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 .
Restriction/Election
Claims 1-10 or group I are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Applicant’s election of group II or claims 11-22 in the reply filed on July 7, 2025 is acknowledged. Because applicant did not distinctly and specifically point out the supposed errors in the restriction requirement, the election has been treated as an election without traverse (MPEP § 818.01(a)). Further, no listing of claims with proper identification or status of claims has been provided by the Applicant(s).
Examination of Application
Drawing
The drawing filed on May 5, 2022 is accepted by the Examiner.
Specification
The specification has not been checked to the extent necessary to determine the presence of all possible minor errors. Applicant’s cooperation is requested in correcting any errors of which applicant may become aware in the specification.
Claim rejection – 35 U.S.C. §112
Claims 11-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. §112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite, in reference to claims 11 and 14, see page 4 and page 5 respectively, the respective claims call for “determining that said middle measurement is less than said tolerance-adjusted low measurement; and determining that said tolerance-adjusted low measurement is less than said tolerance-adjusted high measurement respectively”. However, it is established in the preceding steps that the high tolerance-adjusted values and the low tolerance-adjusted values have already been established when the measurements were taken by the first instrument, it is the value of the second instrument that should have been compared. See the instant claims 17 and 20. Appropriate amendment is required. The remaining claims inherit the attributes of the respective base claims and include similar issues.
In reference to claims 11, 14, 17 and 20: the retrieving step need to be revised or clearly defined with respect to setting the “minimum output of the apparatus with said control system.”
Claims 11, 14, 17 and 20 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action.
Claims 12-13, 15-16, 18-19, and 21-22 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Art of Interest
Javault et al. (U.S. Patent No. 11,237,563, hereon Javault) discloses a method includes: an autonomous vehicle and during a first operating period, capturing a first set of images of a plant; calculating a location of the plant based on the first set of images; extracting an initial value of a plant metric of the plant based on the first set of images; predicting a predicted value of the plant metric of the plant at a time based on the initial value of the plant metric of the plant and a set of global condition data. The method also includes, at the autonomous vehicle and during a second operating period concurrent with the time: capturing a second set of images of the plant; identifying the plant based on the second set of images and the location of the plant; and executing an agricultural operation on the plant based on the predicted value of the plant metric (see Javault, abstract and Fig. 1).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
De Caussin et al. (U.S. Patent No. 6,317,646) discloses computer numerical control or CNC machine that is programmed to redefine the corner tolerance in accordance with the angles of the corners to be machined. Preferably, the corner tolerance is redefined to be equal to a corner tolerance specified by the operator divided by the sine of the angle of the corner, but can be any distance between the specified tolerance and the distance value derived. An increase in speed is achieved because the redefined corner tolerance is generally larger than the specified tolerance and the CNC machine is permitted to machine the corner at an earlier time than conventional CNC machines.
Calderon (U.S. Patent No. 12,403,950) discloses an automatic steering system for an agricultural vehicle includes a controller operably coupled to a steering sensor configured to provide a feedback signal that includes vehicle steering information for automatically controlling the steering device.
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/ELIAS DESTA/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2857