Patent ID: 8721965

Claim:
A transportation system for transporting a specimen container containing a specimen, comprising: a specimen rack having a plurality of holders arranged in a line each configured to hold a specimen container containing a specimen, the specimen rack being provided with a concave portion in a bottom of the specimen rack and having a width along the line of plurality of holders; and a transporting apparatus configured to transport the specimen rack in a first direction along the line of the holders and a second direction opposite to the first direction so that one of the holders of the specimen rack is located at a predetermined position and subsequently another holder of the same specimen rack is located at the predetermined position, wherein the transporting apparatus comprises: an engage unit having a pair of engage members and a driver configured to actuate the engage members to mutually separate in the first and second directions by at least the width of the concave portion; a moving mechanism configured to move the engage unit in the first and second directions in a state where the engage members are separated by at least the width in the concave portion by an actuation of the driver; and a transport controller programmed to control the transporting apparatus to transport the specimen rack in the first and second directions so that one of the holders of the specimen rack is located at the predetermined position and subsequently another holder of the same specimen rack is located at the predetermined position.