Patent ID: 8294391

Claim:
A moving body system comprising: a moving body including a magnet array defining a movable element of a linear motor; stationary elements of the linear motor being provided on a ground and each including a plurality of coils; and position sensors each having a measurement range shorter than a length of the movable element; wherein the position sensors are arranged discretely; the stationary elements are arranged between the position sensors to enable the position sensors to determine a rough position of the movable element based on a change of inductance of at least a coil of the stationary elements resulting from interaction with the magnet array; the moving body system further includes a start-up unit arranged to determine an initial position of the moving body when a power supply for the moving body system is turned on, based on the rough position of the movable element relative to at least one of the stationary elements and a signal from at least one of the position sensors.