A method of controlling a guided vehicle to run along a desired running route comprising the steps of; dividing a display screen into a predetermined grid, wherein the display screen corresponds an area over which the running route is desired, and each grid block corresponds to a portion of the area, establishing a plurality of symbol blocks each symbol block representing a running route segment having a predetermined characteristic, the characteristic being visually represented on the display screen and electronically represented by symbol block data, producing a layout diagram corresponding to the running route by entering a selected pattern of symbol blocks into the display screen grid, extracting electronic symbol block data for each selected symbol block entered and storing the electronic symbol block data, and producing map information corresponding to the stored electronic symbol block, such that the guided vehicle is controlled along the running route by the map information.