Patent ID: 8521415

Claim:
A traveling vehicle which travels along a path, comprising: an obstacle sensor arranged to detect an obstacle which is located in the path and within a first distance from the traveling vehicle; a controller which causes the traveling vehicle to perform a first avoidance operation so as to avoid the obstacle according to a result of a detection of the obstacle, the detection being performed by the obstacle sensor when a distance from the traveling vehicle to the obstacle is a second distance which is less than the first distance; and a memory unit configured to store position information and avoidance amount information which are obtained from the result of the detection of the obstacle, the position information indicating a position of the obstacle in the path, and the avoidance amount information indicating an amount of avoidance in a lateral direction performed by the traveling vehicle in the first avoidance operation; wherein when the position information and the avoidance amount information are stored in the memory unit and the obstacle sensor detects an obstacle at the position indicated by the position information at a point when the obstacle is within the first distance from the traveling vehicle, the controller causes the traveling vehicle to start a second avoidance operation, before the distance from the traveling vehicle to the obstacle reaches the second distance, so as to avoid the obstacle based on the avoidance amount information stored in the memory unit.