Article Transport Facility

An article transport facility comprising:

• a transport vehicle configured to transport an article;
• a travel route along which the transport vehicle is travelable;
• and
• a region control device configured to control the transport vehicle in a predetermined branching and merging region comprising a branching point where a portion of the travel route branches and a merging point where portions of the travel route merge,
• the travel route comprising:
• an occupation target point, for which occupation permission is to be given to the transport vehicle, at least downstream of the merging point;
• and
• a secondary occupation target point, for which occupation permission is secondarily given to the transport vehicle, between the branching point and the merging point in the travel route, and
• wherein in response to the transport vehicle being scheduled to sequentially pass through the branching point and pass through the merging point while passing through the branching and merging region, the region control device gives the transport vehicle (i) occupation permission for a first target point on a scheduled travel route, which branches from the branching point and is to be traveled by the transport vehicle after passing through the branching point, and (ii) occupation permission for a second target point on a non-scheduled travel route, which branches from the branching point in a different direction from the scheduled travel route, the first target point and the second target point each being whichever one of the occupation target point and the secondary occupation target point is closest to the branching point.