Article Transport Facility

An article transport facility comprising a carrier configured to transport an article, a travel path provided as a path on which the carrier travels and including a plurality of specific sections including at least one of a branching part and a merging part of the path, section control devices each provided for a corresponding specific section from among the plurality of specific sections and configured to control the carrier traveling in the corresponding specific section, and a superior control device configured to control the carrier and the plurality of section control devices, each of the plurality of section control devices configured to operate in accordance with section control software installed in the each of the plurality of the section control devices, the article transport facility comprising:

• an update processing section configured to execute an update process procedure of updating the section control software, wherein:
• the update processing section distributes update data for the section control software to a target section control device targeted for update from among the plurality of section control devices;
• upon receipt of the update data, the target section control device executes software update to update the section control software by use of the update data;
• and
• during the execution of the software update, the superior control device executes alternative control to control the carrier traveling in a specific section corresponding to the target section control device, instead of the target section control device.