ATM (All Time Medicine) Counter For

Medicine Self-Dispensing

INTRODUCTION
Several people in India die due to lack of diagnosis in first place and non-availability of medicine
on time. Problem arise when need of some medicine is urgent and drug stores are not open or drug
is not available in stock, especially during night time. In remote areas, rural areas and places where
public turnover is less, the availability of medicines within the patient’s reach is a critical issue.
These are some of the main problems that are being faced by the society in present scenario. ATM
will help in solving these problems by providing the medicines 24x7.
Medical technology has improved tremendously in the last few decades. India’s development in
the medical field is almost on par with those of developed countries. It is excruciating mentally to
know that this medical advancement is available only to metropolitan cities and towns. This vast
development did not reach all the tribes and remote villages. It is a convenient, faster and safest
withdrawal at any time and anyplace [1].
The problem arises when there is need of some medicine in urgent and either when drug stores are
not open or drug is not available in stock, especially during night time, also they cannot take first-
aid medicine on their own here we have doctors to treat them immediately with the first –aid
medicine [4]. Caring of the aged and physically challenged persons are a serious concern in the
developing countries. Family members are responsible for the care and management of them. In
the modern age, it is difficult for family members to be available all the time to support them.
Today in our society most families are nuclear. Elderly would prefer to remain independent and
their desire for independence in natural, but it is a worry for their children. Any Time Medical
Assistance and Medicine Vending Machine is one such approach to help them take their medicines
efficiently. Telecommunication technologies are found to be effective tools for connecting remote
sites. By opening up new channels for communication, telemedicine connects rural and remote
sites with health-care professionals around the world, overcoming geographical barriers[3]. This
can be implemented everywhere such as shopping malls. It can be implemented on National
Highways. It can be installed in Railway stations and bus stand also.

LITERATURE SURVEY
With people becoming more aware and concerned about their health, the research and development
work on the area has grown considerably and is expected to continue to do with increased support
from the governments and private organisations and companies. In this section some of the existing
research on healthcare and medicine access has been discussed which motivated the design and
methodology of the ATMAH device. [1] developed a medicine dispenser for prototype for
caregivers as well as the patients of Alzheimer’s disease. In the device the caregivers have to input
the medicines or refill the dispensers for the by scanning the medicines using bar code scanners.
The patients have to touch the screen of the GUI and the medicine(s) will be dispensed out. If the
patients failed to take their medicines in given duration of time the caregiver gets notified through
SMS. [2] discussed the construction of smart medication dispenser having a high degree of
scalability and remote manageability. The dispenser has a real-time clock to keep track of the
patient’s medicines and when the patient presses a button at the correct time the predetermined
medication is dispensed out from the medicine tray. They have used infrared sensors to keep track
of the quantity of medicines dispensed out.
They have also used LAN to periodically transmit medicine status without intervention of patient.
[3] have written about the generation of mobile based prescription that exempts the need for elderly
or sick people to go to the doctor to obtain writte prescription. They have used NFC (Near Field
Communication) enabled mobile phones that can communicate with NFC tags attached to objects
and each drug box has this tag attached. This way the patient can request the mobile prescription
from the doctor, the doctor uses a mobile application to see the patients’ requests and prescribe the
drugs, and finally at the pharmacy this prescription is wirelessly sent to the store’s computer and
an NFD reader is used to obtain the drugs. [4] discussed the development of a prototype of a smart
medical refrigerator which keeps track of a patient’s medications and alerts a healthcare provider,
family member or physician over a standard telephone line if the patient does not take the
medications in the set time frame. [5] design and fabrication of the prototype of a low cost
automated medicine dispenser for the use of pharmacists which has the capability to count
medicines and dispense it into a vial. They have used standard size servos for dispensing out the
medicines and infrared sensor to count the number of medicines dispensed with accuracy of 90%.
[6] details the design and fabrication of an autonomous Arduino controlled device that allows a
caretaker to configure tablet medication delivery to patients. [7] describes medication control using
RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) and IoT (Internet of Things). They have used RFID tags
for identification and gaining access to medical records of patients and have used IoT for quick
doctor-patient interactions and sending IoT based warnings to the doctors, physicians or other
medical attendants. In the ATMAH device normal medicine dispensing operation has been
combined with website and a GUI that gives novelty to our project. [1] and [5] developed a
medicine dispenser but did not incorporate a communication system with the doctor or an online
prescription system. On the other hand, [3] have described a mobile based prescription system
which is sent to the drug store to get the medicines. The ATMAH device combines all of these
into a single system giving it a greater range of applications.
ATMAH has the website and mobile application that allows the patient to contact a doctor and
remotely obtain medical prescription. Unlike some of the previous versions of medicine
dispensers, the ATMAH only allows one to obtain medicines with a prescription, increasing the
security and preventing illegal trade of drugs. Compared to the other medical dispensers, the
ATMAH does not restrict itself to a single group of audience. Its portable structure and remote
accessibility allows it to be set up at any location and to be used by doctors, pharmacists and by
the patients in need of quick medical support. The novelty of the ATMAH device is that it
combines the medical dispensing system, the web-based communication with doctor and online
prescription system to provide complete medical support, almost equivalent to that of a small
clinic.
PROBLEM DEFINITION

Medical facilities available in metropolitan cities and towns are much reachable by the people
compared to the people in the rural areas and villages. Due to insufficient transport facilities in
many places people are not easily approachable to the hospitals. Senior citizens and physically
challenged person find difficult to travel and also feel exhausted to wait in the queue for a long
time to consult a doctor.

PROPOSED SYSTEM:
• User Authentication: User authentication is a process that allows a device to verify the identity
of someone who connects to a network resource. The user has to insert their card and enter
password. If the password is correct the system will accept the transaction or else, it will display
the appropriate error message.
Medicine Dispensing: Once the authentication process has been carried out, user will select the
medicine and pillbox will dispense it.
• Database Updating: Once the medicine has been dispensed the balance and database will be
updated. User’s database will be updated with current balance and number of pills dispensed. Stock
database will be updated with current stock value.

• Inventory Control: Controlling the inventory of drugs is critical to functioning of machine. If the
medicine gets over, the system will send notification to refill it.

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE:
The project is basically wireless data transfer tool which uses national care card to store the data.
In the application we are using RFID tag for person identification instead of cash payment. RFID
tagging is an ID system that uses small radio frequency identification devices for identification
and tracking purposes. An RFID tagging system includes the tag itself, a read/write device, and a
host system application for data collection, processing, and transmission. RFID belongs to a group
of technologies referred to as Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC). AIDC methods
automatically identify objects, collect data about them, and enter those data directly into computer
systems with little or no human intervention. RFID methods utilize radio waves to accomplish this.
At a simple level, RFID systems consist of three components: an RFID tag or smart label, an RFID
reader, and an antenna. RFID tags contain an integrated circuit and an antenna, which is used to
transmit data to the RFID reader (also called an interrogator). The reader then converts the radio
waves to a more usable form of data. Information collected from the tags is then transferred
through a communications interface to a host computer system, where the data can be stored in a
database and analyzed at a later time.
The users will first insert the national health care card into the system. Then the system will read
the card data and display the prescription and will ask for user’s input. Then the users have to
specify the medicine’s name and the number of tablets. Once the input has been taken, the system
will check if the required medicine is available or not. If it does, system will check the users
balance and will dispense the medicine and if the user does not have required amount it will display
a message stating insufficient balance and ask the user to recharge the card.

Requirement Analysis
Hardware:

 Arduino Mega 2560

 LCD - 20 x 4
 RFID
 DC MOTOR
 RELAY
 GSM
 WIFI
Software:

 ARDUINO IDE
 Embedded System

APPLICATIONS

• It is very much portable that it can be installed in very less area.

• No Individual person needed for maintenance.
• Easy to use and Provides 24/7 medicine facility.
• Since online transaction involved no fear of robbery.
• Since disease name and relevant medicine will be stored in the database, the user will have to
mention the disease name.
• The dispenser will dispense the medicine automatically for that disease.

REFERENCES
 Bhagya Shree S R, Chandra Shekar P, ‘Automated Medication Dispensing System’, 2015
IEEE.
 KahtanAziz , ‘Real-Time Healthcare Monitoring and Tracking System using GSM/GPS
Technologies’, August 2016 IEEE.
 Mahaveer Penna, ’Design and Implementation of Automatic Medicine Dispensing
machine’, May 2017 IEEE.
 Vishal Tank, Sushmita Warrier, ‘Medicine Dispensing Machine Using Raspberry Pi and
Arduino Controller ‘, March 2017 IEEE.
 Montaser N. Ramadan, Mohammad A. AI-Khedher and Sharaf A. Al-Kheder“Intelligent
Anti-Theft and Tracking System for Automobiles”. International Journal ofMachine
Learning and Computing, Vol. 2, No. 1. November 2012.
 NXP Semiconductors LPC2148 Single-chip 16-bit/32-bit microcontrollers data sheet.
 Survey paper on Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) Trends by Christoph Jechlitschek,
(christoph.jechlitschek@gmx.de)
 An Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory, Robert L Boylestad and Louis Nashelsky, Ninth
edition, Pearson Education, Inc.2006.
 Montaser N. Ramadan, Mohammad A. AI-Khedher and Sharaf A. Al-Kheder“Intelligent
Anti-Theft and Tracking System for Automobiles”. International Journal ofMachine
Learning and Computing, Vol. 2, No. 1. November 2012.
 NXP Semiconductors LPC2148 Single-chip 16-bit/32-bit microcontrollers data sheet.
 Survey paper on Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) Trends by Christoph Jechlitschek,
(christoph.jechlitschek@gmx.de)
 An Electronic Devices and Circuit Theory, Robert L Boylestad and Louis Nashelsky, Ninth
edition, Pearson Education, Inc.2006