A transport vehicle system includes a track, transport vehicles, placement units to deliver or receive articles, and area controllers that each receive a conveyance instruction from a host controller and control a transport vehicle in a jurisdiction area to execute various instructions. The area controller, in response to receiving from the host controller a conveyance instruction destined for one special placement unit belonging to a jurisdiction area, transmits to another area controller a movement instruction to control an empty transport vehicle to move toward the jurisdiction area, and also controls an empty transport vehicle that has become available in the jurisdiction area after transmission of the movement instruction to execute the conveyance instruction.

A cleaning system includes: a cleaning vehicle 1 that travels along a predetermined travel path R to clean the travel path; and a maintenance facility 2 provided at a maintenance stop position A set on the travel path R, wherein the cleaning vehicle 1 includes a suction portion 14 that sucks up dust on the travel path R, a storage portion that stores the sucked up dust, and a discharge portion 16 that discharges the dust stored in the storage portion to the outside, and the maintenance facility 2 includes a dust collection portion 214 that collects the dust discharged to the outside from the storage portion via the discharge portion 16 of the cleaning vehicle 1 stopped at the maintenance stop position A.

A controller outputs, to a transport vehicle, a forward movement command for moving in the forward direction along a transport path toward a destination, and a reverse movement command for moving in a reverse direction along the transport path toward the destination. When a target task occurs, the controller determines a transport vehicle to execute the target task among a plurality of transport vehicles, while also including, as a candidate, a transport vehicle located on a downstream side of the transport path relative to the destination at a timing when the target task occurs.

A modular, offset In-line vacuum processing system is disclosed. The system comprises a plurality of independently operable process chambers each configured to accommodate a given number of carriers, where each carrier may hold a set of independently biased substrates. Further, each process chamber may be configured to execute one or more steps in one or more processes performed on each set of substrates. A plurality of Independently operable transfer chambers may be configured to transfer each carrier to and from process chambers for completing each step in the one or more processes. As a result, the system is able to: simultaneously coat the sets of substrates via a designated coating process (i.e., unique to each set of carriers); obtain a set of desired coating properties for each set of parts; perform processes having varying process step lengths; coat parts of multiple geometries; shut down individual chambers without interrupting production capacity.

A travelling vehicle system includes travelling vehicles and a controller. The controller includes a storage that stores a last permitted travelling vehicle, to which a passage permission is transmitted lastly and the passage permission for which is not canceled, for each direction in a branching section or a merging section included in a blocking area, stores a last canceled travelling vehicle, the passage permission for which is canceled lastly, for each direction in the blocking area, and stores the travelling vehicle, to which the passage permission in a same direction in the blocking area is transmitted lastly, as a forward travelling vehicle of a travelling vehicle waiting for the permission to pass through the blocking area at the time of transmission of the passage permission to the passage-permission waiting travelling vehicle, and a determiner that determines whether to give passage permission to the travelling vehicle waiting for the permission to pass through the blocking area based on whether the forward travelling vehicle of the passage-permission waiting travelling vehicle coincides with the last permitted travelling vehicle or the last canceled travelling vehicle for the blocking area.

A movable rail is retracted even when positions of an upstream rail and a downstream rail fluctuate, and an increase in distance between the upstream rail or the downstream rail and the movable rail is reduced or prevented. The movable rail is movable between a first position and a second position, and an extendable rail is provided on the upstream rail. The extendable rail includes one end coupled with the upstream rail and the other end defining a free end, and extending and contracting with an elastic member. The extendable rail contracts while leaving room for the other end of the extendable rail to be pushed by the movable rail moving toward the first position and further contract. When the movable rail moves to the second position, a space through which a fire shutter provided in the building is able to pass is provided between the other end and the downstream rail.

There is provided a technique that includes: at least one process chamber configured to be capable of processing a substrate; one or more supports configured to be capable of supporting the substrate; a transporter configured to be capable of transporting the one or more supports; a transfer chamber configured to be capable of transferring the substrate; a transport chamber that is adjacent to the transfer chamber and the at least one process chamber and is configured to be capable of moving the transporter; and a delivery chamber that is disposed in the transport chamber and is configured to be capable of delivering the one or more supports.

A substrate processing method is provided. The substrate processing method includes placing a substrate storage container storing a substrate on a load port; automatically determining a type of the substrate stored in the placed substrate storage container; and, by referring to a storage unit that stores parameter data set related to a transport condition for each type of substrate, controlling transport of the substrate stored in the substrate storage container based on the parameter data set corresponding to the automatically determined substrate type to process the substrate.

A substrate analysis apparatus is provided. The substrate analysis includes: an interlayer conveying module configured to transport a first FOUP; an exchange module which is connected to the interlayer conveying module, and configured to transfer a wafer from the first FOUP to a second FOUP; a pre-processing module configured to form a test wafer piece using the wafer inside the second FOUP; an analysis module configured to analyze the test wafer piece; and a transfer rail configured to transport the second FOUP containing the wafer and a tray containing the test wafer piece. The wafer includes a first identifier indicating information corresponding to the wafer, the test wafer piece includes a second identifier indicating information generated by the pre-processing module which corresponds to the test wafer piece, and the analysis module is configured to analyze the first identifier and the second identifier in connection with each other.

A substrate transfer system capable of performing efficient distribution exchange between fabricating facilities is provided. The substrate transfer system includes a lower rail, an upper rail which is located above the lower rail from a ground plane, and extends to be parallel to the lower rail, a conveyor which extends to intersect the lower rail and the upper rail, below the lower rail, a first lower transport unit which transports a first carrier along the lower rail and unloads the first carrier onto the conveyor, and a first upper transport unit which transports a second carrier along the upper rail and unloads the second carrier onto the conveyor, wherein the conveyor includes a linear module which moves the first carrier and the second carrier in a linear direction, and a turning module which turns the first carrier and the second carrier.