Article conveyance facility

Abstract

To provide an article conveyance facility preventing conveyance efficiency of articles from being lowered in terms of the whole facility.SOLUTION: An article conveyance facility comprises an article conveyance vehicle (10), and a control system for controlling the article conveyance vehicle (10). The article conveyance facility comprises a plurality of receiving conveyor machines (31) as conveyance destinations of articles (A). The receiving conveyor machines (31) are capable of holding the upper limit number of holding articles or less. The control system finds the receivable number (Ne) obtained by subtracting the holding number and the reservation number from the upper limit number of holding articles for each of the plurality of receiving conveyor machines (31) to select the plurality of receiving conveyor machines (31) as the conveyance destinations of the articles (A), based on each of the receivable number (Ne).SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an article transport facility. [Background technology]

[0002] An article transport facility is used that includes an article transport vehicle that moves along a transport path to transport articles and a control system that controls the article transport vehicle. An example of such an article transport facility is disclosed in JP 2021-76970 A (Patent Document 1).

[0003] In the article transport facility of Patent Document 1, a control device (control device H) sets a set route (set route 1A) for driving an article transport vehicle (article transport vehicle 3) to a destination on a transport route (travelable route 1) based on link costs set for each of a plurality of links (links L) constituting the transport route. In Patent Document 1, the link cost is set to be larger as the time required to pass through the link increases, and is also adjusted to be larger as the number of other vehicles scheduled to pass through the link increases. Then, the control device calculates the route cost from the sum of the link costs and node costs for each of a plurality of candidate routes (candidate routes 1B), and determines the candidate route with the smallest route cost as the set route.

[0004] In Patent Document 1, a destination is first determined, and a cost calculation is performed that takes into account only the conditions of the transport route to determine a set route to the destination. However, for example, a similar cost calculation may be used to determine a specific destination from among multiple destination candidates. In such a case, if each of the destination candidates can simultaneously hold multiple items, the conditions of each destination may also have a significant impact on the overall transport efficiency of the item transport facility. For example, even if the route cost to a certain destination candidate is small, if the destination candidate has already reached the upper limit of the number of items that it can hold, the total transport efficiency may decrease due to waiting time even if the arrival time is short. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] Patent Publication No. 2021-76970 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] Therefore, it is desirable to realize an article transport facility in which the article transport efficiency of the facility as a whole is not likely to decrease. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The article transport equipment according to the present disclosure includes: An article transport facility comprising an article transport vehicle that moves along a transport path to transport an article, and a control system that controls the article transport vehicle, a plurality of receiving conveyors to which the articles are transported by the article transport vehicle; Each of the plurality of receiving conveyors is capable of holding the articles up to a predetermined upper holding limit number, The control system includes: For each of the plurality of receiving conveyors, a receivable number is calculated by subtracting a holding number, which is the number of the items held by the receiving conveyor, and a reservation number, which is the number of the items that have been decided to be transported to the receiving conveyor, from the upper holding limit number; The receiving conveyor to which the article is to be conveyed is selected based on the number of receiving conveyors that can receive the article.

[0008] According to this configuration, the receiving conveyor to which the goods are to be transported is selected based on the number of goods that can be received for each of the multiple receiving conveyors (i.e., the margin between the upper limit of the number of goods that can be received and the sum of the actual number of goods held and the number of goods reserved). This reduces the possibility of an incident occurring in which the goods transport vehicle has to wait until the receiving conveyor is actually able to receive goods even after it has reached the destination receiving conveyor. This makes it possible to provide goods transport equipment in which the goods transport efficiency of the equipment as a whole is unlikely to decrease.

[0009] Further features and advantages of the techniques disclosed herein will become more apparent from the following description of exemplary and non-limiting embodiments, which proceeds with reference to the drawings. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] Schematic diagram of an article transport facility according to an embodiment. [Diagram 2] Perspective view of an article transport vehicle [Diagram 3] Control system block diagram [Figure 4] Schematic diagram of receiving conveyor [Diagram 5] An explanatory diagram showing how to calculate the receiving cost [Figure 6] Flowchart showing the processing procedure of the transport destination determination control [Figure 7] Schematic diagram of another embodiment of an article transport facility. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0011] An embodiment of an article transport facility will be described with reference to the drawings. The article transport facility 1 of this embodiment is used to transport an article A, for example, in a semiconductor manufacturing factory or the like. As shown in FIG. 1, the article transport facility 1 includes an article transport vehicle 10, a storage section 20, a delivery section 30, and a control system 40. The article transport facility 1 of this embodiment includes a plurality of article transport vehicles 10, a plurality of storage sections 20, a delivery section 30 provided for each storage section 20, and a control system 40.

[0012] The article transport vehicle 10 moves along a transport path 9 to transport an article A. An example of the article A is a front opening unified pod (FOUP) that stores a semiconductor wafer. In this embodiment, the transport path 9 of the article transport vehicle 10 is physically formed by a pair of traveling rails 91 suspended from the ceiling. That is, the article transport vehicle 10 of this embodiment is a ceiling transport vehicle that moves along the traveling rails 91 suspended from the ceiling.

[0013] As shown in FIG. 2, the article transport vehicle 10 comprises a running section 11, a main body section 17, and a transfer section 19 (see FIG. 3). The running section 11 runs on a pair of running rails 91. The running section 11 comprises a vehicle body 12 and a plurality of wheels 14 supported by the vehicle body 12. The wheels 14 roll on the running surface (the upper surface in this example) of the running rails 91. At least one of the plurality of wheels 14 is a drive wheel that is drivingly connected to a driving force source (for example, an electric motor such as a servo motor).

[0014] A reading device 13 is installed on the car body 12. The reading device 13 reads position information held by a position information holder 92 installed on the traveling rail 91. The position information holder 92 is, for example, a one-dimensional code (barcode), a two-dimensional code (e.g., a QR code), an IC tag, etc. The position information holders 92 are installed in multiple locations, and each holds unique position information. The reading device 13 used corresponds to the type of the position information holder 92, and for example, a barcode reader, a QR code reader, an IC tag reader, etc. are used.

[0015] Further, guide wheels 15 are supported on the car body 12 so as to be movable in the width direction (the direction perpendicular to the extending direction of the traveling rail 91, which is the traveling direction). The guide wheels 15 come into contact with guide rails 94 installed above the traveling rails 91 at a branching or merging portion on the conveying route 9, and guide the branching or merging.

[0016] The main body 17 is supported by being suspended from the travel section 11, and includes a transfer section 19 in its internal space. The transfer section 19 is switchable between a holding position and a holding release position, and is configured to be liftable and lowerable. The main body 17 holds the article A in its internal space when the transfer section 19 in the holding position is in the raised position. In addition, the transfer section 19 descends to a predetermined position and switches between the holding position and the holding release position, allowing the transfer of the article A.

[0017] The storage section 20 stores the item A transported by the item transport vehicle 10. In this embodiment, the storage section 20 is composed of a multi-layer storage shelf 21 equipped with a storage shelf, a lifting device, and a transfer device. The storage shelf is formed in a tower shape, and has multiple storage sections provided across multiple levels. The lifting device moves up and down along supports installed across each level. The transfer device is provided on the lifting device, and transfers the item A between the storage sections.

[0018] The transfer section 30 transfers item A between the item transport vehicle 10 and the storage section 20. As shown in FIG. 4, the transfer section 30 in this embodiment is equipped with a receiving conveyor 31 and a handover conveyor 38. The receiving conveyor 31 receives item A from the item transport vehicle 10 and hands it over to the storage section 20. Therefore, the receiving conveyor 31 can be the direct destination of item A by the item transport vehicle 10. The handover conveyor 38 receives item A from the storage section 20 and hands it over to the item transport vehicle 10. Therefore, the handover conveyor 38 can be the direct source of item A by the item transport vehicle 10.

[0019] The delivery section 30 is provided individually in a one-to-one correspondence with each of the multiple storage sections 20. That is, one receiving conveyor 31 and one delivery conveyor 38 are provided as a pair for each storage section 20 (multi-layer storage shelf 21 in this example). The multiple receiving conveyors 31 are functionally equivalent to one another as they receive article A from the article transport vehicle 10 and deliver it to the corresponding storage section 20. The multiple delivery conveyors 38 are also functionally equivalent to one another as they receive article A from the corresponding storage section 20 and deliver it to the article transport vehicle 10.

[0020] The receiving conveyor 31 is formed to have a length capable of holding multiple items A at the same time. The receiving conveyor 31 has a receiving point 32 where the items A are received from the item transport vehicle 10, and a delivery point 36 where the received items A are delivered to the storage section 20. In this embodiment, the storage section 20 (the multi-layer storage shelf 21 in this example) corresponds to the "device other than an item transport vehicle." In this embodiment, the receiving conveyor 31 further has a waiting point 34 between the receiving point 32 and the delivery point 36. In this embodiment, the receiving conveyor 31 has one receiving point 32, multiple waiting points 34 (three in the example of FIG. 4), and one delivery point 36.

[0021] The receiving conveyor 31 can simultaneously hold up to the upper limit number Nx of items A. Here, the upper limit number Nx is a value determined by the total number of receiving points 32, waiting points 34, and delivery points 36, and is "5" (=1+3+1) in this example. Note that the waiting point 34 does not necessarily have to be provided, and the receiving point 32 and the delivery point 36 may be shared. Therefore, the upper limit number Nx is an integer of 1 or more. However, it is preferable that the receiving points 32 and the delivery points 36 are provided separately, and it is also preferable that the number of waiting points 34 is not excessive, and the upper limit number Nx is preferably about 3 to 5.

[0022] The delivery conveyor 38 is also formed to a length capable of simultaneously holding a plurality of articles A. Although not clearly shown in Fig. 4 in a particularly distinguishable manner, the delivery conveyor 38 similarly has a receiving point where the articles A are received from the storage section 20, a delivery point where the received articles A are handed over to the article transport vehicle 10, and a waiting point between the receiving point and the delivery point. The number of articles A that the delivery conveyor 38 can hold simultaneously may be the same as the upper limit number Nx that the delivery conveyor 31 can hold.

[0023] The receiving conveyor 31 and the delivery conveyor 38 may each be, for example, a roller conveyor, a belt conveyor, a slat conveyor, etc. The receiving conveyor 31 and the delivery conveyor 38 may be the same type of conveyor or different types of conveyors.

[0024] 1, the article transport facility 1 of this embodiment is also provided with a plurality of processing devices 7. When the article A is, for example, a FOUP that stores a semiconductor wafer, as described above, the processing device 7 may be a processing device that processes the semiconductor wafer. A support table for receiving and delivering the article A is provided in the processing device 7, and the article transport vehicle 10 also delivers and receives the article A between the processing device 7 and the article transport facility 10.

[0025] A conveyor may be used instead of the support platform. This conveyor is common to the receiving conveyor 31 in that it delivers and receives the article A to and from the article transport vehicle 10. However, since it receives the article A from the article transport vehicle 10 and delivers it to the corresponding processing device 7, and the delivery destination device is different, in this embodiment, it is not considered to be functionally equivalent to the receiving conveyor 31.

[0026] The control system 40 controls the article transport vehicles 10. As shown in Fig. 3, the control system 40 of this embodiment includes a host control device 41 provided on the facility side, and a control terminal device 46 mounted on each article transport vehicle 10 and capable of communicating with the host control device 41. The host control device 41 and each control terminal device 46 each include an arithmetic processing device such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and a main storage device such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) or a ROM (Read Only Memory). The functions of the host control device 41 and each control terminal device 46 are realized by cooperation between the arithmetic processing device and a program executed on the arithmetic processing device.

[0027] The host controller 41 comprehensively controls the operation of the multiple article transport vehicles 10. The host controller 41 knows the current position of each article transport vehicle 10, the transport route (including destinations and stopovers) of each article transport vehicle 10, and the like, and controls the operation of each of the multiple article transport vehicles 10 based on this. The host controller 41 also controls the operation of the receiving conveyor 31 and the handover conveyor 38, as well as the operation of the lifting devices and transfer devices provided on the multi-layer storage shelves 21 that make up the storage section 20.

[0028] The upper control device 41 also includes a cost calculation unit 42, a transport destination determination unit 43, and a memory unit 44. The cost calculation unit 42 calculates the cost of transporting the article A by the article transport vehicle 10. The transport destination determination unit 43 selects a receiving conveyor 31 to be the transport destination of the article A from among a plurality of receiving conveyors 31. The memory unit 44 pre-stores information related to the structure of the transport route 9, the attributes of each part, etc. as map information M.

[0029] In this embodiment, an item A containing an object (e.g., a semiconductor wafer) that has been processed in any of the processing devices 7 is transported to and stored in any of the storage units 20. At that time, in order to determine which storage unit 20 the item A should be transported to (and, as a prerequisite, which receiving conveyor 31 the item A should be transported to), a cost calculation unit 42 and a destination determination unit 43 work together while referring to map information M stored in a memory unit 44.

[0030] When the cost calculation unit 42 receives an item A at any of the processing devices 7 and decides to transport the item A to any of the storage units 20, the cost calculation unit 42 first extracts a plurality of receiving conveyors 31 that are candidate destinations (step #01 in FIG. 6). The cost calculation unit 42 then first calculates the cost required for the article transport vehicle 10 transporting the item A to move to each of the candidate destination receiving conveyors 31 (hereinafter referred to as "candidate receiving conveyors") (step #02 in FIG. 6). In this embodiment, the cost required for the article transport vehicle 10 to move to the candidate receiving conveyors is referred to as the "route cost."

[0031] For example, the map information M includes information on a plurality of links and a plurality of nodes that indicate the network structure of the transport route 9. Each link includes information on the cost (passing cost) according to its length, shape, etc., and each node includes information on the cost (passing cost) according to, for example, the scale of a junction or branch. The route cost is calculated as the sum of the costs of all the links and nodes included in the route from the current position of the article transport vehicle 10 to the position of a candidate receiving conveyor.

[0032] The cost of each link and each node is most affected by the cost according to the length of the link (the longer the link, the higher the cost), so the route cost generally increases as the travel distance of the article transport vehicle 10 to the candidate receiving conveyor increases. In other words, the route cost generally decreases as the travel distance of the article transport vehicle 10 to the candidate receiving conveyor decreases.

[0033] The route cost may be calculated based on the distance traveled by the article transport vehicle 10 to the candidate receiving conveyor, as well as other factors, such as the number of locations along the route to the candidate receiving conveyor where a stop is required and the likelihood of congestion.

[0034] Secondly, the cost calculation unit 42 calculates the cost of each candidate receiving conveyor from the viewpoint of its current state, more specifically, the cost taking into consideration its capacity for newly receiving item A (step #03 in FIG. 6). In this embodiment, the cost of the candidate receiving conveyor from the viewpoint of its own state is referred to as the "receiving cost."

[0035] For example, in the example of Fig. 5 based on the example of Fig. 4, two receiving conveyors 31 corresponding to two storage units 20 respectively are assumed to be extracted as candidate receiving conveyors. The upper limit number Nx of holding of these two candidate receiving conveyors is "5" as described above. The upper limit number Nx of holding of each receiving conveyor 31 is determined in advance according to its size (length) and is known by the upper control device 41. The cost calculation unit 42 obtains the upper limit number Nx of holding of each candidate receiving conveyor.

[0036] The number of items A that a candidate receiving conveyor is actually holding at that time (hereinafter, referred to as the "holding number Nf") may differ for each candidate receiving conveyor. In the example of FIG. 5, the candidate receiving conveyor on the left holds two items A, and its holding number Nf is "2". In contrast, the candidate receiving conveyor on the right holds four items A, and its holding number Nf is "4". Here, in FIG. 5, the items A shown with solid hatching represent the items A that are actually being held.

[0037] The cost calculation unit 42 can obtain the holding number Nf of each candidate receiving conveyor based on information such as the state of each article transport vehicle 10, the state of each receiving conveyor 31, and the state of the lifting device and the transfer device provided on each multi-layer storage shelf 21, which are known by the upper control device 41. Alternatively, a load sensor (e.g., a weight sensor, an infrared sensor, a camera, etc.) may be provided on or around each receiving conveyor 31, and the cost calculation unit 42 may obtain the holding number Nf of each candidate receiving conveyor based on the detection result of the load sensor.

[0038] In addition, the number of items A that the candidate receiving conveyor does not actually hold at that time but is scheduled to be transported shortly (hereinafter referred to as the "reservation number Nr") may also differ for each candidate receiving conveyor. In the example of FIG. 5, it has already been determined that one item A will be newly transported to the left candidate receiving conveyor, and its reservation number Nr is "1." In contrast, no new item A is scheduled to be transported to the right candidate receiving conveyor at that time, and its reservation number Nr is "0." Here, in FIG. 5, the item A shown with dashed hatching represents the item A that is scheduled to be transported in the future.

[0039] The cost calculation unit 42 can obtain the number of reservations Nr for each candidate receiving conveyor based on information on the destination of each article transport vehicle 10 that the upper control device 41 knows.

[0040] The cost calculation unit 42 subtracts the holding number Nf and the reservation number Nr from the holding upper limit number Nx to obtain the receiving number Ne for each candidate receiving conveyor (Ne=Nx-Nf-Nr). The receiving number Ne can be said to be the number of net spare slots that are not actually held and not reserved at that time. In the example of FIG. 5, the receiving number Ne of the left candidate receiving conveyor is "2" obtained by subtracting the holding number Nf "2" and the reservation number Nr "1" from the holding upper limit number Nx "5". On the other hand, the receiving number Ne of the right candidate receiving conveyor is "1" obtained by subtracting the holding number Nf "4" and the reservation number Nr "0" from the holding upper limit number Nx "5".

[0041] Then, the cost calculation unit 42 calculates the receiving cost for each of the candidate receiving conveyors based on the receivable number Ne. In this embodiment, the receiving cost is assumed to be larger as the receivable number Ne decreases. In other words, the receiving cost is assumed to be smaller as the receivable number Ne increases. In the example of FIG. 5, the receiving cost of the candidate receiving conveyor on the left side is smaller than the receiving cost of the candidate receiving conveyor on the right side.

[0042] The destination determination unit 43 determines the receiving conveyor 31 to be the actual destination of the item A from among a plurality of candidate receiving conveyors based on the route cost and receiving cost calculated by the cost calculation unit 42 (step #04 in FIG. 6). The destination determination unit 43 combines the route cost and receiving cost of each candidate receiving conveyor, and determines the candidate receiving conveyor with the smallest total cost as the destination receiving conveyor 31.

[0043] In addition, when calculating the total cost, the route cost and the receiving cost may be simply added together, or may be added together with a certain weighting. In the latter case, the coefficient can be set according to the required specifications of the article conveying facility 1. For example, if priority is given to shortening the travel time of the article conveying vehicle 10 to the receiving conveyor 31 at the conveying destination to improve the conveying efficiency, the coefficient of the route cost can be adjusted to be relatively large. Also, for example, if priority is given to leveling the load among multiple receiving conveyors 31 so that the load is not concentrated on a specific receiving conveyor 31, the coefficient of the receiving cost can be adjusted to be relatively large.

[0044] Other embodiments (1) In the above embodiment, the receiving conveyor 31 has been mainly described assuming a configuration in which the receiving conveyor 31 has one receiving point 32 and one delivery point 36. However, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration, and for example, as shown in FIG. 7, a type of receiving conveyor 31 may include a multi-receiving conveyor 31M having a plurality of receiving points 32 (two in the example of FIG. 7). Such a multi-receiving conveyor 31M can be used, for example, when the conveying path 9 branches into a first conveying path 9A and a second conveying path 9B, and an article A can be received from both conveying paths 9A and 9B. The multi-receiving conveyor 31M has a first receiving point 32A that receives an article A from an article conveying vehicle 10 traveling along the first conveying path 9A, a second receiving point 32B that receives an article A from an article conveying vehicle 10 traveling along the second conveying path 9B, and a common delivery point 36 that delivers the received article A to the storage unit 20. In addition, the multi-receiving conveyor 31M has a first waiting area 34A between the first receiving area 32A and the handover area 36, ​​and has a second waiting area 34B between the second receiving area 32B and the first receiving area 32A.

[0045] In such a multi-receiving conveyor 31M, a maximum holding number Nx is set for each of the multiple receiving locations 32 (i.e., individually for the first receiving location 32A and the second receiving location 32B). In the illustrated example, the maximum holding number Nx for the first receiving location 32A is determined by the total number of the first receiving location 32A, the first waiting locations 34A, and the delivery locations 36, and the maximum holding number Nx for the second receiving location 32B is determined by the total number of the second receiving location 32B and the second waiting locations 34B. Therefore, in this example, the maximum holding number Nx is "3" at both the first receiving location 32A and the second receiving location 32B.

[0046] (2) In the above embodiment, the description was given mainly assuming a configuration in which the receiving conveyor 31 and the delivery conveyor 38 transport the article A in only one direction. However, without being limited to such a configuration, the receiving conveyor 31 and the delivery conveyor 38 may be capable of transporting the article A in both directions. In this case, the receiving conveyor 31 may have waiting areas 34 on both sides of the receiving area 32.

[0047] (3) In the above embodiment, the multi-layer storage shelf 21 constituting the storage unit 20 has storage shelves formed in a tower shape. However, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration, and for example, the multi-layer storage shelf 21 may have storage shelves formed in a rack shape, in which case the transport vehicles may be configured to move back and forth between each layer. The storage unit 20 may also be an automated warehouse equipped with a stacker crane.

[0048] (4) In the above embodiment, the article A transported by the article transport vehicle 10 is a FOUP that contains semiconductor wafers. However, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration, and the article A to be transported may be any type, such as a reticle pod or an open cassette.

[0049] (5) The configurations disclosed in the above-mentioned embodiments (including the above-mentioned embodiments and other embodiments; the same applies below) can be applied in combination with configurations disclosed in other embodiments, as long as no contradiction occurs. As for other configurations, the embodiments disclosed in this specification are illustrative in all respects and can be appropriately modified within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0050] Summary of the embodiment To summarise the above, an article transport facility according to the present disclosure preferably comprises the following configurations.

[0051] An article transport facility comprising an article transport vehicle that moves along a transport path to transport an article, and a control system that controls the article transport vehicle, a plurality of receiving conveyors to which the articles are transported by the article transport vehicle; Each of the plurality of receiving conveyors is capable of holding the articles up to a predetermined upper holding limit number, The control system includes: For each of the plurality of receiving conveyors, a receivable number is calculated by subtracting a holding number, which is the number of the items held by the receiving conveyor, and a reservation number, which is the number of the items that have been decided to be transported to the receiving conveyor, from the upper holding limit number; The receiving conveyor to which the article is to be conveyed is selected based on the number of receiving conveyors that can receive the article.

[0052] According to this configuration, the receiving conveyor to which the goods are to be transported is selected based on the number of goods that can be received for each of the multiple receiving conveyors (i.e., the margin between the upper limit of the number of goods that can be received and the sum of the actual number of goods held and the number of goods reserved). This reduces the possibility of an incident occurring in which the goods transport vehicle has to wait until the receiving conveyor is actually able to receive goods even after it has reached the destination receiving conveyor. This makes it possible to provide goods transport equipment in which the goods transport efficiency of the equipment as a whole is unlikely to decrease.

[0053] In one embodiment, the control system includes a cost calculation unit that calculates a cost of transporting the article by the article transport vehicle; It is preferable that the cost calculation unit reduces the cost for each of the multiple receiving conveyors at least as the travel distance of the item transport vehicle to the receiving conveyor becomes shorter, and reduces the cost as the number of items that can be received by the receiving conveyor becomes greater.

[0054] According to this configuration, a receiving conveyor that requires the article transport vehicle to travel a short distance or that has a large margin up to the upper limit of the number of items that can be held is more likely to be selected as the destination of the article. This makes it possible to shorten the travel time of the article transport vehicle to the destination receiving conveyor, thereby improving the efficiency of transporting articles and leveling the load among multiple receiving conveyors.

[0055] In one embodiment, Preferably, the control system selects the receiving conveyor to which the article is to be delivered from among a plurality of functionally equivalent receiving conveyors.

[0056] According to this configuration, when it is possible to select one of a plurality of functionally equivalent receiving conveyors to transport an article to a destination, it is possible to select an appropriate destination from among them, thereby improving the efficiency of transporting the article and appropriately transporting the article.

[0057] In one embodiment, Each of the plurality of receiving conveyors includes a receiving point for receiving the item from the item transport vehicle, and a delivery point for delivering the received item to a device other than the item transport vehicle; The receiving conveyor includes a multi-receiving conveyor having a plurality of the receiving locations; In the multi-receiving conveyor, it is preferable that the upper limit number of pieces to be held is set for each of the plurality of receiving locations.

[0058] According to this configuration, when the multiple receiving conveyors provided in the article transport facility include a multi-receiving conveyor with multiple receiving points, each receiving point can be selected as a separate destination with a maximum number of items to be held. This allows a wider range of destinations to be selected compared to the actual number of receiving conveyors.

[0059] It is sufficient for the article transport facility according to the present disclosure to achieve at least one of the above-mentioned effects. [Explanation of symbols]

[0060] 1. Goods transport equipment 9. Transport Route 10 Goods transport vehicle 20 Storage unit (equipment other than goods transport vehicles) 31 Receiving conveyor 31M Multi Receiving Conveyor 32 Pick-up point 32A First Pick-up Point 32B 2nd pick-up point 36 Delivery point 40 Control System 42 Cost Calculation Unit 43 Destination Determination Department A Goods Ne Receivable quantity

Claims

1. An article transport facility comprising an article transport vehicle that moves along a transport path to transport an article, and a control system that controls the article transport vehicle, a plurality of receiving conveyors to which the articles are transported by the article transport vehicle; Each of the plurality of receiving conveyors is capable of holding the articles up to a predetermined upper holding limit number, The control system includes: For each of the plurality of receiving conveyors, a receivable number is calculated by subtracting a holding number, which is the number of the items held by the receiving conveyor, and a reservation number, which is the number of the items that have been decided to be transported to the receiving conveyor, from the upper holding limit number; An article transport facility that selects the receiving conveyor to which the article is to be transported based on the respective available numbers of the receiving conveyors.

2. the control system includes a cost calculation unit that calculates a cost of transporting the article by the article transport vehicle; The item transport equipment according to claim 1, wherein the cost calculation unit reduces the cost for each of the plurality of receiving conveyors at least as the travel distance of the item transport vehicle to the receiving conveyor becomes shorter, and reduces the cost as the number of items that can be received by the receiving conveyor becomes greater.

3. Each of the plurality of receiving conveyors includes a receiving point for receiving the item from the item transport vehicle, and a delivery point for delivering the received item to a device other than the item transport vehicle; The receiving conveyor includes a multi-receiving conveyor having a plurality of the receiving locations; The article transport facility according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the upper limit number of items to be held is set for each of the plurality of receiving locations in the multi-receiving conveyor.

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