Patent ID: 7755316

Claim:
A movement control apparatus for a moving member, comprising: a drive unit that moves the moving member by rapid traverse on a first axis and a second axis intersecting the first axis, and overlaps the rapid traverse movements in the two axis directions to thereby allow the moving member to move around the periphery of a given area; a reference arc setting unit that sets a reference arc inscribed in the first and second axes; a timing setting unit that sets an overlap movement start timing for the rapid traverse of the moving member based on the reference arc when switching the moving member from the first axis to the second axis; a control unit that controls the operation of the drive unit to move the moving member at a timing set by the timing setting unit; a first calculating unit that calculates more than one tangent to the reference arc and the intersections of the respective tangents; and a second calculating unit that calculates a first time and a second time respectively necessary for the moving member to arrive at a first axis direction parallel line to the first axis and at a second axis direction parallel line to the second axis respectively passing through the intersections from the start of a movement of the moving member, wherein the timing setting unit delays the overlap movement start timing of the moving member in order for the two times to be at least equal to each other when the second time is shorter than the first time.