DETAILED ACTION
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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on January 8, 2025, has been entered.
The examiner thanks the Applicant for participating in an interview via telephone dated April 24, 2026.
Response to Arguments
Applicant traverses the rejection in view of the amended claims. Applicant has further clarified the claims to include that the communications unit includes a capacitive coupling circuit to inject data into the first electrical cable and/or the second electrical cable for the powerline communications. Applicant’s arguments, see Remarks, filed April 29, 2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-8, 11, 13-20, and 22-26 under 35 USC 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of newly found prior art.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 1-8, 11, 13-20, and 22-25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ciasulli et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0153806 (herein Ciasulli) in view of Sales Casals et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0188095 (herein Sales Casals) and, in view of Hao, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0386485 and in further view of Bumiller et al., EP 1850501 A1 (along with English Translation), herein after Bumiller.
Regarding claim 1, Ciasulli teaches a system for monitoring a health of an article of electrical equipment comprising:
one or more sensors coupled to the article of electrical equipment, the one or more sensors configured to generate sensor data that is indicative of one or more conditions of the article of electrical equipment [Sensors 204, coupled to asset 102/200, that generate signals indicating various conditions of the asset. Ciasulli at paragraphs 59, 71-72, 75-77; FIG. 1 & 2]; and
at least one processor [Processing unit 206, 410. Ciasulli at paragraph 78, 95-96; FIGS. 2 & 4]; and
a storage device comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor [Data storage 208, 412. Ciasulli at paragraph 79, 93, and 96; FIGS. 2 & 4], cause the at least one processor to:
receive the sensor data [Ciasulli at paragraphs 79, 102-103; FIG. 2];
determine, based at least in part on the sensor data, a health of the article of electrical equipment [Determining the health score for the asset. Ciasulli at paragraph 114; FIGS. 1 & 2]; and
responsive to determining the health of the article of electrical equipment, perform an operation [In response to the health metric being below a threshold, performing a preventative action. Ciasulli at paragraphs 168-169; FIG. 7],
wherein execution of the instructions causes the at least one processor to determine the health of the article of electrical equipment by at least causing the at least one processor to predict whether the article of electrical equipment will fail within a predetermined amount of time [The health score comprises a probability of failure within a given timeframe. Ciasulli at paragraph 162; FIG.5B], and
wherein execution of the instructions causes the at least one processor to perform the operation in response to predicting that the article of electrical equipment will fail within the predetermined amount of time [In response to the health metric, which indicates a prediction that the asset will fail within a time frame, being below a threshold, performing a preventative action. Ciasulli at paragraphs 168-169; FIG. 7];
wherein the article of electrical equipment includes a communications unit configured to output the sensor data [The asset includes a network interface 210. Ciasulli at paragraph 71; FIG. 2].
Ciasulli doesn’t teach:
that the article of electrical equipment comprises at least one of a cable termination configured to couple an electrical cable to another object and a cable splice configured to couple a first electrical cable to a second electrical cable;
wherein the communications unit is configured to output the sensor data via the electrical cable, the first electrical cable, or the second electrical cable using power line communications.
In the same field of monitoring electrical equipment, Sales Casals teaches that the article of electrical equipment comprises at least one of a cable termination configured to couple an electrical cable to another object and a cable splice configured to couple a first electrical cable to a second electrical cable [Monitoring a cable system comprising sensors monitoring at cable junction (i.e., cable splice) or point of termination (i.e. cable termination). Sales Casals at paragraphs 1, 146-147]. Monitoring at cable splice/junction or cable termination would provide easier access to the cable(s), thereby facilitating quickly locating and fixing failures, as would have been recognized by a person of ordinary skill in the art.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the system of Ciasulli so that the asset (i.e., article of electrical equipment) comprises at least one of a cable termination configured to couple an electrical cable to another object and a cable splice configured to couple a first electrical cable to a second electrical cable, as taught by Sales Casals because doing so would provide easier access to the cable(s), thereby facilitating quickly locating and fixing failures.
Sales Casals further teaches a communications unit that is configured to output the sensor data via the electrical cable, the first electrical cable, or the second electrical cable using power line communications [Monitoring nodes output sensor data and communicate using via the cable using power line communications (PLC). Sales Casals at paragraphs 151, 210]. Monitoring at a cable splice/junction or cable termination using power line communications is beneficial in situations where radio frequency (RF) communications are not available (e.g., buried cables) [Sales Casals at paragraph 211].
Therefore, it would have further been obvious to a person or ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the system of Ciasulli so that the communications unit is configured to output the sensor data via the electrical cable, the first electrical cable, or the second electrical cable using power line communications, as taught by Sales Casals, in order to provide communications in applications where other communications technology (e.g., radio frequency (RF) are not available.
Ciasulli also doesn’t teach a power harvester, wherein the power harvester is coupled to at least one of the first and second electrical cables and provides power to the one or more sensors.
In the same field of electrical equipment, Hao teaches a power harvester, wherein the power/energy harvester is coupled to electrical equipment and provides power to one or more sensors [Power harvesting circuitry 360 is in a line-mounted sensor/device 372 (i.e., coupled to electrical equipment) provides power to line sensor/device 372. Hao at paragraphs 33-34; FIG. 3]. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that harvesting ambient power/energy reduces the need for batteries and associated battery replacement costs.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of Ciasulli and Sales Casals to further comprise a power harvester, wherein the power harvester is coupled to the electrical equipment (i.e., the at least one of the first and second electrical cables, discussed above) and provides power to the one or more sensors, as taught by Hao, in order to reduce the need for batteries and associated battery replacement costs.
Neither Ciasulli, nor Sales Casals, nor Hao teach the communication unit includes a capacitive coupling circuit to inject data into the first electrical cable and/or the second electrical cable for the powerline communications. However, in the same field of electrical equipment, Bumiller teaches a communication unit that includes a capacitive coupling circuit into a first electric cable (English translation page 2, bottom of second paragraph; paragraph crossing pages 5-6; and page 9, second paragraph before claims). Bumiller teaches that a capacitive coupling circuit is used within the framework of real-time networking of controllers such as reading consumption meter, load connection, and power specified by consumer.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of Ciasulli, Sales Casals, and Hao to further include a communication unit that includes a capacitive coupling circuit as taught by Bumiller to inject data into the first electrical cable and/or the second electrical cable of Ciasulli for powerline communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because it is cost effective, easily installed, and allows measurement functions, communication, and network control.
Regarding claim 2, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the system of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions causes the at least one processor to perform the operation by, at least one of,
causing the at least one processor to output a notification indicating the health of the article of electrical equipment [A health score/metric is output. Ciasulli at paragraphs 162, 164, 165; FIG. 7],
causing the at least one processor to output, for display, data representing a user interface indicative of the health of the article of electrical equipment [A health metric is displayed. Ciasulli at paragraph 164-165, 170; FIG. 7],
causing the at least one processor to output a command to adjust a component of a power grid that includes the article of electrical equipment [A command modifying operating conditions of the asset is transmitted to the asset (e.g., decrease/increase fan speed), wherein the asset is a utility machine (i.e., component of a power grid) (e.g., turbines, solar farms). Ciasulli at paragraphs and 59 and 173], and
causing the at least one processor to schedule maintenance or replacement of the article of electrical equipment [A work order to repair the asset is generated. Ciasulli at paragraph 172].
Regarding claim 3, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the system of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions further causes the at least one processor to determine the health of the article of electrical equipment by at least causing the at least one processor to: apply a model to at least the sensor data generated by the one or more sensors of the article of electrical equipment to determine the operational heath of the article of electrical equipment [The heath score/metric is determined by generating a model using the assets sensor signals. Ciasulli at paragraphs 116, 119 and 131].
Regarding claim 4, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the system of claim 3, wherein the model is based at least in part on historical data of known failure events from a plurality of articles of electrical equipment with one or more characteristics that correspond to one or more characteristics of the article of electrical equipment [The model is based on past failures using a set of operating metrics/data and characteristics of the asset. Ciasulli at paragraphs 119, 124, and 125].
Regarding claim 5, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the system of claim 4, wherein the one or more characteristics of the article of electrical equipment include one or more of:
location of the article of electrical equipment,
manufacturer of the article of electrical equipment,
installer of the article of electrical equipment, or
type of the article of electrical equipment [The characteristics include a type and/or class of the asset. Ciasulli at paragraph 124].
Regarding claim 6, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the system of claim 3,
wherein the sensor data includes data indicative of a temperature of the article of electrical equipment and an electrical current in the article of electrical equipment [The sensor data includes temperature and current data of the asset. Ciasulli at paragraph 77], and wherein execution of the instructions causes the at least one processor to:
apply the model to the data indicative of a temperature of the article of electrical equipment and an electrical current in the article of electrical equipment to predict whether the article of electrical equipment will fail within the predetermined amount of time [The model receives data that reflects current operating conditions of an asset as input to predict failure, wherein the operating data includes the temperature and current data. Ciasulli at paragraphs 77 and 154, 161],
wherein the model is trained based on at least in part sensor data for each respective article of electrical equipment of a plurality of articles of electrical equipment [The model is trained using historical sensor data for the asset. Ciasulli at paragraphs 130, 135, 140],
the sensor data for each article of electrical equipment including data indicative of a temperature of the respective article of electrical equipment and an amount of electrical current in the respective article of electrical equipment [The sensor data includes temperature and current data of the asset. Ciasulli at paragraph 77],
wherein execution of the instructions causes the at least one processor to predict whether the article of electrical equipment will fail by causing the at least one processor to identify anomalous behavior of the article of electrical equipment [In order to predict the health score/failure, the system identifies abnormal-condition data (i.e., anomalous behavior) in the historical data and in the current operating data. Ciasulli at paragraphs 129 and 156].
Regarding claim 7, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller, teach the system of claim 3, wherein execution of the instructions causes the at least one processor to update the model based on the sensor data from the article of electrical equipment [The model is updated based on the received sensor data for the asset. Ciasulli at paragraphs 120 and 189].
Regarding claim 8, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the system of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors include one or more of: a temperature sensor, a current sensor, a voltage sensor, or a partial discharge sensor [The sensors include, at least, temperature, current, and voltage sensors. Ciasulli at paragraph 77].
Regarding claim 11, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the system of claim 1, wherein the communications unit is separate from the article of electrical equipment, the communications unit configured to receive sensor data from a plurality of articles of electrical equipment that include the article of electrical equipment, wherein the communications unit includes the storage device and the at least one processor [Analytics system 106/400 receives the sensor data of the asset and includes the processing unit 410 and data storage 412. Ciasulli at paragraph 88, 95, 104; FIGS. 1 and 4].
Regarding claim 13, Ciasulli teaches a method comprising:
receiving, by at least one processor of a computing system and from at least one sensor, sensor data indicative of one or more conditions an article of electrical equipment [Receiving, by processing unit 206 and sensor 204, sensor data indicating various conditions of an asset 102/200. Ciasulli at paragraphs 59, 71-72, 75-79, 95-96, 102-103; FIGS. 1, 2 & 4];
determining, by the at least one processor, based at least in part on the sensor data, a health of the article of electrical equipment [Determining the health score for the asset. Ciasulli at paragraph 114; FIGS. 1 & 2]; and
performing, by the at least one processor, based on the health of the article of electrical equipment, at least one operation [Performing a preventative action based on the health metric being below a threshold. Ciasulli at paragraphs 168-169; FIG. 7], wherein determining the health of the article of electrical equipment comprises predicting, by the at least one processor, whether the article of electrical equipment will fail within a predetermined amount of time [The health score comprises predicts the probability/likelihood of failure within a given timeframe. Ciasulli at paragraph 162; FIG.5B], and
wherein performing the operation comprises performing the operation in response to predicting that the article of electrical equipment will fail within the predetermined amount of time [The performing of a preventative action is in response to the health metric being below a threshold (i.e., predicting that the asset will fail with a given amount of time). Ciasulli at paragraphs 168-169; FIG. 7],
wherein the article of electrical equipment includes a communications unit configured to output the sensor data [The asset includes a network interface 210. Ciasulli at paragraph 71; FIG. 2].
Ciasulli doesn’t specifically teach: that the article of electrical equipment comprises at least one of a cable termination configured to couple an electrical cable to another object and a cable splice configured to couple a first electrical cable to a second electrical cable; wherein the communications unit is configured to output the sensor data via the electrical cable, the first electrical cable, or the second electrical cable using power line communications. In the same field of monitoring electrical equipment, Sales Casals teaches that the article of electrical equipment comprises at least one of a cable termination configured to couple an electrical cable to another object and a cable splice configured to couple a first electrical cable to a second electrical cable [Monitoring a cable system comprising sensors monitoring at cable junction (i.e., cable splice) or point of termination (i.e. cable termination). Sales Casals at paragraphs 1, 146-147]. Monitoring at cable splice/junction or cable termination would provide easier access to the cable(s), thereby facilitating quickly locating and fixing failures, as would have been recognized by a person of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the system of Ciasulli so that the asset (i.e., article of electrical equipment) comprises at least one of a cable termination configured to couple an electrical cable to another object and a cable splice configured to couple a first electrical cable to a second electrical cable, as taught by Sales Casals because doing so would provide easier access to the cable(s), thereby facilitating quickly locating and fixing failures. Sales Casals further teaches a communications unit that is configured to output the sensor data via the electrical cable, the first electrical cable, or the second electrical cable using power line communications [Monitoring nodes output sensor data and communicate using via the cable using power line communications (PLC). Sales Casals at paragraphs 151, 210]. Monitoring at a cable splice/junction or cable termination using power line communications is beneficial in situations where radio frequency (RF) communications are not available (e.g., buried cables) [Sales Casals at paragraph 211]. Therefore, it would have further been obvious to a person or ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the system of Ciasulli so that the communications unit is configured to output the sensor data via the electrical cable, the first electrical cable, or the second electrical cable using power line communications, as taught by Sales Casals, in order to provide communications in applications where other communications technology (e.g., radio frequency (RF) are not available.
Ciasulli also doesn’t specifically teach a power harvester is coupled to at least one of the first and second electrical cables and provides power to the at least one sensor. In the same field of electrical equipment, Hao teaches a power harvester coupled to electrical equipment and provides power to at least one sensor [Power harvesting circuitry 360 is in a line-mounted sensor/device 372 (i.e., coupled to electrical equipment) provides power to line sensor/device 372. Hao at paragraphs 33-34; FIG. 3]. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that harvesting ambient power/energy reduces the need for batteries and associated battery replacement costs. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of Ciasulli and Sales Casals to further comprise a power harvester coupled to the electrical equipment (i.e., the at least one of the first and second electrical cables, discussed above) and provides power to the one or more sensors, as taught by Hao, in order to reduce the need for batteries and associated battery replacement costs.
Neither Ciasulli, nor Sales Casals, nor Hao teach the communication unit includes a capacitive coupling circuit to inject data into the first electrical cable and/or the second electrical cable for the powerline communications. However, in the same field of electrical equipment, Bumiller teaches a communication unit that includes a capacitive coupling circuit into a first electric cable (English translation page 2, bottom of second paragraph; paragraph crossing pages 5-6; and page 9, second paragraph before claims). Bumiller teaches that a capacitive coupling circuit is used within the framework of real-time networking of controllers such as reading consumption meter, load connection, and power specified by consumer.
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of Ciasulli, Sales Casals, and Hao to further include a communication unit that includes a capacitive coupling circuit as taught by Bumiller to inject data into the first electrical cable and/or the second electrical cable of Ciasulli for powerline communications. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated because it is cost effective, easily installed, and allows measurement functions, communication, and network control.
Regarding claim 14, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the method of claim 13, wherein performing the operation includes outputting, by the at least one processor, a notification indicating the health of the article of electrical equipment [A health score/metric is output. Ciasulli at paragraphs 162, 164, 165; FIG. 7].
Regarding claim 15, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the method of claim 13, wherein performing the operation includes, at least one of:
outputting, by the at least one processor, at least one of for display, data representing a user interface indicative of the health of the article of electrical equipment [A health metric is displayed. Ciasulli at paragraph 164-165, 170; FIG. 7],
a command to adjust a component of a power grid that includes the article of electrical equipment [A command modifying operating conditions of the asset is transmitted to the asset (e.g., decrease/increase fan speed), wherein the asset is a utility machine (i.e., component of a power grid) (e.g., turbines, solar farms). Ciasulli at paragraphs and 59 and 173], and
scheduling, by the at least one processor, maintenance or replacement of the article of electrical equipment [A work order to repair the asset is generated. Ciasulli at paragraph 172].
Regarding claim 16, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the method of claim 13, wherein determining the health of the article of electrical equipment comprises:
applying, by the at least one processor, a model to at least the sensor data generated by the one or more sensors of the article of electrical equipment to determine the heath of the article of electrical equipment [The heath score/metric is determined by generating a model using the assets sensor signals. Ciasulli at paragraphs 116, 119 and 131],
wherein the model is based at least in part on historical data of known failure events from a plurality of cable accessories with one or more characteristics that correspond to one or more characteristics of the article of electrical equipment [The model is based on past failures using a set of operating metrics/data and characteristics of the asset. Ciasulli at paragraphs 119, 124, and 125], and
wherein the one or more characteristics of the article of electrical equipment include one or more of: location of the article of electrical equipment, manufacturer of the article of electrical equipment, installer of the article of electrical equipment, or type of the article of electrical equipment [The characteristics include a type and/or class of the asset. Ciasulli at paragraph 124].
Regarding claim 17, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the method of claim 16,
wherein the sensor data includes data indicative of a temperature of the article of electrical equipment and an electrical current in the article of electrical equipment [The sensor data includes temperature and current data of the asset. Ciasulli at paragraph 77],
wherein applying the model includes applying the model to the data indicative of a temperature of the article of electrical equipment and an electrical current in the article of electrical equipment to predict whether the article of electrical equipment will fail within the predetermined amount of time [The model receives data that reflects current operating conditions of an asset as input to predict failure, wherein the operating data includes the temperature and current data. Ciasulli at paragraphs 77 and 154, 161], and
wherein the model is trained based on at least in part on sensor data for each respective article of electrical equipment of a plurality of cable accessories [The model is trained using historical sensor data for the asset. Ciasulli at paragraphs 130, 135, 140], the sensor data for each article of electrical equipment including data indicative of a temperature of the respective article of electrical equipment and an amount of electrical current in the respective article of electrical equipment [The sensor data includes temperature and current data of the asset. Ciasulli at paragraph 77].
Regarding claim 18, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the method of claim 17, wherein predicting whether the article of electrical equipment will fail includes identify, by the at least one processor, anomalous behavior of the article of electrical equipment [Generating the health score (i.e., predicting failure) includes identifying past failures via abnormal-condition (i.e., anomalous behavior) indicators (e.g., fault codes). Ciasulli at paragraphs 128-129].
Regarding claim 19, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the method of claim 13,
wherein the computing system includes a first processor and a second processor [The system includes processing unit 206 and processing unit 410. Ciasulli at paragraphs 78 and 95; FIGS. 2 & 4], the first processor included in the article of electrical equipment [Processing unit 206 is included in the asset. Ciasulli at paragraph 71; FIG. 2] and the second processor included in a remote computing system physically distinct from the article of electrical equipment [Analytics system 106/400 includes processing unit 410 and is remote from the asset. Ciasulli at paragraph 88, 95, and 104; FIGS. 1 and 4],
wherein performing the at least one operation comprises performing the at least one operation by the second processor [Processing unit 410, which performs the operations of analysis system, performs the preventative actions (i.e., at least one operation). Ciasulli at paragraphs 95, 168, 173; FIG. 4].
Ciasulli in view of Sales Casals and Hao doesn’t teach that determining the health of the article of electrical equipment comprises determining the health of the article of electrical equipment by the first processor. That is, the analysis system, via processing unit 410 (i.e., the second processor) remote from the asset, determines the health score of the asset rather that a processing unit/processor included in the asset. However, Ciasulli, at paragraph 54, states that “Part or all of the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be rearranged, combined, added to, and/or removed in a variety of manners, each of which is contemplated herein”. That is, Ciasulli suggests the possibility of determining a health score be performed by the asset 200, which uses processing unit 206 (i.e., the first processor). A person of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that having processing unit 206 (i.e., the first processor) perform the determining the health sore of the asset (i.e., article of electrical equipment) would put the analysis (i.e., health determination) closer to the sensors, thereby reducing the potential for sensor data transmission errors and reduce total processing time. Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify Ciasulli’s asset so that it, via its processing unit 206 (i.e., the first processor) performs the determining the health of the article of electrical equipment (i.e., determining health score) as suggested by Ciasulli in order to reduce the potential for sensor data transmission errors and reduce total processing time.
Regarding claim 20, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach a computing device comprising: at least one processor; memory comprising instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform the method of claim 13 [Data storage 208, 412. Ciasulli at paragraph 79, 93, and 96; FIGS. 2 & 4].
Regard claim 22, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the system of claim 1, as described above. Sales Casals further teaches wherein the one or more sensors include a partial discharge sensor [paragraph 4, “monitor various parameters of an electric power transmission system, such as… partial discharges”; paragraph 48, “detect possible partial discharges”].
Regarding claim 23, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the system of claim 22, as described above. Sales Casals further teaches wherein the at least one processor [fig. 2, element 162, and paragraph 133] is configured to: receive the sensor data including partial discharge data; and determine, based at least in part on the partial discharge data, the health of electrical equipment [paragraph 4, monitoring parameters such as partial discharges to try to foresee a possible failure].
Regarding claim 24 Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the system of claim 23, as described above. Ciasulli teaches wherein the data includes a quantity of events [paragraph 209, counters may be incremented each time a particular response is identified]. Sales Casals teaches where the events are partial discharge data for partial discharge events [paragraph 4, monitor for partial discharges].
Regarding claim 25, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the system of claim 23, as described above. Ciasulli teaches where the partial discharge includes a number of partial discharge events over a unit time [paragraphs 11, 14, 20, 33, 34 and 35, determine a health metric indicating whether failures occur at the given asset within a preselected period of time]. Sales Casals teach where events are partial discharge events are counted [paragraph 4, “monitor various parameters of an electric power transmission system, such as… partial discharges”; paragraph 48, “detect possible partial discharges”; paragraph 209, counters may be incremented each time a particular response is identified]. Hao also teaches where events are collected over a time period [paragraph 35, sampling over a period; fig. 5 signal over a time period]. Therefore, together Ciasulli, Sales Casals, and Hao teach where the partial discharge includes a number of partial discharge events over a unit time in order to determine a health metric.
Claim 26 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ciasulli et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0153806 (herein Ciasulli) in view of Sales Casals et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0188095 (herein Sales Casals) in view of Hao, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2019/0386485, in view of Bumiller and further in view of Georgiou et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0015239 (herein after Georgiou).
Regarding claim 26, Ciasulli, Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller teach the system according to claim 1, as described above. However, Ciasulli together with Sales Casals, Hao, and Bumiller does not expressly disclose wherein determining the health of the article of electrical equipment comprises determining a difference between a temperature of the electrical cable and a temperature of the article of electrical equipment.
However, Georgiou teaches determining the health of the article of electrical equipment comprises determining a difference between a temperature of the electrical cable and a temperature of the article of electrical equipment [Georgiou, paragraph 62 measurement of temperature difference of conductor and splice; monitoring of transmission line conductor (“electric cable”) is directed to measuring of the temperature difference between a splice(‘’article of electrical equipment”) and portions of a conductor (“electric cable”) close to the splice; paragraph 99 indication of splice failure is the temperature difference between splice and the adjacent cable].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the combination of Ciasulli, Sales Casals, and Hao to include determining the difference between a temperature of the electric cable and a temperature of the article of equipment when determining the health of electric equipment as taught by Georgiou. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so because it would allow failures of the article of electric equipment, such as a cable splice, to be recognized in an efficient and reliable manner as taught by Georgiou [paragraph 2].
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US Patent Application Publication 20170045571 to Bango et al., teaches an the adaptive, capacitive coupling circuit / method that can be used within the framework of a real-time networking of controllers (also real-time control with mixed operation via Ethernet and Powerline), where the synchronization of the participants (eg drives, fast I / Os, sensors, actuators , Vision systems) with each other and the processing of the data. The coupling circuit / method can be arranged in distribution boxes for consumption data acquisition and energy control (for example, radio reading of consumption meter, load connection depending on the current network capacity and the power specified by the consumer).
US Patent Application Publication 20180238955 A1 to Bango et al., teaches a communication module capacitively coupled to a comparator circuit, such that any sudden change in spatial attitude in any axis will produce a transient alternating current signal that can be expressed through the capacitive coupling and into a comparator circuit and sampled against a predetermined reference voltage
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Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Dede Zecher can be reached at (571) 272-7771. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/James Trujillo/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2151
Prosecution Insights