Methods and apparatus for enhanced operation of substrate carrier handlers

A carrier handler is provided that may be adapted to (1) accept transfer commands for carriers before the carriers arrive within the domain of the carrier handler (302); (2) accept termination commands that result in prior commands being cancelled or aborted independent of the state of the prior commands; (3) select queued commands for out-of-order execution to take advantage of earliest arriving transport system (316) carrier supports suitable for use with the selected commands and/or based upon the anticipated time needed to execute the commands; (4) remove empty carriers from an associated tool to improve port availability; (5) continue to operate even after transfers involving storage locations fail by removing the failed locations from a usable locations list; (6) verify the integrity of carrier and transfer destination status data with sensors prior to attempting a transfer; and (7) calibrate carrier handoffs with a transport system using a calibration carrier equipped with sensors.