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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-3 are pending in the application. Claims 4-25 have been withdrawn from consideration.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed December 20th, 2022 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim 1 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
Claims 1-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Perez et al. (WO 2017/178666 A1, foreign translation provided in previous office action) in view of Booher et al. (U.S. Publication No. 2020/0156100 A1) and Wonderlich et al. (U.S. Publication No. 2020/0037519 A1).
Regarding Claim 1:
Perez et al. teaches a computer-implemented method for controlling a sprayer used for spraying an agricultural area, the computer-implemented method comprising: ... classifying, via the one or more computer processors, one or more active spray zones of the one or more spray zones to be activated in response to the one or more active spray zones having at least one of a height for the plurality of points satisfying a height requirement or a number of points for the plurality of points satisfying a point number requirement; (Page 12, detection and identification of plant species is performed to determine whether and which agrochemicals should be sprayed, height measurements of the crops are taken in real time)
and for each of the one or more active spray zones determining, via the one or more computer processors, a delay to execute an activation of the active spray zone based at least in part on a speed of the sprayer …, (Page 16-17, speed of the spray vehicle is used to determine the moment of activation)
and after an amount of time based at least in part on the delay, triggering the activation of the active spray zone to cause spraying of at least a portion of the range of the agricultural area. (Page 16-17, corresponding valve is activated to spray the agrochemical)
Perez et al. does not teach filtering, via one or more computer processors, one or more light detection and ranging (LiDAR) readings collected from a scan of the agricultural area to obtain a plurality of points pertaining to objects located inside a defined range of the agricultural area; classifying, via the one or more computer processors and based on the one or more LiDAR readings, the plurality of points into one or more spray zones and a cycle time for the valve used in the active spray zone.
However, Booher et al. teaches filtering, via one or more computer processors, one or more light detection and ranging (LiDAR) readings collected from a scan of the agricultural area to obtain a plurality of points pertaining to objects located inside a defined range of the agricultural area; (Paragraph [0009], calculate in real time whether an object is within a pre-defined distance from the spray nozzle using LiDAR sensor; Additionally Paragraph [0070], maximum sensed horizontal distance away from the spray nozzles)
classifying, via the one or more computer processors and based on the one or more LiDAR readings, the plurality of points into one or more spray zones. (Paragraph [0079], sense and record location of spray region)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Perez et al.'s determining whether and how much to spray crops automatically with Booher et al.'s LiDAR sensor in order to determine the spraying of crops using a lidar sensor. One would be motivated to combine these teachings in order to have a smart sprayer that is inexpensive and easy to implement (Booher et al. Paragraph [0010]).
The combination of Perez et al. and Booher et al. does not teach determining, via the one or more computer processors, a delay to execute an activation of the active spray zone based at least in part on … a cycle time for the valve used in the active spray zone.
However, Wonderlich et al. teaches determining, via the one or more computer processors, a delay to execute an activation of the active spray zone based at least in part on … a cycle time for the valve used in the active spray zone. (Paragraph [0050] and [0051], time delay between when the control signal controls the valve to open or close and when the pressure signal indicates that the valve is actually opened or closed (can be based on the general valve characteristics) is measured and then used to determine when the valves should be actuated to dispense liquid material where desired)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, at the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Perez et al. and Booher et al.’s determining the spraying of crops using a lidar sensor with Wonderlich et al.’s determining a time delay based on valve characteristics in order to spray the correct area at the correct time when taking into account valve characteristics. One would be motivated to combine these teachings in order to ensure material is sprayed where desired (Wonderlich et al. Paragraph [0051]).
Regarding Claim 2:
The combination of Perez et al., Booher et al. and Wonderlich et al. additionally teaches the computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the delay is determined based at least in part on a distance between a LiDAR sensor used in obtaining the one or more LiDAR readings minus a spray buffer before the active spray zone. (Perez et al. Page 16-17, speed of the spray vehicle and the distance from the chamber to the ground are used to determine the moment of activation)
Regarding Claim 3:
The combination of Perez et al., Booher et al. and Wonderlich et al. additionally teaches the computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a duration of time for the activation of the active spray zone is determined as a spray buffer after the active spray zone plus a spray buffer before the active spray zone, and wherein the duration of time is further determined based at least in part on the speed of the sprayer. (Perez et al. Page 16-17, speed of the spray vehicle and the distance from the chamber to the ground are used to determine the moment of activation ensuring that the agrochemical only applies to the identified plant)
Conclusion
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/T.D.H./Examiner, Art Unit 2115
/VINCENT H TRAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2115