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.
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) 1-2, 4, 12 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over GOTO et al. (US – 2020/0223408 A1) and further in view of Onfroy et al. (US – 2017/0152027 A1).
As per claim 1, GOTO discloses Brake Apparatus, Control Apparatus for Vehicle, And Electric Braking Control Apparatus comprising:
a rotor connected to a wheel on the vehicle (a brake rotor with the aid of the advancement of the piston, thereby applying a frictional braking force to the front wheel 10, [0021], Fig: 1);
a brake pad positioned adjacent to the rotor and configured to contact the rotor to slow down or stop movement of the rotor such that movement of the wheel is slowed down or stopped (a frictional braking force to each of the rear wheels 11 by pressing the brake pad as the braking member against the brake rotor. , [0028], Fig: 1);
a plurality of pistons each configured to contact a respective portion of the brake pad to cause the respective portion of the brake pad to contact the rotor (a piston forward with use of a hydraulic pressure supplied via the brake pipe 207. The wheel cylinder 206 presses a brake pad as a braking member against a brake rotor with the aid of the advancement of the piston, thereby applying a frictional braking force to the front wheel 10, [0021], Fig: 1);
a sensor configured to detect sensor data related to a status of the brake pad (The plurality of hydraulic sensors 50 includes system pressure sensors, [0023] and [0028], Fig: 1); and
an electronic control unit (ECU) (40, 41, Fig: 1) coupled to the plurality of regulators (Fig: 1) and the sensor and configured to:
receive a signal indicative of a request to apply the brake on the vehicle, and control the plurality of regulators to cause the brake pad to contact the rotor based on the signal and the sensor data ([0029], Fig: 1).
GOTO discloses all structural elements of the claimed invention but fails to explicitly disclose a plurality of regulators each coupled to a respective piston of the plurality of pistons and configured to control movement of the respective piston of the plurality of pistons.
Onfroy discloses Architecture Of An Aircraft Braking System comprising:
a plurality of regulators (22a, 22b, Fig: 3-4) each coupled to a respective piston of the plurality of pistons and configured to control movement of the respective piston of the plurality of pistons (22a, 22b, This time, each control unit 22 generates digital control signals Sc to be sent to two or four electromechanical actuators 25. The first control unit 22a and the second control unit 22b are thus redundant, so that the loss of one of the two control units 22 does not entail a complete loss of braking performances, [0042], Fig: 3-4).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the Brake Apparatus and Control Apparatus of the Vehicle of the GOTO to arrange the plurality of regulators each coupled to a respective piston of the plurality of pistons and configured to control movement of the respective piston of the plurality of pistons as taught by Onfroy in order to the loss of one of the two control units 22 does not entail a complete loss of braking performances.
As per claim 2, Onfroy further discloses wherein the ECU is further configured to control each regulator of the plurality of regulators independently of other regulators of the plurality of regulators (This time, each control unit 22 generates digital control signals Sc to be sent to two or four electromechanical actuators 25. The first control unit 22a and the second control unit 22b are thus redundant, so that the loss of one of the two control units 22 does not entail a complete loss of braking performances, [0042], Fig: 1-4).
As per claim 4, Onfroy further discloses wherein the each regulator is configured to receive an electrical signal for controlling the movement of the respective piston and control the movement of the respective piston based on the received electrical signal (This time, each control unit 22 generates digital control signals Sc to be sent to two or four electromechanical actuators 25, [0042], Fig: 3-4).
Independent claim 12 recites all the limitations recited in independent claim 1 and therefore rejects under the same rationale.
As per claim 17, GOTO discloses Brake Apparatus, Control Apparatus for Vehicle, And Electric Braking Control Apparatus comprising:
receiving, by an electronic control unit (ECU), a signal indicative of a request to apply the brake on the vehicle (The front ECU 40 and the rear ECU 41 are connected communicably with each other via a dedicated communication line (a signal line) 611. The front ECU 40 can transmit the acquired or received (hereinafter referred to as simply “acquired”) sensor signal and the calculated instruction signal to the rear ECU 41 via the communication, [0032], Fig: 1);
detecting, by a sensor coupled to the ECU, sensor data indicative of a status of a brake pad on the vehicle, the brake pad configured to contact a rotor connected to a wheel on the vehicle to slow down or stop movement of the wheel (As illustrated in FIG. 1, a plurality of sensors (detectors) in the vehicle is connected to the front ECU 40 and the rear ECU 41, [0031], Fig: 1).
GOTO discloses all the structural elements of the claimed invention but fails to explicitly disclose controlling, by the ECU, a plurality of regulators based on the signal and the sensor data, the plurality of regulators each coupled to a respective piston of a plurality of pistons to actuate and cause the respective piston of the plurality of pistons to contact a respective portion of the brake pad such that the brake pad contacts the rotor to slow down or stop the movement of the wheel.
Onfroy discloses Architecture Of An Aircraft Braking System comprising:
controlling, by the ECU, a plurality of regulators based on the signal and the sensor data, the plurality of regulators each coupled to a respective piston of a plurality of pistons to actuate and cause the respective piston of the plurality of pistons to contact a respective portion of the brake pad such that the brake pad contacts the rotor to slow down or stop the movement of the wheel (22a, 22b, This time, each control unit 22 generates digital control signals Sc to be sent to two or four electromechanical actuators 25. The first control unit 22a and the second control unit 22b are thus redundant, so that the loss of one of the two control units 22 does not entail a complete loss of braking performances, [0042], Fig: 3-4).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the Brake Apparatus and Control Apparatus of the Vehicle of the GOTO to arrange controlling, by the ECU, a plurality of regulators based on the signal and the sensor data, the plurality of regulators each coupled to a respective piston of a plurality of pistons to actuate and cause the respective piston of the plurality of pistons to contact a respective portion of the brake pad such that the brake pad contacts the rotor to slow down or stop the movement of the wheel as taught by Onfroy in order to the loss of one of the two control units 22 does not entail a complete loss of braking performances.
Claim(s) 5-6, 7, 10, 11, 13 and 15-16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over GOTO et al. (US – 2020/0223408 A1) as modified by Onfroy et al. (US – 2017/0152027 A1) as applied to claims 1 and 12 above, and further in view of LEI et al. (US – 2018/0259974 A1).
As per claim 5, GOTO as modified by Onfroy discloses all the structural elements of the claimed invention but fails to explicitly disclose a transceiver coupled to the ECU; and wherein the ECU is further configured to transmit, via the transceiver, driving behavior data associated with the vehicle to a remote server.
LEI discloses Autonomous Vehicle Network Bandwidth Bridging comprising:
a transceiver coupled to the ECU; and wherein the ECU is further configured to transmit, via the transceiver, driving behavior data associated with the vehicle to a remote server ( In one or more illustrative embodiments, a method includes sending a prioritized subset of autonomous vehicle data, to a remote server connected to a wide-area network, simultaneously using a combination of connections to the wide-area network provided using at least two of a telematics controller modem, [0004] and claim 6, Fig: 1-4).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the Brake Apparatus, Control Apparatus for Vehicle, And Electric Braking Control Apparatus of the GOTO to arrange the transceiver coupled to the ECU; and wherein the ECU is further configured to transmit, via the transceiver, driving behavior data associated with the vehicle to a remote server as taught by LEI in order to provide a scheduler controller programmed to direct the telematics controller and autonomous vehicle controller to simultaneously communicate autonomous vehicle data over the network using the first and second modems.
As per claim 6, LEI further disclose wherein the driving behavior data is configured to be processed by the remote server for designing an improvement to at least one of the rotor, the brake pad, the plurality of pistons, the plurality of regulators, the sensor, or the ECU, ([0022], Fig: 1-4).
As per claim 7, LEI further disclose a transceiver coupled to the ECU; and
wherein the ECU is further configured to:
receive driving behavior data associated with one or more vehicles and including first data indicative of a level of driver application of a brake pedal on each of the one or more vehicles and second data indicative of a level of actuation of the brake pad on each of the one or more vehicles from a remote server (The telematics controller 202 may be further configured to communicate with other components of the vehicle 102 via one or more in-vehicle networks 218 …….. an electronic brake control system (EBCM) 220-B, …….. distributed across a plurality of controllers 220., [0024] and [0026] Fig: 1-4), and
control the plurality of regulators based on the driving behavior data ([0024], [0026], Fig: 1-4).
As per claim 10, LEI further disclose at least one of a radar sensor, a LIDAR sensor (the autonomous vehicle controller 222 may be in communication with Lidar sensors 228, [0032], Fig: 1-4), an IMU sensor, or a camera coupled to the ECU and configured to detect one or more road conditions within a predetermined area near the vehicle ([0032] and [0034]); and
wherein the ECU is further configured to control the plurality of regulators based on the one or more road conditions ([0032] – [0034], Fig: 1-4).
As per claim 11, GOTO configured to activate an anti-lock braking system (ABS) or an autonomous control of the vehicle in response to the detection of the one or more road conditions for an enhanced control of the vehicle when the brake on the vehicle is being applied upon the one or more road conditions being encountered by the vehicle (The ABS is brake control for preventing a lock of a wheel due to the braking. If determining that a wheel speed of some wheel (the signal of the wheel speed sensor 52) significantly reduces with respect to an estimated vehicle body speed, the ABS determines that this wheel is locked, and reduces the braking force for this wheel, [0036]).
As per claim 13, GOTO discloses wherein the brake is a disc brake or a drum brake (disc brake, Fig: 1).
As per claim 15, Onfroy further discloses wherein the ECU is a dedicated ECU configured to control only the plurality of regulators (22a, 22b, This time, each control unit 22 generates digital control signals Sc to be sent to two or four electromechanical actuators 25. The first control unit 22a and the second control unit 22b are thus redundant, so that the loss of one of the two control units 22 does not entail a complete loss of braking performances, [0042], Fig: 3-4).
As per claim 16, GOTO discloses wherein the ECU ( 40, Fig: 1) is further configured to control one or more other components on the vehicle (205, 302, 303, 501 Fig: 1).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 8-9, 14 and 18-20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Prior art and teaching references fail to disclose wherein the each regulator is configured to control a flow of brake fluid to control the movement of the respective piston (Claim 3), an artificial intelligence (AI) analytics circuitry coupled to the ECU; and
wherein the ECU is further configured to: execute, via the AI analytics circuitry, an AI or machine learning algorithm to process the driving behavior data, and control the plurality of regulators based on the driving behavior data as processed via the AI or machine learning algorithm (Claim 8), wherein the sensor data includes a plurality of data each related to the respective portion of the brake pad and indicating a corresponding level of the brake pad remaining at the respective portion (Claim 14), wherein the detecting of the sensor data includes detecting a non-uniform wear on the brake pad including a higher level of wear in a first portion of the brake pad than in a second portion of the brake pad, the first portion and the second portion being on a plane across the brake pad parallel to a surface of the rotor positioned adjacent to the brake pad (Claim 8).
Claim 9 depends on claim 8, and claims 19-20 depend on claim 8.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
A: Beaurepaire et al. (US – 2022/0169287 A1),
B: Davis et al. (US – 2021/0396286 A1),
C: Ishiguro et al. (UUS – 2021/0396283 A1),
D: Yokoyama et l. (US – 2020/0262399 A),
E: Cesario et l. (US – 2008/0288147 A1), and
F: Treyde US – 2001/0042661 A1).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAN M AUNG whose telephone number is (571)270-5792. The examiner can normally be reached 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM.
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/SAN M AUNG/Examiner, Art Unit 3616
/Robert A. Siconolfi/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3616