CA1235397A - Shared document dispensing system - Google Patents

Abstract

SHARED DOCUMENT DISPENSING SYSTEM

Abstract of the Disclosure A system is disclosed for automatically sharing an article dispenser between two output stations. Upon receiving a request for a desired number of articles from a customer at either of the two output stations, a control circuit enables the dispenser and also positions a diverter in a transport mechanism so that articles are sequentially fed from the dispenser along one of two paths through the transport mechanism to the output station from which the request for articles was received.

Description

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SHARED DOCUMENT DISPENSING SYSTEM

Cross Reference to Relay I
The commonly assigned U.S. Patent 4,521,008 which issued June 4, 1985, for Fail Safe Document Disk penning System, inventors Robert H. Groins et at., is related to this application.

Background of the Invention The present invention relates to systems for dispensing articles such as documents and particularly to a system in which a single currency dispenser may be shared between the two adjacent automatic teller machines (Atoms).
A currency dispenser for automatically dispensing a required amount of money as desired by a customer-operator of an AT is well known in the art.
However, each currency dispenser known in the prior art is included in and associated with a particular AT.
The present invention relates to article dispensing means and is specifically adapted to reduce the initial capital investment in two adjacent Atoms by selectively sharing a single or common currency disk penner between those two adjacent Atoms. Such sharing of the common currency dispenser between two adjacent Atoms will automatically occur when one or more custom-ens at the adjacent Atoms selectively request that cur-wryness be dispensed.
The background art known to the applicants at the time of the filing of this application is as follows:
U. S. Patent Mow 3,070,204, Sheet Handling Apparatus, by R. S. Bradshaw;
U. S. Patent No. 3,222,057, Apparatus And Method For Controlling And Receiving And/Or Dispensing Paper Money, by J. M. Count;

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U. S. Patent No. 3,648,020, Automatic Deposit-Receiving And Cash-Dispensinq System, by K. Toyotas et at.;
U. S. Patent No. 3,651,986, Credit Card Automatic Currency Dispenser, by My R. Kirk et at.;
U. S. Patent No. 3,675,816, Currency Dispensing Apparatus, by E. R. Burke, II et at.;
. So Patent No. 3,880,298, Sorting Conveyor Control System, by J. D. Habegger et at.:
U. S. Patent No. 3,954,260, Paper Money Disk penning Mechanism, by if. Muriel et at.;
U. S. Patent No 4,020,972, Banknote Dispensing Machine, by L. Lundblad:
U. S. Patent No. 4,025,758, Automatic Money-Issuing Apparatus, by Y. Ha Tanaka et at.;
U. S. Patent No. 4,075,460, Cash Dispensing System, by R. A. Gorgons;
U. S. Patent No. 4,179,031, Document Dispensing System, by S. W. Ward;
U. S. Patent No. 4,249,153, Automatic Money Dispenser And Method, by T. Mauler e-t at.;
U. S. Patent No. 4,282,424, automatic Cash Dispensing Machine, by M. Horace;
U. S. Patent No. 4,321,671, Bank Note Dispense in Method And Apparatus, by K. Ohsako: and U. S. Patent Jo. 4,343,582, Banknote Dispensing Apparatus, by L. J. I. Lundblad et at.

Siam _ of the Invention In a preferred embodiment of the invention there is provided a system comprised of a shared article dispenser, first and second output stations, a transport mechanism operationally coupled between the shared disk penner and both stations, a shared diverter positioned at the junction of first and second paths through the I transport mechanism and a control circuit for selectively controlling the operations of the shared dispenser and diverter during a dispensing operation.
In normal operation, upon receiving a request for a desired number of articles such as documents from a customer at one of the output stations, the control circuit enables the shared dispenser and positions the diverter so that documents are fed from the dispenser along the associated one ox the first and second paths through the transport mechanism to the customer-requested output station.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide an improved system and method for automatically dispensing articles.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved system and method for automatically dispense in currency in response to an approved request.
A further object of this invention is to pro-vise a shared-document or currency dispensing system to enable customers of first and second AT machines to selectively make currency withdrawals from a shared or common currency dispenser.

Brief Description of the Drawings These and other objects, features and ad van-taxes of the invention, as well as the invention itself, will become more apparent to those skilled in the art in the light of the following detailed description taken in consideration with the accompanying drawings wherein:
Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a side view of a preferred embodiment of the invention;
Fig. 2 illustrates the first and second disk penning paths, depending upon the position of the flipper or diverter;
Fig. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a control circuit which may be used with this invention;

US

Fig. 4 is a schematic block diagram of sensing and control elements in the dispenser of Fig. l; and Figs. Lowe illustrate a flow diagram giving the steps in the operation ox the shared dispensing system when a customer at one of the first and second output stations requests documents or currency from the shared dispenser.

Descry pi on of the Prefer d embodiment Referring now to the drawings, Fig. l discloses lo a schematic diagram of a side view of the shared document dispensing system of the invention. Although the invent lion will now be described in relation to a shared cur-wryness or bill dispensing system for adjacent automatic teller machines (Atoms), it should be realized that the invention could be utilized more broadly in any other system for the shared dispensing of any other type of document.
The system shown in Fig. l includes first and second AT units or machines 11l and 112, a shared disk penner 13 for dispensing currency or bills of a first denomination, a common transport mechanism 15 operation-ally couple between the shared dispenser 13 and the AT
units ill and 112, a diverter or flipper 17 controlled to rotate to either a clockwise (OW) or a counter clock wise (COW) position, a flipper position sensor lo and a control circuit 21 fig. 3) for controlling the operation of the shared document dispensing system.
AT unit ill includes an output sensor 23l and an output station 25l. The output station 25l normally can include: an output receptacle 27l which may be come prosed of a stacker wheel 29l and a presenter plate 311, a numeric keyboard 331 (Fig. 3), a card reader (not shown) and a display (not shown).
Similarly, the AT unit 112 includes elements 232~ 252~ 272, 292, 312 and 332 (Fig 3) and a card reader (not shown) and a display (not shown) which are 3~3'7 respectively similar in structure and operation to the corresponding elements in AT 111, which elements in AT
111 have the same integers as those in AT 11~ but with a subscript of 1 instead of 2.
The diverter 17 has fixed thereto a shaft 35 which is rotatable supported within a protective cabinet 37. One end of a link 39 is fixed to the shaft 35. The other end of link 39 is pivotal joined to operating plunger 41 of a solenoid 43. One end of a spring 45 is operatively connected to the other end of link 39 as shown, while the other end of spring 45 is connected to a fixed point 47 so as to enable the diverter 17 to channel a bill 49, that is dispensed from dispenser 13, into a first path through the transport mechanism 15, into the stacker wheel 291 whenever the solenoid 43 is deenergized.
The transport mechanism 15 is comprised of drive rollers 51-57, follower rollers 61-68, a transport drive motor 71 and pulley and gear train assembly 73.
Rollers 51-57 and 61-68 may be made from rubber or a non-marking black Neoprene material. The drive rollers 51-57 are driven by the shaft (not shown) of *he transport drive motor 71 by way of the pulley and gear train assembly 73. Follower rollers 61-68 are positioned adjacent to the drive rollers 51-57 and are driven through compression contact with the drive rollers. Each of the drive rollers 51-57 rotates only in the direction of its associated arrow. As a result, each of the rollers 51-57 and 61-68 rotates only in one direction.
Depending on the velocity of the bills 49 being dispensed from the dispenser 13, the sizes of the pulleys (not shown) in the assembly 73 are such as to get the same surface velocity out of the drive rollers 51-57 as that of the bills 49 being dispensed from the dispenser 13. Thus, the gear ratios in the pulley and gear train assembly 73 are preselected to get the same surface .

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velocity or speed for each of the drive rollers 51-57 and, hence, or all of the rollers 51-57 and 61--68.
Bills 49 move edgewise from the dispenser 13 into and through the associated ones of the rollers 51 57 and 61-68. For ease of passing bills 49 edgewise through these rollers, the rollers are positioned close together.
To accomplish this purpose, two different sizes of drive rollers 51-57 are utilized, with the smaller diameter drive rollers 51, 54, 55 and 57 having the higher RPM to get the same surface velocity or speed as the larger diameter drive rollers 52, 53 and 56.
Although not shown, each of the rollers 51-57 and 61-68 represents a line of coaxially-aligned rollers spaced across the length of a bill 49 as the bill 49 is passed there through. Each line of drive rollers 51-57 and follower rollers 61-68 is appropriately mounted on an associated common shaft. For example, the lines of not-tens represented by drive roller 54 and follower roller 63 are respectively mounted on associated common shafts I 75 and 77. For purposes of mounting, each line of rollers 51-57 and 61-68 has each end of its associated shaft coupled through bearings (not shown) mounted in vertical frame members (not shown) of protective cabinet 32. Furthermore, each line of drive rollers 51-57 has the end of its associated drive shaft that passes through one of the frame members of cabinet 37 also coupled to the pulley and gear train assembly 73.
In a similar manner, the diverter or flipper 17 is comprised of a line (not shown) of thin flat, flipper blades affixed or pinned to the common shaft 35 which it rotatable supported by bearings (not shown in the frame members of cabinet 37. A pair of these flipper blades is mounted on each side of each roller in a roller line, such as 52 or 65.
Similarly, each of the stacker wheels 291 and 292 is comprised of a line of wheels (not shown). The '7 wheels in the stocker wheel line 291 are coccal mount-Ed on a common shaft 79, while the wheels in stacker wheel 292 are coccal mounted on a common shaft 81.
Mach of the shafts 79 and 81 is rotatable supported by 5 bearings (not shown) in the vertical frame members of cabinet 37. Each of these shafts 79 and 81 is also coupled -to appropriately selected gears (not shown) in the pulley and gear train assembly 73 to cause each of the s-tacker wheels 291 and 292 to be rotated at the a-sired velocity.
Dispensed bills are collected in respective slots in each of the wheels in each of the stacker wheel lines 291 and 292, such as shown by slot I in stacker wheel 292. In this manner bills 49 are collected in respective slots 83 of the stacker wheel 292 or 291. For example, as the stacker wheel 292 rotates in the direction shown by the associated arrow, bills 49 are directed into the presenter plate 312 to accumulate there in a stack 85 of bills 49. Another conveyor (not shown) could be utilized to convey the accumulated stack 85 to some other destination. it should, of course, be realized that the output receptacle 272 (or 271) can be comprised of, for example, simply a box or container to sequentially receive the bills I rather than a stacker wheel 292 (or 291) and presenter plate 312 (or 311).
The selective currency dispensing paths from dispenser 13, through the transport mechanism 15 to AT
111 or to AT 112 are shown in Fig. or These paths de-pond upon the OW or COW position of the flipper 17.
When a customer at AT 111 requests currency, the solenoid I is deenergized to place the flipper 17 in its normal or COW position, as shown by the dashed out-line 87. Fig. 1 also shows the flipper in its COW
position.
Bills 49 being sequentially dispensed from the dispenser 13 to AT 111, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, pass between rollers 51 and 61, between rollers 52 and 61, along a straight edge 89 of flipper 17 (which is now in its COW position), between rollers 53 and 62, between rollers 53 and 63 and between rollers 54 and 64 to the output receptacle 271 of AT 111.
Similarly, when a customer at AT 112 requests Clarence, the solenoid 43 is energized to place the flipper 17 in its OW position, as shown by the solid outline 91. Bills 49 are then sequentially fed from -the ~lspenser 13, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, between rollers 51 and 61, between rollers 52 and 61, along a curved edge 93 of flipper 17 (which is now in its OW
position), between rollers 52 and 65, between rollers 55 and 66, between rollers 56 and 67 and between rollers 57 and 68 to the output receptacle 272 of AT 112.
The length of each of the above-discussed dispensing paths through the transport mechanism 15 is less than the minimum length of the bill 49 being dispensed.
It should be noted at this time that paper guides (not shown) may be selectively positioned among the assembly of rollers 51~57 and 61-68 to help guide the bills 49 in a dispensing path into and from the nips between respective associated roller pairs.
Referring now to Fig. 3, a schematic block diagram is illustrated of a control circuit 21 which may be used to control the dispensing operations of Combo-newts of Fig. 1.
Information signals from flipper position son-son 19 and output sensors 231 and 232 are respectively applied through buffer/drivers 101, 1031 and 132 to a peripheral interface adapter (PI) 105 to a microprocessor 107.
It should be noted at this time that each of I the sensors 19, 231 and 232 can include a light emitting diode (LED) and a photo sensor (not shown) oppositely positioned across a preselected portion of one of the '7 _ 9 _ dispensing paths. The passage of a bill 49 or of the flipper 17 between a LED and its associated photo sensor interrupts the light path therebet~een, causing the photo sensor to develop and apply a signal to the micro-processor 107 to indicate the obstruction across the associated dispensing path. In this manner, each OX the output sensors 231 and 232 would generate a signal each time that a bill 49 is outputted from the transport mechanism 15 past that sensor. Similarly, the flipper sensor 19 would venerate a signal to indicate to the microprocessor 107 the OW or COW position of -the flipper 17. For example, as shown in Fig. 1, the flipper 17 is in its normal or COW position, blocking the light path between the LED and photo sensor in the flipper sensor 19. When flipper solenoid 43 is energized, flipper 17 moves to its OW position, us-blocking the light path between the LED and photo sensor in flipper sensor 19.
In the extraction of currency, each of the AT
units 111 and 112 requires a customer to insert his AT
card into the AT unit. This AT card contains account information written on a magnetic stripe. The customer next enters into the selected one of the numeric Key-boards 331 and 332 his personal AT identification number which corresponds in a predetermined manner to the account infuriation on his AT card Then the customer enters into the selected keyboard his requested currency amount.
Information signals from keyboards 331 and 332 are applied through respective associated buffer/driver circuits (not shown) to the microprocessor 107 by way of the PI 105.
Upon receiving a request for currency, the microprocessor 107 starts extracting and executing a software program from a program read only memory (ROMP
109, using a random access memory (RAM) 111 to store temporary data in temporary memory locations. In the or p I g'' 1 o execution of the program from the ROM 109, the micro-processor basically performs the following operations.
In response to a request for currency from one of the keyboards 331 and 332~ the microprocessor 107 first 5 checks the flipper position sensor 19 to determine the position of the flipper 17.
The microprocessor 107 will not enable the disk penner 13 to dispense bills until the flipper 17 is in the proper position to transport the bills 49 to the no-questing one of the output stations 271 and 272. If the sensor 19 indicates that the flipper 17 is no-t in the proper position to transport currency to the desired one of the output stations 271 and 272, the microprocessor 107 will supply a signal by way of PI 105 to power driver 115 to cause the flipper solenoid 43 to position the flipper 17 so that currency can be subsequently disk penned to the proper output station. Such positioning of the flipper 17 under various operating conditions has been previously discussed in relation to Figs. 1 and 2.
After the flipper 17 has been correctly posy toned in response to a keyboard request for currency, the microprocessor 107 then applies an energizing signal by way of power driver 117 to energize an AC relay 119.
Upon being energized, relay 119 applies an AC voltage to the transport drive motor 71 which, yin turn, starts drive in the drive rollers 51-57 (Fig. 1) by way of the pulley and gear train assembly 73. Finally, after -the drive rollers 51-57 have reached the proper surface speed, the microprocessor 107 sends an enabling signal to the disk penner 13 via PI 113 to enable dispenser 13 to start sequentially dispensing bills to the proper one of the output stations 271 and 272.
Each bill from the dispenser 13 passes through the transport mechanism 15 and past the associated one of the output sensors 231 and 232 before it goes to the output receptacle of the requesting output station The associated output sensor sends a signal to the ~L~3~3~
-- if --microprocessor 107 each time that a dispensed bill passes that output sensor. In this manner the MicroPro censor 107 keeps track of how man bills have been dispensed and Knows wren the dispenser 13 has finished dispensing the amount of bills requested by a customer.
When the requested amount of bills has been dispensed, the microprocessor 107 sends a disabling signal to the dispenser 13 to stop the dispenser 13 from dispensing any more bills of that denomination.
It should be noted at this time that the disk penner 13 can store bills of one or more denominations, such as twenty dollar bills in U. S. currency, in a first internal bill hopper (not shown) and bills of another denomination, such as five dollar bills in U. S. currency, in a second internal bill hopper (not shown).
When the dispenser 13 is implemented to contain two or more different internal bill hoppers, the micro-processor 107 can enable the dispenser 13 to dispense bills of a different denomination. The dispensing operation for a different denomination of bill would be similar to that previously discussed for the first denomination of bill and, hence, need not be further discussed.
after the dispenser 13 has finished dispensing the correct amount of requested bills and is disabled by the microprocessor 107, the microprocessor 107 turns off the transport drive motor 71 to terminate the dispensing operation.
Structurally, each of the buffer/drivers 101, 1031 and 103~ can be implemented by means of a Fairchild Semiconductor 7407 Hex Buffer/Driver; each of the power drivers 115 and 117 can be implemented by means of a Motorola MY 1413 High Current Arlington Driver; each of the Pits 105 and 113 can be implemented by means of a Motorola 682l. Pudgy microprocessor 107 can be an Intel 8085 AH microprocessor: ROM 109 can be an Intel 2716 EPROM; and RAM Lit can be a Motorola 4116 B ROY.

- lo -Referring now to Fig. 4, a brief description will now be given of some of the sensing and control elements contained in the dispenser 13 of Fig. 1.
Essentially, the dispenser 13 is comprised of a pick solenoid 121, a reject flipper and solenoid 122, a dispenser drive motor AYE, a low bill sensor 124, a disk penner output sensor 125, a reject output sensor 126 and a multiple bill detection sensor 127. Dispenser drive Motor AYE receives AC power from an AC power source 122B
by way of a relay 123, whenever the relay 123 is ever-gibed. The elements 121, 122 and 123 through 127 are respectively coupled through buffer/drivers 131 through 137 to the microprocessor 107 by way of the PI 113.
Buffer/drivers 131 137 are similar to buffer/drivers 101, 1031 and 132 shown in Fig. 3.
Signals from the sensors 124-127 indicate to the microprocessor 107 the status of these sensors. In response to a customer request for currency and to the status of signals from the sensors 124-127, the micro-processor 107 outputs signals to control the operations of the pick solenoid 121, reject flipper and solenoid 122 and dispenser drive motor AYE, as discussed below.
After receiving a customer request for bills, the microprocessor 107 sends a signal through buffer/
driver 133 to energize the relay 123 to start the disk penner drive motor AYE. Then microprocessor 107 sends a signal to pick solenoid 121 to actuate the picking device (not shown that picks a bill (not shown from a bill hopper (not shown and feeds it along a dispensing path trot shown) within the dispenser 13. As the picked bill enters the dispensing path, it goes through the multiple bill detection sensor 127, which determines if it is one or more bills. If a multiple bill is sensed by the sensor 127, the microprocessor 107 sends a signal to the reject flipper and solenoid 122 to ever-give a reject solenoid (not shown) to reposition a reject ..~

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flipper (not shown) in order to reroute the double bill into a reject bin or hopper (not shown).
As soon as the multiple bill leaves the disk penning path and goes into the reject hopper, the reject output sensor 126 sends a signal to the microprocessor 107 to indicate that the multiple bill has been rejected.
The microprocessor 107 then resets the reject flipper in reject flipper and solenoid 122 to its normal position and reenergize the pick solenoid 121 to cause the pick-in device to pick and dispense another bill to take the place of the multiple bill. If that bill is a single bill, it will be passed through the dispensing path and through the dispenser output sensor 125 into an output tray (not shown). The dispenser output sensor 125 then sends a signal to the microprocessor 107 to indicate that the bill has been successfully outputted from the disk penner 13. Microprocessor 107 then counts that bill as being dispensed from the dispenser 13.
The above dispenser operation would be repeated until the dispenser 13 has dispensed the requested amount of currency.
The low bill sensor 124 sends a signal to the microprocessor 107 when the bill hopper is low on bills.
As a consequence of such a signal, the microprocessor 107 would take the dispense out of service, preventing any more bills from being dispensed from that dispenser until the dispenser is restocked with bills of that denomination.
The dispenser 13 has a similar operation for dispensing bills of a second denomination.
For a more detailed description of the step-by-step sequence involved in the operation of the shared document dispensing system disclosed in Figs. 1-4, refer-once is now made to Figs. 5-10. Figs. 5-9 show the essential operational steps that are involved after a customer at output station 272 of AT 112 has entered his card and ID number and made a currency request.

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As indicated previously, these operational steps are con-trolled by the microprocessor 107 during the execution of the software program that is extracted from the ROM 109.
Figs. 5-10 show that similar operational steps would be involved for a customer at output station 271 of AT 111 making a currency request. In any event, at the start of these operational steps both the drive motor AYE (Fig. 4) in dispenser 13 and the transport drive motor 71 (Fig. 1) have been turned off and the flipper solenoid 43 is in its de-energized state.
Assume that a currency request is initially made at output station 272 of AT 112. As a result, -the microprocessor 107 first checks the low bill sensor 124 (Fig. 4) in dispenser 13 to find out if the dispenser 13 had enough bills. If there are not enough bills in dispenser 13, a low bill failure would be flagged or logged for dispenser 13 and the program would move to - exit Z to terminate the system operation.
If the dispenser 13 contains enough bills, the --system starts an operation to dispense a bill from disk penner 13 to output station 272. The system (via microprocessor 107) first energizes the solenoid 43 to move the flipper 17 to its OW position to enable a bill 49 from the dispenser 13 to pass through the transport mechanism 15 to output station 272. Flipper position - sensor 19 is then tested to see if the flipper 17 is in its OW position. If flipper 17 is not in its OW post-lion, a flipper position failure it logged and the pro-gram moves to exit Z to terminate the system operation.
If flipper 17 is in its OW position, the opera-lion moves to node D, at which time the drive motor AYE
(Fig. 4) in dispenser 13 and the transport drive motor 71 (Fig. 1) are turned on and allowed to reach stable speeds .
The next routine is to pick a single bill in the dispenser 13. The pick solenoid 121 (Fig. 4) is ., I

energized to cause a bill picker (not shown) to pick a bill from a bill hopper (not shown) inside of the disk penner 13. After a bill is picked, it is checked by the multiple bill detection sensor l27 (Fig. 4) in dispenser 13 to see i-f two or more bills were simultaneously picked. If sensor 127 indicates a multiple bill, the reject flipper and solenoid unit 122 (Fig. 4) of disk penner 13 is set to automatically detour the multiple bill to a reject hopper (not shown) in dispenser 13.
Then the reject flipper and solenoid unit 122 is reset to its normal position. In this manner, each multiple bill is rejected, while each single bill is passed.
After a single bill has been picked, the next routine is to move that picked bill from the bill picker to the dispenser 13 output.
Whenever a single bill is picked and not no-jetted, the operation moves to node G at which time the multiple bill detection sensor 127 signals the MicroPro censor 107 to start a dispenser jam timer in the software program from the ROM 109 as the bill is moved from the multiple bill detection sensor 127 toward the output sensor 125 of dispenser 13. The tire length of the disk penner jam timer is fixed since it is Known how long it takes a bill to be moved past the output sensor 125 (Fig. 4) of dispenser 13 after the bill is picked and not rejected.
After the dispenser jam timer is started, the microprocessor 107 waits to see if a bill 49 moves past the output sensor 125 of the dispenser 13 before the dispenser jam timer expires. If the dispenser jam timer expires before a bill is outputted, this means that the bill is jammed inside the dispenser 13. In this case, a dispenser 13 failure is logged and the program moves to exit Y to terminate the entire system operation.
If the bill is picked properly and is moved past the output sensor 125 of the dispenser 13 before the dispenser jam timer expires, the next routine is to move .

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that bill from the output of the dispenser 13 through the transport mechanism 15 of the stacker wheel 292 at output station 272 of AT 112.
Each bill that exits from the dispenser 13 (node I) causes the output sensor 125 of dispenser 13 to signal the microprocessor 107 to start a system jam timer in the software program from the ROM 109. The duration of the system jam timer is fixed by the surface speed of the transport mechanism 15 and the distance from the dispenser 13 to the stacker wheel 292 of the output station 272.
After the system jam timer is started, the microprocessor 107 waits to see if a bill moves past output sensor 232 (Fig. I of AT 112 before the system jam timer expires. If the system jam timer expires before the bill from dispenser 13 reaches the output sensor 232, this means that the bill has gotten jammed in . the transport mechanism 15. In such a case, a transport mechanism 15 failure is logged and the program then moves to exit Y to terminate the entire system operation.
If a bill is detected by the output sensor 232 before the system jam timer expires, and is thus deliver Ed to thy stacker wheel 292 of output station 272, the opt oration is finished for the dispensing of that bill. The microprocessor 107 then decrements the customer-requested number of bill by one and decides whether or not any more bills have to be dispensed by the dispenser 13. If more bills have to be dispensed, the program goes back into the loop at node J (Fig. 6) and repeats the steps shown in Figs. 6, 7 and 8 for each additional bill -that has to be dispensed. When the total number of requested bills has been dispensed from dispenser 13 to output station 2~2 of AT 112, the dispensing operation is complete and the program moves to exit Y to terminate the entire system operation.
Fig. 9 illustrates the operational steps in-valved in exits Y and Z. At exit Y, the transport drive Jo , . . .

motor 71 and the drive motor AYE of dispenser 13 are turned of f . Since none of these motors was on at exit Z, exit Z enters the operation at this time. Then flipper solenoid 43 is de-energized. In this manner the shared dispensing system is set to an idle state to conserve power. As a convenience, a status bit is then set to indicate whether or not the dispensing operation was successfully completed.
Referring back to Fig. 5, assume that a cur-wryness request is now made a-t output station 271 of AT
]11. In response to such a request, the operation moves to node B, which is continued on Fig. 10. From node B
in Fig. 10 the microprocessor 107 checks the low bill sensor 124 (Fig. 4) in dispenser 13 to find out if the dispenser 13 has enough bills. If there are not enough bills in dispenser 13, a low bill failure is logged for dispenser 13 and the program moves to exit Z to terminate - the system operation, as discussed before.
If the dispenser 13 contains enough bills, the system starts an operation to dispense a bill from disk penner 13 to output station 271 of AT 111. The system makes sure that the solenoid 43 is de-energized so that the flipper 17 is in its COW position to enable a bill 49 from the dispenser 13 to pays through the transport mechanism 15 to output station 271. Flipper position sensor 19 is then tested to see if the flipper 17 is in it COW position. If flipper 17 is not in its COW
position, a flipper position failure is logged and the program moves to exit Z to terminate the system operation.
If flipper 17 is in its COW position, the open ration moves to node D. The dispensing operation from node D on is substantially identical to that previously discussed in relation to Figs. 6-9. Since bills are being dispensed to output station 271 in AT 111 in this assumed case, output sensor 231 (instead of output sensor ., .. . ,. . . . . . , . .

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232) is used in the detection of each bill in the steps shown in Fig. 8.
The invention thus provides a system and method for automatically sharing a document dispenser between two output stations. It should, of course, be realized that the sharing of a document dispenser among more than two output stations is also within the purview of the invention.
While the salient features of the invention have been illustrated and described, it should be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that many changes and modifications can be made in the system and method of the invention presented without departing from the spirit and true scope of the invention. Accordingly, the present invention should be considered as encompassing all such changes and modifications of the invention that fall within the broad scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A banknote dispensing system comprising:
first and second banknote access stations;
said first banknote access station having a first output receptacle thereat and also having a first stacking mechanism thereat to receive banknotes delivered thereto;
said second banknote access station having a second output receptacle thereat and also having a second stacking mechanism thereat to receive banknotes delivered thereto;
a source of banknotes to be dispensed;
transport means for selectively moving banknotes from said source to said first and second stacking mechanisms;
a diverter positioned in said transport means, with said diverter being movable between first and second positions for diverting banknotes from said source to said first and second stacking mechanisms, respectively, when said diverter is in said first and second positions;
first customer request means for controlling said transport means and said diverter to move said diverter to said first position to deliver at least one banknote to said first stacking mechanism and to also deposit said banknote in said first banknote access station; and second customer request means for controlling said transport means and said diverter to move said diverter to said second position to deliver at least one banknote to said second stacking mechanism and to also deposit said banknote in said second banknote access station.