Patent ID: 8237919

Claim:
A movable body drive method in which a movable body is driven substantially along a two-dimensional plane, the method comprising: a first process comprising: measuring a position in a direction perpendicular to the two-dimensional plane and a tilt with respect to the two-dimensional plane of the movable body using a detection device that has a plurality of detection positions and has a plurality of sensor heads which detect, at each of the detection positions, positional information of a surface of the movable body substantially parallel to the two-dimensional plane, in the direction perpendicular to the two-dimensional plane with a reference plane parallel to the two-dimensional plane serving as a reference; and a second process comprising: switching a first set of sensor heads used to control the position and attitude of the movable body to another set of sensor heads which include at least one sensor head different from the first set of sensor heads so that the position in the direction perpendicular to the two-dimensional plane and the tilt with respect to the two-dimensional plane of the movable body are continuous before and after the switching; specifying a second set of sensor heads used to control the position and the attitude of the movable body based on positional information of the movable body in the two-dimensional plane; when the second set of sensor heads does not match the first set of sensor heads currently used to control the position and the attitude of the movable body, determining a measurement value of a specific sensor head, of a plurality of sensor heads belonging to the second set of sensor heads, that is currently not used to control the position and the attitude of the movable body based on the position and the attitude of the movable body; and correcting an actual measurement value of the specific sensor head based on the determined measurement value so that the position and the attitude of the movable body match before and after the switching.