Patent ID: 8036771

Claim:
A transportation vehicle system, comprising: a ground controller; and transportation vehicles which travel along a travel route, and execute transportation instructions under control of said ground controller, wherein the transportation vehicles each comprising: measuring means for measuring at least one of its own position and speed; communication means for transmitting at least one of the measured own position and speed to the ground controller, and for receiving a running instruction from the ground controller, the transmitting from the transportation vehicles to the ground controller occurring periodically on a communication cycle; and travel control means for controlling a travel motor in accordance with the received running instruction; wherein the ground controller comprises: reception means for receiving positions of the respective transportation vehicles; running instruction generation means for generating the running instructions for the respective transportation vehicles based on at least one of the received positions and speeds of the transportation vehicles for avoiding interference between the transportation vehicles; and transmission means for transmitting the generated running instructions to the respective transportation vehicles, thereby allowing the ground controller to keep track of at least one of the positions and speeds of the respective transportation vehicles by the reception means, and for controlling at least one of the positions and speeds of the transportation vehicles in accordance with the running instructions in real time, the transmitting from the ground controller to the transportation vehicles occurring in the same communication cycle as the transmitting from the transportation vehicles to the ground controller, wherein the transportation instructions designate a loading position and an unloading position of an article, wherein the running instruction designates at least one of the positions and speeds of the transportation vehicles over a travel control cycle, and wherein the transportation vehicles executes a plurality of the running instructions for control of travel of the transportation vehicles, thereby executing the transportation instructions.