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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5, 8-18, 20, 23-28 and 30-34 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Meng (CN 108802523 A) in view of Nakamura (US 2020/0274477 A1) and Zhou (WO 2019136784 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 16, Meng discloses a method and a device for monitoring operating status of a motor (e.g. Abstract), comprising:
A. acquiring a two-dimensional coordinate transformation value of a three-phase current of the three-phase motor (e.g. Abstract & [0025]: convert 3 phase output to 2 phase Park vector alpha-beta coordination); and
B. displaying on the display unit (e.g. Fig. 1: 140) a trajectory generated by the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value (e.g. [0045-0046]: display fault analysis result shown in Figs. 6-11).
Meng fails to disclose, but Nakamura teaches a method and a device for monitoring operating status of an elevator system (e.g. Abstract & [0088]), the elevator system comprising a three-phase motor and an inverter for driving the three-phase motor (e.g. Fig. 1: inverter 107, motor 30), the device comprising:
Memory; a processor coupled with the memory; and a computer program stored on the memory and running on the processor (e.g. [0027, 0038]).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Meng (determine motor fault on a generator) with the teachings of Nakamura to determine motor fault on an elevator since it is merely applying a known technology (i.e. detect fault of a motor) in different motor application. The combination would have yielded only predictable results to one skilled in the art since it is no more than simple substitutions of one known device/method with another according to KSR.
Meng and Nakamura in combination fails to disclose, but Zhou teaches:
displaying a standard trajectory on the display unit, the standard trajectory being a trajectory when the three-phase motor operates normally, wherein the standard trajectory is displayed on the same graphical interface along with the trajectory generated by the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value (e.g. Fig. 8: waveform under normal, open phase fault and fault-tolerant operation are generated on the same graph).
Meng discloses standard and fault trajectories, and Zhou teaches standard and fault trajectories are known to be generated within the same graph.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Meng with the teachings of Zhou to display both trajectories on the same graph so as to be distinguish and observe differences between the trajectories more easily.
Regarding claims 13 and 28, Meng discloses a method and a device for monitoring quality of power supply of a power grid (e.g. Abstract: monitoring status of the power grid wind generator based on motor fault determination), the device comprising: a display unit (e.g. Fig. 1: 140); and
A'. acquiring a two-dimensional coordinate transformation value of a three-phase voltage or current from the power grid (e.g. Abstract & [0025]: convert 3 phase output to 2 phase Park vector alpha-beta coordination); and
B'. displaying on the display unit a trajectory generated by the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value (e.g. [0045-0046]: display fault analysis result shown in Figs. 6-11).
Meng fails to disclose, but Nakamura teaches a method and a device for monitoring operating status of an elevator system (e.g. Abstract & [0088]), the elevator system comprising a three-phase motor and an inverter for driving the three-phase motor (e.g. Fig. 1: inverter 107, motor 30), the device comprising:
Memory; a processor coupled with the memory; and a computer program stored on the memory and running on the processor (e.g. [0027, 0038]).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Meng (determine motor fault on a generator) with the teachings of Nakamura to determine motor fault on an elevator since it is merely applying a known technology (i.e. detect fault of a motor) in different motor application. The combination would have yielded only predictable results to one skilled in the art since it is no more than simple substitutions of one known device/method with another according to KSR.
Meng and Nakamura in combination fails to disclose, but Zhou teaches:
displaying a standard trajectory on the display unit, the standard trajectory being a trajectory when the three-phase motor operates normally, wherein the standard trajectory is displayed on the same graphical interface along with the trajectory generated by the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value (e.g. Fig. 8: waveform under normal, open phase fault and fault-tolerant operation are generated on the same graph).
Meng discloses standard and fault trajectories, and Zhou teaches standard and fault trajectories are known to be generated within the same graph.
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Meng with the teachings of Zhou to display both trajectories on the same graph so as to be distinguish and observe differences between the trajectories more easily.
Regarding claims 2 and17, Meng discloses the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value is a two-phase current value obtained by performing a Clark transformation on a measured value of the three-phase current (e.g. Abstract: Park and Clark transformation are known in the art 2-phase to 3-phase conversion method).
Regarding claims 3 and 18, Meng discloses the three-phase current is a measured value of the three-phase current on an input side of the three-phase motor or on an output side of the inverter (e.g. Abstract: output current/voltage).
Regarding claims 5 and 20, Meng discloses radius of the standard trajectory Rn as recited in the claim. Meng discloses the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value is a two-phase current value (e.g. Abstract: Park and Clark transformation are known in the art 2-phase to 3-phase conversion method). The circular trajectory is the resulting component of the two-phase current values (which is radius of the circular trajectory), and the two-phase current values are perpendicular to each other. Therefore, it would have been obvious to determine the resulting component (i.e. radius) of the two-phase current values based on known in the art Pythagorean theorem (i.e. the claimed equation).
Regarding claims 8 and 23, Nakamura teaches the measured value of the three-phase current is the measured value when an elevator car moves at a uniform speed (e.g. [0042]: failure diagnosis is performed during regeneration operation when rotation speed reaches a predetermined value; thus, uniform speed when measuring).
Regarding claims 9 and 24, Meng discloses the running of the computer program causes operation B to be performed in the following manner:
obtaining a trajectory of the three-phase current in a phase plane by connecting temporally adjacent two-dimensional coordinate transformation values in the phase plane with straight lines or curves (e.g. Figs. 6-11: vectors are connecting in lines or curves to form the trajectory).
Regarding claims 10 and 25, discloses a time span of the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value is greater than or equal to one or more periods of the three-phase current (e.g. Figs. 4-11: time span more than 1 period).
Regarding claims 11 and 26, Meng discloses the generated trajectory is suitable for determining presence and type of faults of the three-phase motor and inverter (e.g. Abstract & Figs. 8-11: different faults).
Regarding claims 12 and 27, Meng discloses the running of the computer program further causes:
D. displaying on the display unit trajectories of the three-phase current before (e.g. Figs. 6-7: no fault) and after a phase change of the three-phase motor for distinguishing the faults of the three-phase motor and inverter (e.g. Figs. 8-11: different faults).
Regarding claim 14, Meng discloses the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value is a two-phase current value or two-phase voltage value obtained by performing a Clark transformation on the three-phase current or three-phase voltage (e.g. Abstract).
Regarding claims 15 and 30, Meng discloses the generated trajectory is suitable for determining quality of power supply of the power grid and the presence of faults of an inverter connected with the power grid (e.g. Abstract).
Regarding claim 31, Nakamura teaches a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored in the computer-readable storage medium, when the instructions are executed by a processor, the processor is caused to execute the method of claim 16 (e.g. [0027, 0038]).
Regarding claim 32, Meng disclose the thickness of the trajectory displayed in operation B indicates a three-phase current imbalance (e.g. Figs. 6-11: thickness of the trajectory indicates values are not uniform or balance).
Regarding claim 33, Meng discloses the trajectory displayed in operation B includes one or more line segments located inside the trajectory and oriented in different direction to indicate that a measured value of the three-phase current contains a noise component (e.g. Figs. 6-11).
Regarding claim 34, Meng discloses the trajectory after the phase change is rotated with respect to the trajectory before the phase change (e.g. Figs. 6-11: different trajectories are shown, and phase change implies phase rotation; thus, values on the trajectories rotate when phase change applies).
Claim(s) 6-7 and 21-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Meng (CN 108802523 A) in view of Nakamura (US 2020/0274477 A1) as applied to claims 1 and 16 above, and further in view of Brinkman (US 2019/0254136 A1).
Regarding claims 6 and 21, Meng fails to disclose, but Brinkman teaches the device is one of the following: a portable computer, a tablet computer, a mobile phone and a handheld fault diagnosis instrument (e.g. Figs. 1-2 and 8: 10 & [0050, 0053, 0056, 0226, 0234]: handheld/portable diagnostic device that could be IoT and readily be retrofitted onto existing devices).
Thus, it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to implement diagnosis control module as taught by Meng and Nakamura into a handheld/portable device as taught by Brinkman so as to be used with any motor device needed easy malfunction diagnosis.
Regarding claims 7 and 22, Meng, Nakamura and Brinkman in combination discloses the claimed invention.
Meng and Nakamura in combination discloses receiving the two-dimensional coordinate transformation value transmitted by the inverter (see rejections of claims 1 and 16).
Meng and Nakamura in combination fails to disclose, but Brinkman teaches the device further comprises a communication unit (e.g. [0043, 0063]), and using IoT (e.g. [0232]) to receive data transmitted by motor (e.g. [0050]).
Thus, Meng, Nakamura and Brinkman in combination discloses the claimed invention, and it would have been obvious to one skilled in the art to implement diagnosis control module as taught by Meng and Nakamura into a handheld/portable device as taught by Brinkman so as to be used with any motor device needed easy malfunction diagnosis.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-3, 5-18, 20-28 and 30-34 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.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KAWING CHAN whose telephone number is (571)270-3909. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9am-5pm.
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/KAWING CHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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