Design and implementation of smart vending machine using IoT and comparison with RFID based vending machine.

Vending machines are essential since many people depend on them to obtain products quickly. This paper aims to develop an innovative smart vending machine that uses Internet of Things(IoT) to dispense products in a cashless, more secure way and in less time compared to Radio frequency identification(RFID) based vending machines. Materials and Methods: This paper presents an innovative smart vending machine design and implementation with IoT and the NodeMCU module. The design allows accessing the required products via the mobile application. A total of 200 samples are used to verify the performance of the IoT based vending machine. In the vending machine, the products are assembled as per the size and shape for proper dispensing of items. Results: The IoT-based vending machine has an average mean time of 17.5 seconds for dispensing a product and has an accuracy of 90%, whereas RFID-based vending machine has an average mean time of 22.2 seconds for dispensing a product and has an accuracy of 75%. Conclusion: In this paper,it is found that the IoT-based smart vending machine outperforms the RFID-based vending machine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]