Patent ID: 8641354

Claim:
An in-building storage apparatus comprising: a guide rail mounted in a storage space for storing articles, said guide rail having main rails and being configured to slide in a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of said main rails; a platform car including: a traveling section for allowing said platform car to move along the longitudinal axis of said main rails of said guide rail; and a lifting/lowering section for lifting and lowering the articles; suspenders configured to each suspend a respective one of the articles at a height to allow said platform car to pass below the articles held by said suspenders; and a control unit configured to: cause said guide rail to slide in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said main rails; cause said platform car to move along the longitudinal axis of said main rails of said guide rail; cause said lifting/lowering section to lift and lower the articles so as to remove a target one of the articles out of a respective one of said suspenders, and so as to place the target one of the articles into an empty one of said suspenders so as to suspend the target one of the articles; when said platform car is unloaded, cause said guide rail to slide in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said main rails so that said platform car moves linearly in at least one of a first area in which suspenders are located and a second area in which said suspenders are not located from an initial position to a target position, remove the target one of the articles located at the target position out of a respective one of said suspenders, and load the target one of the articles onto said platform car; and when said platform car is loaded, cause said platform car to move only in the second area in which said suspenders are not located.