| CPC B65G 1/0464 (2013.01) [G05D 1/0287 (2013.01)] | 10 Claims |
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1. A traveling vehicle system comprising:
a plurality of traveling vehicles, wherein each traveling vehicle comprises:
a main body, a plurality of travelers, a plurality of couplers, and a vehicle controller, wherein:
the main body is generally rectangular in shape, having four corners;
each traveler is connected to a corner of the main body by a coupler, such that the main body is suspended below the traveler;
wherein each coupler comprises a direction changer, wherein the direction changer is connected to the traveling wheel to cause the wheel to pivot from a first direction to a second direction in response to a communication from a controller;
each traveler comprises a traveling wheel, at least one auxiliary wheel, and
the controller being capable of communicating with the vehicle controller in each of the plurality of traveling vehicles and that controls the plurality of traveling vehicles;
a traveling region of the traveling vehicles having designated therein a plurality of blocking sections each of which undergoes, when occupied by one of the plurality of traveling vehicles, exclusive control to prohibit another traveling vehicle from moving thereinto; and
the traveling vehicle being controlled to be 1) able to occupy and operate in the blocking sections when an occupation permission for the blocking sections is granted by the controller and 2) prohibited from operating in the blocking sections when the occupation permission is not granted by the controller,
wherein the controller determines, where in a series of operations to be executed by the traveling vehicle, the operation of the traveling vehicle from the start of traveling to stopping before executing a predetermined operation included in the series of operations is demarcated, whether or not to grant the traveling vehicle an occupation permission for the blocking sections to be occupied for the traveling vehicle to execute operations.
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