Patent ID: 7584017

Claim:
An article transport apparatus, comprising: a path that has a first end and a second end and that extends along a plurality of article transferring locations; a plurality of article transporting vehicles that run on the path; and control means for controlling the plurality of article transporting vehicles; wherein based on transport request data which specifies an article transferring location for collecting and an article transferring location for delivering from among the plurality of article transferring locations, said control means executes a basic control scheme by selecting an article transporting vehicle closest to said specified article transferring location for collecting as an article transporting vehicle for a transport operation and causing the selected article transporting vehicle to run on the path to the specified article transferring location for collecting and the specified article transferring location for delivering; and wherein in a case when transport request data specifying a same article transferring location for collecting is issued in repetition and an article transporting vehicle selected based on previously processed transport request data is currently engaged in its transport operation, said control means executes an empty vehicle transport control scheme by selecting a further article transporting vehicle than said article transporting vehicle selected based on the previously processed transport request data, as an article for a transport operation and causing said both article transporting vehicles to perform the respective transport operations.