Patent ID: 8121724
Filing Date: 2012-02-21
Classification: B65G,G06Q

Abstract:
1. A transfer system, comprising: a plurality of transfer vehicles transferring an article between a plurality of processing devices, a buffer storing the article transferred between the processing devices, a controller allocating article transfer instructions to the transfer vehicles, transfer instruction forming means for forming a first transfer instruction from a transfer source processing device to a stopover buffer and for forming a second transfer instruction from the stopover buffer to a transfer destination processing device in response to a transfer request with a designated arrival time at the transfer destination processing device, and allocation means for obtaining a time to start traveling of the transfer vehicle and for allocating the second transfer instruction to the transfer vehicle at the time so that the article arrives at the transfer destination processing device at the designated arrival time, wherein the buffers are provided in a plurality of positions along a traveling route for the transfer vehicles, the transfer instruction forming means dividing the second transfer instruction into a plurality of parts so as to transfer the article to the transfer destination processing device via the plurality of stopover buffers, wherein the allocation means obtains times to start the traveling of the transfer vehicles for the respective parts of the second transfer instruction so that the article arrives at the respective stopover buffers before pickup times of the article from the stopover buffers and so that the article arrives at the transfer destination processing device at the designated time, and wherein the allocation means allocates the respective parts of the second transfer instruction to the transfer vehicles according to the times.