printer-friendly version

Chantal Wright Investigates
 
No firm in Europe operates more cigarette vending machines than tobaccoland  Automatengesellschaft mbh & Co KG in Mönchengladbach, Germany. Around 80 billion cigarettes are distributed from the company’s 180,000 vending machines each year – that’s 12 packs every second. The company’s profits totalled 1.157 billion Euros in 2003, but for tobaccoland dominance in the cigarette vending machine market is not enough. With the new ‘e-loading’ vending machine concept, the company has cornered the virtual merchandise market for automated vending. The brains behind the machine is Kontron AG’s new ETX module.
 
Although cigarette sales are by far tobaccoland’s main business sector, its core business is best described as the ‘automated sale of mass goods’, resting on its in-depth knowledge of vending machine sales and a Germany-wide network of branches which stock and manage vending machines. The company already sells prepaid cell phone cards from vending machines and is currently developing its technology to increase the variety of products sold from indoor and outdoor machines, particularly through the use of thee-loading concept.

Always In Service, Always In Stock

The basic principle of the e-loading vending machine is clear from its name: it sells no actual physical products like cigarettes or prepaid cards, but instead supplies digital merchandise and ‘virtual rights’. Already serving as a refill station for prepaid cell phone customers, in the near future it will offer a wide variety of products, from polyphonic ring tones to football tickets and train passes, issued by an integrated printer on security paper. The great advantage of e-loading vending machines is obvious: the huge logistical problem of stocking the machines is completely eliminated as it’s all done electronically, by data transmission. Every system is connected to a central computer via a wireless modem, and the retailer simply restocks the electronic merchandise, performs software updates, monitors the system status and maintains the vending machines using this connection. Since the system hardware seldom requires on-site maintenance, it rarely requires a visit by the vending machine company’s employees.
 
From the outside, the e-loading vending machine looks similar to an average cigarette vending machine, although with a more distinctive, modern design. It communicates with the user through a 10.4 inch touch screen which is as robust and vandal-proof as the rest of the outer shell. Within the system, the latest technology is at work, using an industrial computer system custom developed by Industrie-ElektronikSchmitz GmbH & Co KG, in partnership with tobaccoland and the vending machine manufacturer Sielaff GmbH.

The system requirements were demanding as the computational power needed to be sufficient to keep the GUI of the 10.4 inch screen user friendly and flexible, while allowing for the display of advertising videos. Tobaccoland wanted the flexibility to use the machines to sell an array of different products, and also to reprogram it quickly to offer new ranges.
 
The processor needed to run several applications simultaneously and allow for new processes to be easily implemented. In spite of all these performance requirements, the processing unit had to be designed for fan less operation, in order to make the vending machine as fail safe as possible. The entire hardware had to operate around-the-clock, stand up to the harshest climatic conditions and be easily adaptable to future technological development, particularly progress in processor technology.
 
Computer-on-Module: Focusing on the Essential

To concentrate on the functions and requirements relevant to tobaccoland without having to develop all features from scratch, IES turned to the Computer-On-Module (COM) concept for the central processor of the e-loading vending machine, for which Kontron Embedded Modules in Deggendorf offers a complete product portfolio. The processor and the corresponding chipsets a real ready integrated on a COM and blended into a functional unit. Only fully functional signals, which are needed for communication, are implemented; the user-specific features are on the baseboard, to which the COM is solidly bolted.
 
Fanless and Scaleable PCs on Modules

The performance requirements for the processor at the heart of thee-loading vending machine called for the newest PC technology. Embedded systems require this technology if several applications must run flexibly within one system, as in the case of the e-loading vending machine. For this reason, IES chose Kontron’s ETX module family, which provides PC functionality and eliminates the need for a ventilation fan.
 
ETX COMs all have exactly the same form factor, but offer an extensive selection of processors, from the Pentium M to entry-level chips from all the top manufacturers. The ETX modules reduced development time for IES, allowing it to concentrate on designing the baseboard and integrating the system into thee-loading machine. Even more important for vending machine and kiosk system operators, however, is the uniform form factor of the ETX boards. This allows the retailer to constantly adapt its vending machines to new requirements and technical developments, without needing to modify anything other than the ETX modules over the entire ten-year lifespan of the systems.
 
The ETX standard was developed by Kontron, but has now become an open standard and is overseen and further developed by the manufacturer-independent ETX Industrial Group. For manufacturers of kiosk systems this means that they can implement modules from approximately 50 manufacturers in their systems.
 
IES Industrie-Elektronik Schmitz GmbH & Co. KG, a mid-sized company from Kierspe in North Rhine-Westphalia, is a system partner and distributor for Kontron with over 35 years’ experience in measurement, process control and automation technology. For the last10 years it has been active in the area of embedded computer technology. IES sees itself as a premium developer of Kontron-based products and, as a result of years of close partnership with Kontron, makes industrial computer systems for the most challenging applications.
 
Kontron is a leading global embedded computer technology company, supplying a diversified customer base of OEMs, system integrators and application providers in the communications, automation, transportation, medical, military, aerospace and test and measurement markets. The company’s products include high-performance open computer platforms and systems, single board computers, man machine interfaces and mobile computers. Kontron employs more than 1,800 people worldwide and has manufacturing facilities in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. It is a member of the Intel Communications Alliance.