Patent ID: 7729797

Claim:
An article transport apparatus comprising: an article transporting mobile body movable along a predetermined path extending along a storage rack having a plurality of article storage units; a loading unit disposed along and fixed with respect to said predetermined path for supporting an article to be stored; an article transfer device disposed on said mobile body for transferring the article; operation control means for controlling traveling operation of said mobile body and transfer operation of said article transfer device; and article position detection means for detecting a position, in a first direction along a traveling direction of said mobile body, of the article transferred from said loading unit to said mobile body; wherein said operation control means obtains a misalignment amount with respect to a predetermined proper position, in said first direction, of the article transferred from said loading unit to said mobile body, based on detected information from said article position detection means, and corrects a horizontal component of an article transfer position for an article storage unit to which the article is to be transferred, based on the misalignment amount, and wherein said article position detection means includes loading position detection means disposed on said mobile body for detecting a position, in said first direction, of the article transferred to said mobile body relative to said mobile body; and said operation control means determines, as said misalignment amount, a misalignment amount of the article transferred to said mobile body with respect to a predetermined proper transfer position in said first direction relative to said mobile body based on the detected information from said article position detection means.