SMART HYGIENE VENDING MACHINE FOR PERSONAL ESSENTIAL USING ARDUINO

Abstract

In today’s fast-paced and health-conscious society, maintaining personal hygiene is essential to preventing the spread of illness and promoting well-being. However, access to essential hygiene items such as hand sanitizers, face masks, tissues, and disinfectant wipes is often limited, particularly in high-traffic areas like transportation hubs, schools, offices, and public restrooms. Traditional retail outlets often involve long queues, which can be inconvenient during urgent situations. During public health emergencies, such as pandemics, the demand for hygiene products increases significantly, making availability and accessibility even more critical. This study introduces a Smart Hygiene Vending Machine designed to address these challenges through automated and contactless dispensing of personal care essentials. This study employed the Waterfall Methodology, which is suited for capstone projects due to its structured and sequential approach. Each phase—planning, analysis, design, implementation, and testing—was completed before proceeding to the next, ensuring a systematic and organized development process. Experimental testing showed that the system dispensed hygiene products with 97% accuracy based on user selection. The coin-based payment mechanism functioned reliably, accurately accepting valid coins and rejecting incorrect inputs. The average dispensing time was recorded at 10 seconds per transaction. The system also featured a contactless interface, which minimized physical touchpoints and thereby enhanced user hygiene and safety during operation. The Smart Hygiene Vending Machine integrates an Arduino Uno, servo motors, a 4x3 numeric keypad, an ALLAN coin slot, and an LCD screen to create a user-friendly, self-service system for dispensing hygiene essentials. Upon entering a product code and inserting the correct payment, the corresponding servo motor activates to release the selected item. This design ensures precise, automated dispensing while reducing the need for human interaction. Its deployment in public spaces can significantly enhance hygiene practices and improve the accessibility of essential personal care products, particularly during health emergencies.