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 .
The Applicant’s amendment filed on September 22, 2025 was received. Claims 1, 7 and 17-21 was amended.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S.C. code not included in this action can be found in the prior Office action issued March 7, 2024.
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 September 22, 2025 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The claim rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103 as unpatentable over Hvass (US 2010/0143089) in view of Telleria et al. (US 2019/0093373) on claims 1-10 and 14-20 are withdrawn because Applicant amended independent claim 1 to require that the operation information acquisition circuit acquires specific information indicating the time between a valve receiving a signal and fully actuating on that signal.
Claims 1-10 and 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hvass and Tellaria et al. in view of Fritz et al. (US 2020/0078813).
Regarding claim 1: Hvass et al. discloses a dispensing system which includes a mobile platform system (200) which is an application device that discharges material from an end-effector (240) such as a print head or spray gun (par. 22), such that the end-effector can be considered a discharge circuit, further including an articulated manipulator (230) which is an articulated robot that changes position and orientation of the end effector (par. 29) such that the coating is discharged towards the desired area on the surface, and a controller (110/410) using a metrology system (120/420) and/or other measurement means to acquire position and orientation data from the manipulator (430) and end-effector (435) (par. 23, 49), and which controls the system (200) based on that position/orientation data and other image data, surface data or inputs from the user interface (140), which includes medium thickness data (par. 27). This includes the steps of calculating various control functions (370) based on operating state information such as position and/or orientation information (360) and then commanding the position and/or orientation (375) of the end-effector (240) and subsequently dispensing the medium (380) (pars. 67-74, figures 2-4). In order for the controller (110) to perform these steps it therefore effectively includes the requisite circuits dedicated to target value calculation and operation control. Hvass fails to explicitly disclose that any of the data measured by the metrology systems includes data on valve response time.
However, Telleria et al. discloses a very similar mobile coating system which utilizes multiple sensors in the nozzles, flow lines and pumps to measure fluid flow rate, pressure or temperature of fluid in those areas to enable detection of clogs as well as precise control of valves for material delivery (par. 43, 118, 171) those sensors being connected to the control system (322) (figure 3). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to monitor these parts of the process including the valves as done in Telleria et al. just like any of the other input data from the dispensing system of Hvass because Telleria et al. teaches that this can enable the system to monitor the pumps, lines and nozzles for any clogs as well as precisely control material delivery (par. 118-119, 171) and indicate when a nozzle needs to be changes (par. 156).
Hvass and Telleria et al. fail to explicitly disclose that the information monitored includes response time information of the valve, that being the time between the valve receives a control signal and when it is actually opened or closed. However, Fritz et al. discloses a similar coating robot apparatus which utilizes controllers (5-8) to synchronize the movement of the robot to account for the delay between the valves receiving an open or close command from the printhead control (7) and actually being opened or closed, teaching that the various controllers receive all of this information regarding the state of the valves and robot control (5) in order to correct for a spatial offset by providing the valves with a lead time (pars. 37, 60-61, 69-72, figures 2-5). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use valve response time information as taught by Fritz et al. for the apparatus of Hvass and Telleria et al. because Fritz et al. teaches that this helps eliminate a spatial offset from the desired drop location and improve the print resolution (par. 72).
Regarding claim 2: Hvass et al. discloses that the controller (110) controls the system (200) based on image data or surface data which can correspond to various quality metrics including coating thickness (pars. 26-27, 36).
Regarding claim 3: Hvass et al. discloses that the controller (110) uses multiple estimation models to determine relationship between the various process and measurement characteristics (pars. 48-49).
Regarding claims 4 and 14: Hvass et al. discloses that the controller (110) uses multiple estimation models to determine a path based on various information including operating state information (pars. 48-49), and then subsequently computes the control functions necessary to execute the path planned (par. 70, figure 3).
Regarding claims 5 and 15: Hvass et al. discloses that the controller (110) uses multiple estimation models to determine and output a path based on various information including operating state information (pars. 48-49).
Regarding claims 6 and 16: Hvass et al. discloses that the controller (110) controls the system (200) based on image data or surface data which can correspond to the application state of the surface (pars. 26-27, 36), estimators which acquire performance information from detected information (pars. 48-49), and then subsequently computes the control functions necessary to execute the path planned (par. 70, figure 3).
Regarding claims 7 and 17-20: Hvass et al. discloses sensors meant to detect the operating state of the manipulator (230) including information about the state of actuators within the manipulator joints (233) (par. 33, figure 2), and Hvass et al. combined with Telleria et al. teach sensors meant to monitor the flow rate, pressure, and temperature of coating material in the flow paths as well as the pumps (Telleria et al. par. 43, 118).
Regarding claim 8: Hvass et al. discloses that one of the properties sensed by image data is coating thickness (par. 36).
Regarding claim 9: Hvass et al. discloses that the controller (110) controls the execution of the system (200) to correct an error when enough of an error is detected based on the acquired position information (par. 47-48).
Regarding claim 10: Hvass et al. discloses that the estimators continue estimating states until a maximum error threshold is reached, which requires a circuit corresponding to the claimed abnormality detection circuit (par. 64).
Claim 21 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hvass, Tellaria et al. and Fritz et al. as applied to claims 1-10 and 14-20 above, and further in view of Mori et al. (US 2016/0193621).
Regarding claim 21: Hvass, Tellaria et al. and Fritz et al. disclose the above combination in which sensors detect the operation of the pump, but Hvass, Tellaria et al. and Fritz et al. fail to explicitly disclose that the detection includes information about the actual rotation speed of actuators in the pumps. However, Mori et al. discloses a similar robotic fluid application system which uses a pump (21) controlled by a motor (22) actuator where the actual rotation speed of the motor (22) is precisely controlled and detected in order to determine the supply amount of fluid and prevent varying output while the nozzle is moved (par. 92, 97, figure 6). It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use a pump with a motor for Hvass, Tellaria et al. and Fritz et al. as taught by Mori et al. because simple substitution of functional equivalents is not considered to be a patentable advance (MPEP 2143, 2144.06) and monitor the actual rotation speed of the motor as taught by Mori et al. because Mori et al. teaches that this helps prevent deviation in material flow when moving the nozzle (pars. 33-35 and 95).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed September 22, 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant primarily argues that Hvass and Telleria et al. do not teach that the information received by the controller includes information about valve response time.
In response:
Applicant’s arguments are moot because they do not refer to the newly cited Fritz et al. reference which does teach those new limitations.
Conclusion
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Stephen Kitt Examiner, Art Unit 1717
11/12/2025
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