PepsiCo Vending Machine

 
 

This was part of an engineering project at Cornell University. Our group was contacted by PepsiCo to design a new vending machine that:

  • Dispenses a larger variety of snacks & beverages than a standard spring-loaded vending machine.

My primary responsibilities were to:

  • Use documentation from Systems Engineering teammates to drive hardware design specs.

  • Build the electrical and mechanical hardware for the vending machine.

  • Present the final proof-of-concept to PepsiCo stakeholders.

 

The vending machine distributed snacks and beverages by using a conveyor belt. I wired and programmed an ESP32 Development Board to control the conveyor belt’s stepper motor. This was useful for testing and product showcasing to PepsiCo stakeholders.

Holders for the snacks and beverages were then rapidly prototyped through CAD in SolidWorks. These were some of the holders I designed and 3D printed. The holder in the top-left photo was the final prototype.

 
 

The holder was able to firmly secure the largest variety of snacks and beverages.

 
 

It was 3D printed out of EPU which is a flexible material. Once the holder reaches the end of the conveyor belt, it deforms to pry its contents loose.

 
 
 
 

The last step was to machine and assemble 80-20 bars to make an adjustable chassis. The end result was a proof-of-concept vending machine that is able to dispense a greater variety of snack and beverage geometries.