Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of claims
The following claims have been rejected or allowed for the following reasons:
Claim 1 – 22 are rejected under 35 USC § 103
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) were submitted on 3/16/2020, 6/23/2021 and 6/28/2023, 9/5/25. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1 - 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over as applied to Shah (US 20190177123 A1); in further view of Ong (NPL Ong, E. H. (2019). Design and development of 3D visual mapping system for elevator shaft inspection. Master's thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore); in further view of (Cambruzzi US 11235954 B2); in further view of Gillingham (US 5931264 A); in further view of (Tao CN 109019215 A); in further view of (Zhengwu CN 207142544 U).
Regarding claim 1 Shah teaches An elevator inspection system, comprising: a sensor implement; a robotic platform, which is portable, supporting the sensor implement, the robotic platform configured for inspecting and performing maintenance to one or more components previously installed in a hoistway; a controller operationally connected to the robotic platform and the sensor implement, wherein the controller is configured to: (Shah [0013] reads “Aspects of the present invention relate to an elevator inspection and maintenance system including a mechatronic body movable via remote or automatic operation, and an inspection and maintenance head installed on the mechatronic body. The inspection and maintenance head is fitted with a sensor or a manipulation tool to perform an inspection or a maintenance operation on at least one component of an elevator system, remotely or automatically.”);
and thereafter maintaining the guide rail and the one or more components (Shah [0013] reads “Aspects of the present invention relate to an elevator inspection and maintenance system including a mechatronic body movable via remote or automatic operation, and an inspection and maintenance head installed on the mechatronic body. The inspection and maintenance head is fitted with a sensor or a manipulation tool to perform an inspection or a maintenance operation on at least one component of an elevator system, remotely or automatically.”);
and engage the guide rail and the one or more components, with the robotic platform to execute corrective measures, upon identifying, from the sensor data compared with the hoistway model data, when the guide rail and the one or more components being installed or has been installed outside of predetermined tolerances. (Shah [0034 – 0035] reads “The manipulation tool 164 can be any tool known in the art, configured to manipulate or perform a maintenance operation on any hoist way equipment 106. There may be more than one manipulation tools in inspection and maintenance head 160. Some examples of such manipulation tools include screw driver, a gripper, wire cutter, adhesive gun, soldering iron, welding tool, etc. In some embodiments, the manipulation tool 164 includes a movable claw that is used by the system 150 for gripping various types of equipment 106 within the hoist way 102 to closely inspect equipment 106 using the sensors in the sensor hub 162.”);
Shah does not teach develop hoistway model data from sensor data of the hoistway, from sensed locations and shape boundaries of the hoistway shaft and doorway openings formed in the hoistway shaft, by moving the sensor implement within the hoistway via the robotic platform, wherein the hoistway model data is a three-dimensional hoistway model of the hoistway, including sill to sill distances, guide rail to guide rail distances, sill to guide rail distances, and tilt and twist of the hoistway, and wherein a virtual installation of a guide rail and one or more components is defined within the three-dimensional hoistway model from data collected from other elevator systems connected over a network; and thereafter utilize the hoistway model data for as a reference point for initial installation of the guide rail and the one or more components inspect the guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter
Ong in analogous art, teaches develop hoistway model data from sensor data of the hoistway, from sensed locations and shape boundaries of the hoistway shaft and doorway openings formed in the hoistway shaft, (Ong page 99 figure 76 depicts the open doorways as part of the model data created by the robotic system.);
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by moving the sensor implement within the hoistway via the robotic platform, wherein the hoistway model data is a three-dimensional hoistway model of the hoistway, (Ong page 105 reads “In this task, the methodology for 3D point clouds map generation has been discussed and mapping is done on the same long hallway as previous task to simulate vertical elevator shaft. The trajectory from EKF pose estimation with baseline configuration is used as the position of the scanning system for 3D mapping.”);
including sill to sill distances, guide rail to guide rail distances, sill to guide rail distances, and tilt and twist of the hoistway, (Ong page 12 paragraph 1 reads “Verticality of a structure is important in building especially for high rise building. This also applies to elevator shaft” and page 102 reads “Cloud/Mesh Dist tool is used to calculate the distance between the point clouds of the surface to the best fitted flat plane.“ It would be appreciated by one with ordinary skill in the art that );
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Shah with that of Ong to include more advanced sensors and computational software. This would all the system take more accurate measurements of the elevation shaft, thereby providing an improved inspection. (Ong abstract reads “In this thesis, the design and development of an 3D visual elevator shaft inspection system concept is proposed, which has potential to improve the yield and speeds up the elevator shaft inspection process”);
Shah/Ong does not teach and wherein a virtual installation of a guide rail and one or more components is defined within the three-dimensional hoistway model from data collected from other elevator systems connected over a network; and thereafter utilize the hoistway model data for as a reference point for initial installation of the guide rail and the one or more components inspect the guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter
Cambruzzi in analogous art, teaches and thereafter utilize the hoistway model data for as a reference point for initial installation of the guide rail and the one or more components (Cambruzzi [0040] reads “A method for mounting a rail bracket lower part, in particular an omega bracket, is therefore possible, in which method first some mounting steps are carried out by means of a mounting device, which has a carrier component, an installation component and a control apparatus for controlling the installation component. The carrier component is designed to be displaced relative to the elevator shaft and to be positioned at different heights within the elevator shaft. The installation component is held on the carrier component and is designed to carry out a mounting step as part of the installation process in an at least partially automated manner. The control apparatus determines, on the basis of an actual position of the mounting device and a desired position of the rail bracket lower part to be installed in the elevator shaft, a position of a marking on a shaft wall of the elevator shaft relative to the actual position of the mounting device. On the basis of said marking, the desired position of the rail bracket lower part can be determined in a following installation step.”);
inspect the guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation (Cambruzzi [0035] reads “In order that the control apparatus can determine the actual position of the mounting device, the mounting device comprises in particular a positioning component. The control apparatus can determine the position of the mounting device in different ways using the positioning component. For instance, it is conceivable to determine the position using optical measurement principles. For example, laser distance measuring devices can measure distances between the positioning component and walls of the elevator shaft or between the positioning component and reference elements arranged in the elevator shaft. Other optical measurement methods such as stereoscopic measurement methods or measurement methods based on triangulation are also conceivable. In addition to optical measurement methods, various other position-determining methods are also conceivable, for example based on radar reflections or the like.”);
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Shah/Ong with that of Cambruzzi to include a method for installing a particular component in a given location. Doing so would constitute the combination of known methods to yield predictable results since both sets of robotic elevator machines would be known to one with ordinary skill in the art. Similarly, their combination would yield the desired and predictable result of a better system that could both modify and maintain components in a hoistway.
Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi does not teach and wherein a virtual installation of a guide rail and one or more components is defined within the three-dimensional hoistway model from data collected from other elevator systems connected over a network; and thereafter guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter
Gillingham in analogous art, teaches and thereafter guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter (Gillingham column 3 lines 8 - 7 reads “According to another embodiment of the present invention, the device is equipped with optical sensors for detecting the occurrence of rail support brackets and splice joints or fishplates disposed between adjacent rail segments. The occurrence of such brackets and joints is recorded, along with their positions along the length of the guide rail. These data may then be used to identify not only at which point the rail profile has most deviated from its intended linear path, but also which rail brackets or joints may be adjusted to correct the deviations” and column 4 lines 9-24 reads “As noted hereinabove, nonlinearities occur in the guide rails 20, 22 during installation, as the rails are first installed; during operation, as the elevator moves within the hoistway 12 during normal operation thereby stressing and thereby possibly moving the rails; and due to building settling, thermal expansion, etc., over an extended period of time. For a modem, high-rise, high-velocity elevator system, it is necessary to maintain any misalignment of the elevator guide rails within a close tolerance. It is therefore necessary to precisely measure the profile of the elevator guide rails 20, 22 over their entire length.”);
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Shah with that of Gillingham to include a method of measuring tolerances and modifying existing items in the elevator shaft. This would allow for quicker and safe inspection and maintenance of components in the elevator shaft. (Gillingham column 2 lines 4 – 7 reads “What is needed is a method and apparatus for reducing the time required to survey an elevator guide rail”);
Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham does not teach and wherein a virtual installation of a guide rail and one or more components is defined within the three-dimensional hoistway model from data collected from other elevator systems connected over a network;
Tao in analogous art, teaches and wherein a virtual installation of a guide rail and one or more components is defined (Tao Page 3 second paragraph reads “Further, in the software test environment simulating the robot device to the elevator equipment hardware testing environment to send first test instruction further comprises: illuminating device in elevator equipment access floor number test instruction, the robot device ID value testing order or in an elevator installation lighting device state testing instruction.”);
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham with that of Tao to include a simulation environment for understanding how the system may behave in different environments. Doing so would constitute the combination of known methods to yield predictable results since both simulation environments for robotic systems and robotic elevator installation systems would be known to one with ordinary skill in the art. Similarly, their combination would yield the desired and predictable result of modeling a robotic installation system before deployment.
Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao does not teach within the three-dimensional hoistway model from data collected from other elevator systems connected over a network;
Zhengwu in analogous art, teaches within the three-dimensional hoistway model from data collected from other elevator systems connected over a network; (Zhengwu page 2 paragraph 8 reads “Further, it also includes: a laser plumb meter matched with the two-dimensional position sensitive detector, the laser plumb meter is arranged in the pit of the elevator shaft, and is used to emit a laser plumb line.”);
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao with that of Zhengwu to include the usage of other sensor systems that are not deployed directly on the robotic actuator. Doing so would allow the system to have increased access to a greater amount of information, allowing it to better complete its tasks. Doing so would constitute the combination of known methods to yield predictable results since both external sensor for robotic systems and robotic systems for elevator installation would be known to one with ordinary skill in the art. Similarly, their combination would yield the desired and predictable result of a robotic system with an increased understanding of its task parameters.
Regarding claim 3 Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to control the robotic platform to execute one or more of: guide rail realignment; rope/belt inspection; ride quality tests; door couple alignment inspection; door switch test; and sill cleaning, to thereby determine that the operational parameter or the alignment of the component is outside predetermined positioning and operating tolerances. (Gillingham [0009] reads “For other misalignments, workers may attempt to loosen the mounting bracket, move the rail accordingly, and resecure the rail in the correct position. Upon completion of the realignment, it is then necessary to again survey the rails to determine if the realignment has been successful”);
Regarding claim 4 Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to determine a current position of the component relative to global positioning system (GPS) data. (Ong page 18 paragraph 2 reads “To achieve a good localization, sensors are used to determine the internal state and external state of the robot. Internal state sensors are used for control of the internal states of the robot such as acceleration, velocity, etc. Example of internal state sensors are accelerometer, gyroscope, encoders, etc. External state sensors are used to perceive the surrounding of the robots and react intelligently. Example of external state sensors are camera, laser range finder, global positioning system (GPS), etc.“);
Regarding claim 5 Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to engage a segment of an elevator guide rail of the hoistway shaft, to position the segment within predetermined positioning and operating tolerances, upon determining, from sensor data compared with hoistway model data, that the segment is positioned outside the predetermined positioning and operating tolerances (Gillingham column 1 lines 56 – 67 read “Finally, upon completing the survey, workers must then determine which sections along the rail have become misaligned and attempt to reduce or eliminate the misalignment. … For misalignments occurring at the segments joints, workers may shim and rebolt the fishplates or grind any protruding segment ends so as to smooth the transition between adjacent segments. For other misalignments, workers may attempt to loosen the mounting bracket, move the rail accordingly, and resecure the rail in the correct position.”);
Regarding claim 6 Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to engage the guide rail by loosening rail securing bolts, aligning the guide rail, and tightening rail securing bolts. (Gillingham column 1 lines 56 – 67 read “For other misalignments, workers may attempt to loosen the mounting bracket, move the rail accordingly, and resecure the rail in the correct position.”);
Regarding claim 7 Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to, periodically or within scheduled timeframes, engage the one or more components previously installed in the hoistway to determine that the operational parameter or the alignment of the component is outside predetermined positioning and operating tolerances. (Gillingham column 4 lines 40 – 55 reads “The survey unit 30 according to the present invention measures the exact location of a series of points a.sub.o -a.sub.n along the entire length of the rail 32 by continuously repeating the above-mentioned process. … As shown in the accompanying FIG. 2B, the unit 30 according to the present invention is moved along the length of the rail 32 determining the location at subsequent points until the entire length of the rail 32 has been traversed. The relative location data, collected for each point along the rail 32, may then easily be used as a basis to determine the exact local deflection or profile of the rail 32 along its length” and column 4 lines 9-24 reads “As noted hereinabove, nonlinearities occur in the guide rails 20, 22 during installation, as the rails are first installed; during operation, as the elevator moves within the hoistway 12 during normal operation thereby stressing and thereby possibly moving the rails; and due to building settling, thermal expansion, etc., over an extended period of time. For a modem, high-rise, high-velocity elevator system, it is necessary to maintain any misalignment of the elevator guide rails within a close tolerance. It is therefore necessary to precisely measure the profile of the elevator guide rails 20, 22 over their entire length.”);
Regarding claim 8 Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The system of claim 1 wherein the controller is configured to define the hoistway model data from sensed locations and shape boundaries of the hoistway shaft and doorway openings formed in the hoistway shaft. (Ong page 99 figure 76 depicts the open doorways as part of the model data created by the robotic system.);
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Regarding claim 9 Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to define the hoistway model data to include sill to sill distances, guide rail to guide rail distances, sill to guide rail distances, and tilt and twist of the hoistway. (Ong page 12 paragraph 1 reads “Verticality of a structure is important in building especially for high rise building. This also applies to elevator shaft” and page 102 reads “Cloud/Mesh Dist tool is used to calculate the distance between the point clouds of the surface to the best fitted flat plane.“);
Regarding claim 10 Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to define the hoistway model data as a three- dimensional model of the hoistway. (Ong page 105 reads “In this task, the methodology for 3D point clouds map generation has been discussed and mapping is done on the same long hallway as previous task to simulate vertical elevator shaft. The trajectory from EKF pose estimation with baseline configuration is used as the position of the scanning system for 3D mapping.”);
Regarding claim 11 Shah teaches A method of performing maintenance within a hoistway, comprising: developing, by a controller, hoistway model data from sensor data of the hoistway, (Shah [0013] reads “Aspects of the present invention relate to an elevator inspection and maintenance system including a mechatronic body movable via remote or automatic operation, and an inspection and maintenance head installed on the mechatronic body. The inspection and maintenance head is fitted with a sensor or a manipulation tool to perform an inspection or a maintenance operation on at least one component of an elevator system, remotely or automatically.”);
and thereafter maintaining the guide rail and the one or more components (Shah [0013] reads “Aspects of the present invention relate to an elevator inspection and maintenance system including a mechatronic body movable via remote or automatic operation, and an inspection and maintenance head installed on the mechatronic body. The inspection and maintenance head is fitted with a sensor or a manipulation tool to perform an inspection or a maintenance operation on at least one component of an elevator system, remotely or automatically.”);
wherein the robotic platform is configured to inspect and perform maintenance to the guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter(Shah [0013] reads “Aspects of the present invention relate to an elevator inspection and maintenance system including a mechatronic body movable via remote or automatic operation, and an inspection and maintenance head installed on the mechatronic body. The inspection and maintenance head is fitted with a sensor or a manipulation tool to perform an inspection or a maintenance operation on at least one component of an elevator system, remotely or automatically.”);
and engaging the guide rail and the one or more components with the robotic platform to execute corrective measures, upon identifying, from the sensor data compared with the hoistway model data, when the guide rail and the one or more components is being installed or has been installed outside predetermined tolerances. (Shah [0034 – 0035] reads “The manipulation tool 164 can be any tool known in the art, configured to manipulate or perform a maintenance operation on any hoist way equipment 106. There may be more than one manipulation tools in inspection and maintenance head 160. Some examples of such manipulation tools include screw driver, a gripper, wire cutter, adhesive gun, soldering iron, welding tool, etc. In some embodiments, the manipulation tool 164 includes a movable claw that is used by the system 150 for gripping various types of equipment 106 within the hoist way 102 to closely inspect equipment 106 using the sensors in the sensor hub 162.”);
Shah does not teach obtained by moving a sensor implement within the hoistway via a robotic platform, wherein the hoistway model is defined from sensed locations and shape boundaries of the hoistway shaft and doorway openings formed in the hoistway shaft, wherein the hoistway model data is a three-dimensional hoistway model of the hoistway, including sill to sill distances, guide rail to guide rail distances, sill to guide rail distances, and tilt and twist of the hoistway, and wherein a virtual installation of a guide rail and one or more components is defined within the three-dimensional hoistway model from data collected from other elevator systems connected over a network; and thereafter utilizing the hoistway model data for as a reference point for initial installation of the guide rail and the one or more components and inspecting, by the controller, guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter previously installed in the hoistway to determine, from the sensor data compared with the hoistway model data, that an operational parameter or an alignment of the guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter previously installed in the hoistway is outside predetermined positioning and operating tolerances,
Ong in analogous art, teaches obtained by moving a sensor implement within the hoistway via a robotic platform, wherein the hoistway model is defined from sensed locations and shape boundaries of the hoistway shaft and doorway openings formed in the hoistway shaft, (Ong page 99 figure 76 depicts the open doorways as part of the model data created by the robotic system.);
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wherein the hoistway model data is a three-dimensional hoistway model of the hoistway, (Ong page 105 reads “In this task, the methodology for 3D point clouds map generation has been discussed and mapping is done on the same long hallway as previous task to simulate vertical elevator shaft. The trajectory from EKF pose estimation with baseline configuration is used as the position of the scanning system for 3D mapping.”);
including sill to sill distances, guide rail to guide rail distances, sill to guide rail distances, and tilt and twist of the hoistway, (Ong page 12 paragraph 1 reads “Verticality of a structure is important in building especially for high rise building. This also applies to elevator shaft” and page 102 reads “Cloud/Mesh Dist tool is used to calculate the distance between the point clouds of the surface to the best fitted flat plane.“);
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Shah with that of Ong to include more advanced sensors and computational software. This would all the system take more accurate measurements of the elevation shaft, thereby providing an improved inspection. (Ong abstract reads “In this thesis, the design and development of an 3D visual elevator shaft inspection system concept is proposed, which has potential to improve the yield and speeds up the elevator shaft inspection process”);
Shah/Ong does not teach and wherein a virtual installation of a guide rail and one or more components is defined within the three-dimensional hoistway model from data collected from other elevator systems connected over a network; and thereafter utilizing the hoistway model data for as a reference point for initial installation of the guide rail and the one or more components and inspecting, by the controller, guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter previously installed in the hoistway to determine, from the sensor data compared with the hoistway model data, that an operational parameter or an alignment of the guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter previously installed in the hoistway is outside predetermined positioning and operating tolerances,
Cambruzzi in analogous art, teaches and thereafter utilizing the hoistway model data for as a reference point for initial installation of the guide rail and the one or more components (Cambruzzi [0040] reads “A method for mounting a rail bracket lower part, in particular an omega bracket, is therefore possible, in which method first some mounting steps are carried out by means of a mounting device, which has a carrier component, an installation component and a control apparatus for controlling the installation component. The carrier component is designed to be displaced relative to the elevator shaft and to be positioned at different heights within the elevator shaft. The installation component is held on the carrier component and is designed to carry out a mounting step as part of the installation process in an at least partially automated manner. The control apparatus determines, on the basis of an actual position of the mounting device and a desired position of the rail bracket lower part to be installed in the elevator shaft, a position of a marking on a shaft wall of the elevator shaft relative to the actual position of the mounting device. On the basis of said marking, the desired position of the rail bracket lower part can be determined in a following installation step.”);
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Shah/Ong with that of Cambruzzi to include a method for installing a particular component in a given location. Doing so would constitute the combination of known methods to yield predictable results since both sets of robotic elevator machines would be known to one with ordinary skill in the art. Similarly, their combination would yield the desired and predictable result of a better system that could both modify and maintain components in a hoistway.
Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi does not teach and wherein a virtual installation of a guide rail and one or more components is defined within the three-dimensional hoistway model from data collected from other elevator systems connected over a network; and inspecting, by the controller, guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter previously installed in the hoistway to determine, from the sensor data compared with the hoistway model data, that an operational parameter or an alignment of the guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter previously installed in the hoistway is outside predetermined positioning and operating tolerances,
Gillingham in analogous art, teaches and inspecting, by the controller, guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter guide rail and the one or more components during initial installation and thereafter (Gillingham column 3 lines 8 - 7 reads “According to another embodiment of the present invention, the device is equipped with optical sensors for detecting the occurrence of rail support brackets and splice joints or fishplates disposed between adjacent rail segments. The occurrence of such brackets and joints is recorded, along with their positions along the length of the guide rail. These data may then be used to identify not only at which point the rail profile has most deviated from its intended linear path, but also which rail brackets or joints may be adjusted to correct the deviations” and column 4 lines 9-24 reads “As noted hereinabove, nonlinearities occur in the guide rails 20, 22 during installation, as the rails are first installed; during operation, as the elevator moves within the hoistway 12 during normal operation thereby stressing and thereby possibly moving the rails; and due to building settling, thermal expansion, etc., over an extended period of time. For a modem, high-rise, high-velocity elevator system, it is necessary to maintain any misalignment of the elevator guide rails within a close tolerance. It is therefore necessary to precisely measure the profile of the elevator guide rails 20, 22 over their entire length.”);
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Shah with that of Gillingham to include a method of measuring tolerances and modifying existing items in the elevator shaft. This would allow for quicker and safe inspection and maintenance of components in the elevator shaft. (Gillingham column 2 lines 4 – 7 reads “What is needed is a method and apparatus for reducing the time required to survey an elevator guide rail”);
Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham does not teach and wherein a virtual installation of a guide rail and one or more components is defined within the three-dimensional hoistway model from data collected from other elevator systems connected over a network;
Tao in analogous art, teaches wherein a virtual installation of a guide rail and one or more components is defined (Tao Page 3 second paragraph reads “Further, in the software test environment simulating the robot device to the elevator equipment hardware testing environment to send first test instruction further comprises: illuminating device in elevator equipment access floor number test instruction, the robot device ID value testing order or in an elevator installation lighting device state testing instruction.”);
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham with that of Tao to include a simulation environment for understanding how the system may behave in different environments. Doing so would constitute the combination of known methods to yield predictable results since both simulation environments for robotic systems and robotic elevator installation systems would be known to one with ordinary skill in the art. Similarly, their combination would yield the desired and predictable result of modeling a robotic installation system before deployment.
Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao does not teach within the three-dimensional hoistway model from data collected from other elevator systems connected over a network;
Zhengwu in analogous art, teaches within the three-dimensional hoistway model from data collected from other elevator systems connected over a network; (Zhengwu page 2 paragraph 8 reads “Further, it also includes: a laser plumb meter matched with the two-dimensional position sensitive detector, the laser plumb meter is arranged in the pit of the elevator shaft, and is used to emit a laser plumb line.”);
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao with that of Zhengwu to include the usage of other sensor systems that are not deployed directly on the robotic actuator. Doing so would allow the system to have increased access to a greater amount of information, allowing it to better complete its tasks. Doing so would constitute the combination of known methods to yield predictable results since both external sensor for robotic systems and robotic systems for elevator installation would be known to one with ordinary skill in the art. Similarly, their combination would yield the desired and predictable result of a robotic system with an increased understanding of its task parameters.
Regarding claim 13 Shah/Ong/ Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The method of claim 11, comprising controlling, by the controller, the robotic platform to execute one or more of: guide rail realignment; rope/belt inspection; ride quality tests; door couple alignment inspection; door switch test; and sill cleaning, to thereby determine that the operational parameter or the alignment of the component is outside predetermined positioning and operating tolerances. (Gillingham [0009] reads “For other misalignments, workers may attempt to loosen the mounting bracket, move the rail accordingly, and resecure the rail in the correct position. Upon completion of the realignment, it is then necessary to again survey the rails to determine if the realignment has been successful”);
Regarding claim 14 Shah/Ong/ Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The method of claim 11, comprising determining, by the controller, a current position of the component relative to global positioning system (GPS) data. (Ong page 18 paragraph 2 reads “To achieve a good localization, sensors are used to determine the internal state and external state of the robot. Internal state sensors are used for control of the internal states of the robot such as acceleration, velocity, etc. Example of internal state sensors are accelerometer, gyroscope, encoders, etc. External state sensors are used to perceive the surrounding of the robots and react intelligently. Example of external state sensors are camera, laser range finder, global positioning system (GPS), etc.“);
Regarding claim 15 Shah/Ong/ Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The method of claim 11, comprising engaging, by the controller, a segment of an elevator guide rail of the hoistway shaft, to position the segment within predetermined positioning and operating tolerances, upon determining, from sensor data compared with hoistway model data, that the segment is positioned outside the predetermined positioning and operating tolerances (Gillingham column 1 lines 56 – 67 read “Finally, upon completing the survey, workers must then determine which sections along the rail have become misaligned and attempt to reduce or eliminate the misalignment. … For misalignments occurring at the segments joints, workers may shim and rebolt the fishplates or grind any protruding segment ends so as to smooth the transition between adjacent segments. For other misalignments, workers may attempt to loosen the mounting bracket, move the rail accordingly, and resecure the rail in the correct position.”);
Regarding claim 16 Shah/Ong/ Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The method of claim 11, comprising engaging, by the controller, the guide rail by loosening rail securing bolts, aligning the guide rail, and tightening rail securing bolts. (Gillingham column 1 lines 56 – 67 read “For other misalignments, workers may attempt to loosen the mounting bracket, move the rail accordingly, and resecure the rail in the correct position.”);
Regarding claim 17 Shah/Ong/ Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The method of claim 11, comprising engaging, by the controller periodically or within scheduled timeframes, the one or more components previously installed in the hoistway to determine that the operational parameter or the alignment of the component is outside predetermined positioning and operating tolerances. (Gillingham column 4 lines 40 – 55 reads “The survey unit 30 according to the present invention measures the exact location of a series of points a.sub.o -a.sub.n along the entire length of the rail 32 by continuously repeating the above-mentioned process. … As shown in the accompanying FIG. 2B, the unit 30 according to the present invention is moved along the length of the rail 32 determining the location at subsequent points until the entire length of the rail 32 has been traversed. The relative location data, collected for each point along the rail 32, may then easily be used as a basis to determine the exact local deflection or profile of the rail 32 along its length” and column 4 lines 9-24 reads “As noted hereinabove, nonlinearities occur in the guide rails 20, 22 during installation, as the rails are first installed; during operation, as the elevator moves within the hoistway 12 during normal operation thereby stressing and thereby possibly moving the rails; and due to building settling, thermal expansion, etc., over an extended period of time. For a modem, high-rise, high-velocity elevator system, it is necessary to maintain any misalignment of the elevator guide rails within a close tolerance. It is therefore necessary to precisely measure the profile of the elevator guide rails 20, 22 over their entire length.”);
Regarding claim 18 Shah/Ong/ Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The system of claim 11 comprising defining, by the controller, the hoistway model data from sensed locations and shape boundaries of the hoistway shaft and doorway openings formed in the hoistway shaft. (Ong page 99 figure 76 depicts the open doorways as part of the model data created by the robotic system.);
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Regarding claim 19 Shah/Ong/ Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The method of claim 11, comprising defining, by the controller, the hoistway model data to include sill to sill distances, guide rail to guide rail distances, sill to guide rail distances, and tilt and twist of the hoistway. (Ong page 12 paragraph 1 reads “Verticality of a structure is important in building especially for high rise building. This also applies to elevator shaft” and page 102 reads “Cloud/Mesh Dist tool is used to calculate the distance between the point clouds of the surface to the best fitted flat plane.“);
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art that measuring distances from surfaces in a point cloud could be easily modified such that it could be used to measure sill to sill distances, guide rail to guide rail distances and sill to guide rail distances as these would be surfaces in the point clouds.
Regarding claim 20 Shah/Ong/ Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The method of claim 11, comprising defining, by the controller, the hoistway model data as a three-dimensional model of the hoistway. (Ong page 105 reads “In this task, the methodology for 3D point clouds map generation has been discussed and mapping is done on the same long hallway as previous task to simulate vertical elevator shaft. The trajectory from EKF pose estimation with baseline configuration is used as the position of the scanning system for 3D mapping.”);
Claim(s) 21-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over as applied to Shah/Ong/ Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu, in further view of Hui (T. K. Hui and H. Chen, "Autonomous Elevator Inspection with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle," 2016).
Regarding claim 21 Shah/Gillingham/Ong teaches The system of claim 1.
Shah/Gillingham/Ong does not teach wherein the inspection includes one or more of rope/belt inspection and sill cleanliness inspection.
Hui in analogous art, teaches wherein the inspection includes one or more of rope/belt inspection and sill cleanliness inspection. (Hui abstract reads “This project intends to propose and develop an effective methodology of elevator rope inspection with an UAV. Vision-based control and navigation algorithms for facilitating the UAV with autonomous elevator rope detection, tracking, and inspection have been proposed.“ It would be appreciated by one with ordinary skill in the art that sill cleanliness and other factions that are commonly inspected could also be inspected with this system.);
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu with that of Hui to include a more comprehensive method for inspecting elevator shafts. This would allow for a safer and more effective method for inspecting elevator shafts. (Hui abstract reads “Hong Kong has the highest elevator density in the world, with more than 63,000 elevators. The inspection and maintenance of elevator rope have been carried out directly by human with simple inspection gadgets traditionally. Recently however, the big gap between dramatically increasing demand of elevator inspection and insufficient manpower in the related industry, as well as the safety issues coupled with human inspection have resulted in investigations of the possibility in adopting Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for elevator rope inspection.”);
Regarding claim 22 Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu teaches The system of claim 11.
Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu does not teach wherein the inspection includes one or more of rope/belt inspection and sill cleanliness inspection.
Hui in analogous art, teaches wherein the inspection includes one or more of rope/belt inspection and sill cleanliness inspection. (Hui abstract reads “This project intends to propose and develop an effective methodology of elevator rope inspection with an UAV. Vision-based control and navigation algorithms for facilitating the UAV with autonomous elevator rope detection, tracking, and inspection have been proposed.“ It would be appreciated by one with ordinary skill in the art that sill cleanliness and other factions that are commonly inspected could also be inspected with this system.);
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Shah/Ong/Cambruzzi/Gillingham/Tao/Zhengwu with that of Hui to include a more comprehensive method for inspecting elevator shafts. This would allow for a safer and more effective method for inspecting elevator shafts. (Hui abstract reads “Hong Kong has the highest elevator density in the world, with more than 63,000 elevators. The inspection and maintenance of elevator rope have been carried out directly by human with simple inspection gadgets traditionally. Recently however, the big gap between dramatically increasing demand of elevator inspection and insufficient manpower in the related industry, as well as the safety issues coupled with human inspection have resulted in investigations of the possibility in adopting Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for elevator rope inspection.”);
Other references not Cited
Throughout examination other references were found that could read onto the prior art. Though these references were not used in this examination they could be used in future examination and could read on the contents of the current disclosure. These references are, Studer (Method for analysis and measurement system for measuring an elevator shaft of an elevator system, US 20190177120 A1, “An analysis method and a measurement system for surveying an elevator shaft of an elevator system wherein the elevator shaft is surveyed by a measurement system having a camera system and an inertial measurement unit”); R.I.S.E (Schindler’s Robotic Installation System for Elevators, NPL https://group.schindler.com/en/company/innovations/schindler-rise.html, “a robot can execute installation steps autonomously while improving working conditions: our revolutionary robotic installation system, Schindler R.I.S.E.”);
Response to Arguments
Applicant argues < With respect, Ong shows, in the images relied upon in the Office Action, a hallway along which a robot travels, not a hoistway. Even if Ong's teachings are extrapolated to building a model of a hoistway, the reference does not teach, alone or in combination with the other cited art, (i) building a 3-D model of a guide rail and components in a hoistway from data collected from other elevator systems connected over a network, (ii) utilizing the model by a robot on a portable platform during installation of a guide rail and components, and (iii) thereafter inspecting an installed guide rail and components and engaging the same to correct any issues found during the inspection.> [Remarks Page 8 spanning paragraph]. The examiner respectfully disagrees. Ong specifically discusses the usage of its devolved system for the measuring of components within an elevator shaft. Despite the fact that that only used a simulated environment for the demonstration of their system, Ong does discuss how the same system can capture the real data points in a given environment. The applicant has also amended the current invention to include other aspects that relate to the simulation of the robotic system in a virtual environment and the usage of other sensor by the robotic system. Both of these limitations were taught by other sources elsewhere in the current rejection of record. Therefore, the combination teaches the claimed invention.
Conclusion
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/JOHN MARTIN O'MALLEY/Examiner, Art Unit 3658
/Ramon A. Mercado/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3658
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