Patent ID: 8219242

Claim:
An automated material handling system for combining an over-head conveyer with a material control system, comprising: the material control system; a transport system controller; a front opening unified pod (FOUP); and the over-head conveyer, further comprising at least a first output/input (I/O) port and a second I/O port, wherein the material control system and the over-head conveyer respectively assign first and second virtual stocker codes to the first and second I/O ports, the transport system controller moves the FOUP to and loads the FOUP in the first I/O port based on the first virtual stocker code, the over-head conveyer loads the FOUP in a track thereof and assigns a virtual vehicle code to the FOUP, and moves the FOUP, along the track based on the virtual vehicle code, to the second I/O port and loads the FOUP in the second I/O port, while the virtual vehicle code is being removed, and the transport system controller takes the FOUP away according to the second virtual stocker code using the transport system controller.