Patent ID: 8412400

Claim:
A system for transporting inventory items, comprising: a plurality of mobile drive units; a plurality of inventory holders; and a management module operable to: receive, from a first mobile drive unit, a reservation request requesting use of a first path segment to move in a first direction; determine that a second mobile drive unit is currently located on the first path segment; determine whether the second mobile drive unit is moving in the first direction; in response to determining that the second mobile drive unit is not moving in the first direction, transmit a reservation response indicating that the reservation request is denied; and in response to determining that the second mobile drive unit has reserved the first path segment and is moving in the first direction, transmit a reservation response indicating that the reservation request is granted, wherein the granted reservation request allows movement of the first mobile drive unit and second mobile drive unit on the first path segment at a substantially same time on different portions of the first path segment and the first path segment comprises a portion of a path requested by the reservation request.