Patent ID: 11952026
Assignee: MURATA MACHINERY, LTD.
Field: Semiconductors (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G  H | IPC B  G

Claim 0:
1. A transport vehicle system comprising:
a track that extends over a plurality of areas;
a plurality of transport vehicles that are able to travel in one direction along the track;
a plurality of placement units provided along the track to deliver or receive an article to or from the placement units for each of the plurality of transport vehicles; and
a plurality of area controllers that each receive, from a host controller, a conveyance instruction to convey an article placed on one of the placement units, determine the corresponding one of the areas as a jurisdiction area, and control the transport vehicle in the jurisdiction area to execute various instructions; wherein
in one jurisdiction area, the placement unit belonging to a special section unable to be entered without passing through another jurisdiction area different from the one jurisdiction area is a special placement unit, and each area controller, in response to receiving from the host controller the conveyance instruction destined for the special placement unit belonging to a first jurisdiction area that is a jurisdiction area of the area controller, transmits a movement instruction to control an empty transport vehicle to move toward the first jurisdiction area to another area controller that controls the transport vehicle in a second jurisdiction area, and also controls an empty transport vehicle that has become available in the first jurisdiction area after transmission of the movement instruction to execute the conveyance instruction.