In an apparatus for controlling operation of an autonomously navigating utility vehicle to travel about a working area, there are provided a cell memorizing unit (43) identifying a series of cells on which the vehicle has traveled in the work mode, assigning cell numbers successively to the series of cells, and memorizing the series of cells in association with the assigned cell numbers, the series of cells starting from the charging device to the current cell of the vehicle, a cell selecting unit (44) selecting a return locus cell from among the series of cells in the return mode, the return locus cell being adjacent to the current cell, a cell number of the return locus cell being smaller than a cell number of the current cell, and a travel controlling unit (45) controlling the vehicle to travel on the return locus cell to return to the charging device.
