Article transport system and method of operating article transport system
A method of operating an article transport system includes deriving a predicted transport request time-point of a target apparatus from pre-collected operation data of the article transport system, calling a transport vehicle of the article transport system at a time-point prior to the derived predicted transport request time-point, and moving the called transport vehicle to the target apparatus.
1 . A method of operating an article transport system, the method comprising:
deriving a predicted transport request time-point of a target apparatus from collected operation data of the article transport system;
calling a first transport vehicle of the article transport system at a time-point prior to the predicted transport request time-point; and
moving the first transport vehicle to the target apparatus in response to the calling.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
deriving a predicted first time for the first transport vehicle to arrive at the target apparatus, based on the operation data; and
deriving a transport vehicle in-advance calling time-point at which the calling of the first transport vehicle is performed, based on the predicted transport request time-point and the predicted first time.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the transport vehicle in-advance calling time-point is equal to or earlier than a time-point obtained by subtracting the predicted first time from the predicted transport request time-point.
4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the method further comprising:
collecting first data while the article transport system operates for a set period to obtain collected first data, wherein the first data include,
a collected transport request time-interval of the target apparatus,
a collected second time for a selected transport vehicle to arrive at the target apparatus based on the selected transport vehicle being called, or
a collected movement distance by which the selected transport vehicle moves to the target apparatus based on the selected transport vehicle being called.
5 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
adding representative values of the collected first data to the operation data.
6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
applying a weight to each of the representative values in the operation data to derive a predicted transport request time-interval of the first transport vehicle, a predicted second time, or a predicted movement distance of the first transport vehicle.
7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein a larger magnitude of the weight is applied to a representative value more recently added to the operation data among the representative values.
8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein
the applying of the weight to each of the representative values obtains a plurality of weights; and
a sum of the plurality of weights is 1.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the predicted transport request time-point is a prediction of a time-point at which the target apparatus will request article transport.
10 . A method of operating an article transport system, the article transport system including a rail and transport vehicles, the rail being installed above a substrate treatment apparatus, the transport vehicles being configured to travel along the rail and transport an article to the substrate treatment apparatus, and the method comprising:
collecting operation data while the article transport system operates;
deriving a predicted transport request time-point of the substrate treatment apparatus based on the operation data; and
deriving an in-advance calling time-point of a first transport vehicle among the transport vehicles, the in-advance calling time-point being earlier than the predicted transport request time-point.
11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
deriving a predicted transport time-interval of the substrate treatment apparatus based on the operation data; and
deriving the predicted transport request time-point by adding the predicted transport time-interval to a first transport request time-point.
12 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
deriving a predicted first time and a predicted movement distance based on the operation data, the predicted first time being a time for the first transport vehicle to arrive at the substrate treatment apparatus, and the predicted movement distance being a distance by which the first transport vehicle moves to arrive at the substrate treatment apparatus; and
designating, as the in-advance calling time-point, a time-point equal to or earlier than a time-point obtained by subtracting the predicted first time from the predicted transport request time-point.
13 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
determining whether the in-advance calling time-point has passed a current time-point to obtain a determining result; and
determining whether to proceed with in-advance calling of the first transport vehicle based on the determining result.
14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
transporting the article using a transport model selected from among a first transport model and a second transport model based on the determining whether to proceed with in-advance calling, the second transport model being different from the first transport model.
15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein
the transporting includes transporting the article based on the first transport model in response to determining the in-advance calling time-point as not passed the current time-point; and
the first transport model includes:
selecting one of the transport vehicles to obtain a selected transport vehicle,
measuring a distance between the selected transport vehicle and the substrate treatment apparatus to obtain a measured distance, and
determine whether to reserve the selected transport vehicle reserved based on the measured distance.
16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the first transport model includes determining whether to reserve the selected transport vehicle based on a ratio between the measured distance and the predicted movement distance.
17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the first transport model includes:
confirming reservation of the selected transport vehicle based on occurrence of a transport request of the substrate treatment apparatus occurs while the selected transport vehicle is moving to the substrate treatment apparatus; and
performing the transporting using the selected transport vehicle.
18 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the first transport model includes causing the selected transport vehicle to wait at a position above the substrate treatment apparatus based on nonoccurrence of a transport request of the substrate treatment apparatus while the selected transport vehicle is moving to the substrate treatment apparatus.
19 . The method of claim 18 , further comprising:
applying the second transport model to call another transport vehicle based on a determination to perform collision avoidance while the selected transport vehicle is waiting at the position above the substrate treatment apparatus.
20 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the second transport model includes:
searching for the first transport vehicle based on the first transport vehicle being capable of performing a transport request of the substrate treatment apparatus in response to the transport request;
assigning a task to the first transport vehicle based on the searching; and
causing the first transport vehicle to perform the transporting based on the assigning.