Patent ID: 8547527

Claim:
A movable body drive method of driving a movable body along a predetermined plane, the method comprising: a drive process in which positional information of the movable body is measured using an interferometer system and an encoder system, and the movable body is driven based on measurement information of the interferometer system and also the movable body is driven using measurement information of the encoder system so that a measurement error of the interferometer system is compensated, the encoder system having a plurality of encoders and measuring the positional information of the movable body using at least one of the encoders; and a switching process in which at least one of the encoders used in measurement of the positional information of the movable body is switched to a different one of the encoders according to a change of a position of the movable body in a plane parallel to the predetermined plane, wherein in the switching process, a measurement value of the different one of the encoders is determined so that the position of the movable body in the plane parallel to the predetermined plane is maintained before and after the switching.