Development of an Automatic Dispensing System for Traditional Chinese Herbs

Table 4

System performance analysis using five packets of herbs (medicine 1: Dwarf Lilyturf Tuber; medicine 2: Radix Glehniae; medicine 3: Barbary Wolfberry; medicine 4: Chinese Angelica; medicine 5: Dried Rehmannia Root; and medicine 6: Szechwan Chinaberry).

Herbal medicine	1	2	3	4	5	6
Quantity (g)	9	9	13	9	20	4.5
Measured by pharmacist (five doses)
Average error (g)	0.91	0.91	0.4	0.93	0.44	0.98
Standard deviation of error (g)	1.02	1.45	0.65	1.24	0.57	1.41
Max error (g)	2.9	1.2	1.3	1.5	0.8	1.7
Executing time	9 min 27 s
Proposed dispensing system: linear interpolation method (five doses)
Average error (g)	0.92	1.12	1.2	1.16	1.08	1.06
Standard deviation of error (g)	1.02	1.28	1.35	1.37	1.32	1.23
Max error (g)	1.6	1.8	1.9	2.3	1.9	1.7
Number of average grasping (times)	1.6	1.6	1.6	1.4	2	1.2
Executing time	20 min 38 s
Proposed dispensing system: LSR curve fitting method (five doses)
Average error (g)	1.5	1.46	1.04	1	1.18	0.74
Standard deviation of error (g)	1.23	1.24	1.12	0.95	1.31	0.91
Max error (g)	2.3	2.3	1.4	2	2.4	1.6
Number of average grasping (times)	1.8	1.4	1.4	1.4	1.8	1.4
Executing time	20 min 11 s
Proposed dispensing system: iterative refinement method (five doses)
Average error (g)	0.64	0.9	0.94	0.72	1.14	0.72
Standard deviation of error (g)	0.81	1.01	1.04	0.91	0.93	0.82
Max error (g)	1.1	1.4	1.8	2.1	2.2	1.3
Number of average grasping (times)	1.2	1.2	1.4	1.2	1.6	1.2
Executing time	18 min 1 s