Shared Automatic Drinking Water Treatment and Dispensing Systems and Methods of Their Optimization

Access to clean and safe drinking water is a fundamental human right. However, in many parts of the world, water scarcity and contamination pose significant challenges. To address these issues, shared automatic drinking water treatment and dispensing systems have emerged as innovative solutions. The article is devoted to the problem of access to safe, physiologically complete drinking water in collective systems of water preparation and sale, namely in water vending machines. Since such machines are a relatively new solution, the search for rational ways of adapting existing technologies is relevant and necessary for their widespread implementation. The article discusses the peculiarities of preparation and sale of water in the network of existing vending machines. It was established that automatic machines are autonomous multifunctional systems, the effectiveness of which depends on the balanced operation of all elements. Formulated requirements for the operation of automatic machines in autonomous conditions, namely, regarding water quality, automatic machine productivity, and the duration of its operation without operator intervention. A comparison of the requirements with operational data showed a discrepancy in water quality (in terms of hardness, pH, dry residue), productivity (10 times higher than required), duration of operation without an operator (4 times shorter than specified in the requirements). Factors influencing the operation of vending machines are formulated, namely: water preparation technology, number of stages, resource of filter elements, volume of water for own needs, combination of payment methods, time or volume logic of service. To achieve the proposed requirements, solutions have been developed, the effectiveness of which will be investigated in the course of further work. It was noted that a mandatory condition for the successful solution of the tasks set is digital control of the operation of the machine.