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 .
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s amendment filed 12/17/2025 has been entered. Claims 1-20 remain pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Page 10, filed 12/17/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-3, 5-7, 9, 14-16, 18, and 20 under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of previously disclosed prior art Yang (US20200249647) in view of newly discovered prior art Rao (US20210083506A1). Rao teaches in [0118] the utilization of circuit breakers in branches and the control of the circuit breakers for monitoring of the loads in each branch.
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, 5-7, 9, 14-16, 18, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang (US20200249647) in view of Rao (US20210083506A1).
In regards to Claim 1, Yang teaches “at least one memory configured to store instructions (memory – [136]);
at least one processing device in communication with the at least one memory (ECU includes electronic processor and memory – [136]), wherein the at least one processing device upon execution of the instructions is configured to:
a) iteratively and automatically control or instruct to turn ON one branch set having one or more branches of the plurality of branches at a time while remaining branches of the plurality of branches are turned OFF to isolate the one branch set, until all branches of the plurality of branches have been included in at least one isolated branch set (the system/method may include a power on/off sequence to turn each load on/off in a specific order [i.e. iteratively and automatically control], such as to differentiate from several different loads [i.e. isolate] that may be substantially the same and that may be wired to a single circuit breaker, and knowing the order of the sequence, the system may decompose each of the substantially identical loads from another and the system may monitor the health status of each individual load – [0134]);
b) obtain an electrical signature of each isolated branch set (the system may isolate the electrical signatures of each load/appliance and then they can be analyzed, i.e. obtaining – [0128]); and
c) disaggregate at least one load of the plurality of loads using two or more of the electrical signatures obtained (method includes progressive load classification and decomposition that is configured to disaggregate instantaneous power usages by load cluster tiers and load clusters, where the method maintains multiple load clusters and using the maintained clusters to breakdown the main power usage into multiple power profiles where each power profile may represent disaggregated power usage for one load cluster and load cluster tiers are utilized to disaggregate main power progressively depending on the availability of information – [0043]).”
Yang is silent with regards to the language of “wherein turning ON the one branch set and turning OFF the remaining branches is performed by controlling the plurality of branch circuit breakers to turn ON one or more branch circuit breakers corresponding to the one branch set and to turn OFF one or more branch circuit breakers corresponding to the remaining branches.”
Rao teaches “wherein turning ON the one branch set and turning OFF the remaining branches is performed by controlling the plurality of branch circuit breakers to turn ON one or more branch circuit breakers corresponding to the one branch set and to turn OFF one or more branch circuit breakers corresponding to the remaining branches (“In some embodiments, integrated gateway 503 is configured to perform several local energy management functions including, for example: voltage-sensing the grid; controlling islanding main service breaker 501 ; controlling circuit breakers of circuit breakers 504 individually and in groups, measuring power & energy in real-time from each branch, computing total power at who panel level; and communicating wirelessly (e.g., using cellular, Wifi, Bluetooth, or other standard) with external devices as well as any suitable cloud-hosted platform. The system may be configured to monitor and control various electrical loads 506 .” – [0118], Figure 5)”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Yang to incorporate the teaching of Rao to utilizing circuit breakers with each branch to turn on/off to determine the power and energy for each branch. By utilizing circuit breaker control with each branch, this is an improvement that yields predictable results when monitoring and controlling electrical loads in a system.
In regards to Claim 2, Yang in view of Rao discloses the claimed invention as detailed above. Yang further teaches “the at least one processing device upon execution of the instructions is further configured at a particular iteration of operation a) for a particular branch set that is isolated to: d) iteratively and automatically control or instruct to turn ON one load set of a second plurality of loads connected to the particular branch set at a time while remaining loads of the plurality of loads on the particular branch set that can be turned OFF are turned OFF to isolate the one load set until all loads of the second plurality of loads have been included in at least one isolated load set (the system/method may include a power on/off sequence to turn each load [i.e. first/second loads] on/off in a specific order, such as to differentiate from several different loads that may be substantially the same and that may be wired to a single circuit breaker, and knowing the order of the sequence, the system may decompose each of the substantially identical loads from another and the system may monitor the health status of each individual load – [0134]); and e) obtain an electrical signature of each isolated load set (the system may isolate the electrical signatures of each load/appliance and then they can be analyzed, i.e. obtained – [0128]), wherein at operation c), at least two different loads that are disaggregated include first and second loads of the second plurality of loads (method includes progressive load classification and decomposition that is configured to disaggregate instantaneous power usages by load cluster tiers and load clusters, where the method maintains multiple load clusters and using the maintained clusters to breakdown the main power usage into multiple power profiles where each power profile may represent disaggregated power usage for one load cluster and load cluster tiers are utilized to disaggregate main power progressively depending on the availability of information – [0043]).”
In regards to Claim 3, Yang in view of Rao discloses the claimed invention as detailed above. Yang further teaches “wherein the particular branch set includes one branch and/or wherein the one load set includes one load (method includes progressive load classification and decomposition that is configured to disaggregate instantaneous power usages by load cluster tiers and load clusters - [0043]; the system may isolate the electrical signatures of each load/appliance – [0128]).”
In regards to Claim 5, Yang in view of Rao discloses the claimed invention as detailed above. Yang further teaches “wherein the at least one processing device upon execution of the instructions is further configured at operations b) and/or e) to: obtain measurements from main sensors sensing line inputs to a main circuit breaker for the electrical circuit (electrical system includes an electronic control unit (ECU) with a power source/main which includes a circuit breaker panel and plurality of loads, where the ECU is configured to monitor the electrical system via a sensor, where the sensor includes a current sensor and/or a voltage sensor – [0032]); and/or obtain measurements at the isolated load set.”
In regards to Claim 6, Yang in view of Rao discloses the claimed invention as detailed above. Yang further teaches “wherein the at least one processing device upon execution of the instructions is further configured at operations b) and/or e) to: analyze electrical characteristics obtained from the main sensors and/or receive analysis of measurements obtained at the isolated load set for obtaining the electrical signature of each isolated branch set and/or load set (sensor configured to obtain combined electrical profile including voltage and/or current waveform for the plurality of electrical loads – [0032]; isolate ethe electrical signatures of each load and analyze them – [0128]).”
In regards to Claim 7, Yang in view of Rao discloses the claimed invention as detailed above. Yang further teaches “wherein the at least one processing device upon execution of the instructions is further configured to use the electrical signatures of the isolated load sets to classify the respective isolated load sets (multidimensional feature extraction to measured voltage and current signals so an effective classification and decoupling events detected upon the switching on/off of the loads, and this leads to a progressive load classification and decomposition to disaggregate instantaneous power usages by loads – [0034]).”
In regards to Claim 9, Yang in view of Rao discloses the claimed invention as detailed above. Yang further teaches “wherein the at least one processing device upon execution of the instructions is further configured to operate one or more visual and/or audio indicators associated with one or more controllable loads of the second plurality of loads to provide a signal to a user regarding which load set of the electrical circuit is the isolated load set (the electronic control unit is configured to display power information for one or more loads – [0122]).”
In regards to Claim 14, Yang teaches “iteratively and automatically controlling or instructing to turn ON one branch set having one or more branches of the plurality of branches at a time while remaining branches of the plurality of branches are turned OFF to isolate the one branch set (the system/method may include a power on/off sequence to turn each load on/off in a specific order [i.e. iteratively and automatically control], such as to differentiate from several different loads that may be substantially the same and that may be wired to a single circuit breaker, and knowing the order of the sequence, the system may decompose each of the substantially identical loads from another and the system may monitor the health status of each individual load – [0134]);
b) obtain an electrical signature of each isolated branch set (the system may isolate the electrical signatures of each load/appliance and then they can be analyzed, i.e. obtained – [0128]); and
c) disaggregate at least one load of the plurality of loads using two or more of the electrical signatures obtained (method includes progressive load classification and decomposition that is configured to disaggregate instantaneous power usages by load cluster tiers and load clusters, where the method maintains multiple load clusters and using the maintained clusters to breakdown the main power usage into multiple power profiles where each power profile may represent disaggregated power usage for one load cluster and load cluster tiers are utilized to disaggregate main power progressively depending on the availability of information – [0043]).”
Yang is silent with regards to the language of “wherein turning ON the one branch set and turning OFF the remaining branches is performed by controlling the plurality of branch circuit breakers to turn ON one or more branch circuit breakers corresponding to the one branch set and to turn OFF one or more branch circuit breakers corresponding to the remaining branches.”
Rao teaches “wherein turning ON the one branch set and turning OFF the remaining branches is performed by controlling the plurality of branch circuit breakers to turn ON one or more branch circuit breakers corresponding to the one branch set and to turn OFF one or more branch circuit breakers corresponding to the remaining branches (“In some embodiments, integrated gateway 503 is configured to perform several local energy management functions including, for example: voltage-sensing the grid; controlling islanding main service breaker 501 ; controlling circuit breakers of circuit breakers 504 individually and in groups, measuring power & energy in real-time from each branch, computing total power at who panel level; and communicating wirelessly (e.g., using cellular, Wifi, Bluetooth, or other standard) with external devices as well as any suitable cloud-hosted platform. The system may be configured to monitor and control various electrical loads 506 .” – [0118], Figure 5)”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Yang to incorporate the teaching of Rao to utilizing circuit breakers with each branch to turn on/off to determine the power and energy for each branch. By utilizing circuit breaker control with each branch, this is an improvement that yields predictable results when monitoring and controlling electrical loads in a system.
In regards to Claim 15, Yang in view of Rao discloses the claimed invention as detailed above. Yang further teaches “wherein for a particular iteration of automatically controlling or instructing to turn ON a particular branch set when the particular branch set is isolated, the method further comprises: iteratively and automatically controlling or instructing to turn ON one load set of a second plurality of loads connected to the particular branch set at a time while remaining loads of the plurality of loads on the particular branch set that can be turned OFF are turned OFF to isolate the load set until all loads of the second plurality of loads have been included in at least one isolated load set (the system/method may include a power on/off sequence to turn each load on/off in a specific order, such as to differentiate from several different loads that may be substantially the same and that may be wired to a single circuit breaker, and knowing the order of the sequence, the system may decompose each of the substantially identical loads from another and the system may monitor the health status of each individual load – [0134]); and obtaining a load electrical signature of each isolated load set (the system may isolate the electrical signatures of each load/appliance and then they can be analyzed, i.e. obtained – [0128]), wherein the at least two different loads that are disaggregated include first and second loads of the second plurality of loads (method includes progressive load classification and decomposition that is configured to disaggregate instantaneous power usages by load cluster tiers and load clusters, where the method maintains multiple load clusters and using the maintained clusters to breakdown the main power usage into multiple power profiles where each power profile may represent disaggregated power usage for one load cluster and load cluster tiers are utilized to disaggregate main power progressively depending on the availability of information – [0043]).”
In regards to Claim 16, Yang in view of Rao discloses the claimed invention as detailed above. Yang further teaches “wherein the method further comprises using the electrical signatures of the isolated load sets to classify the respective isolated load sets (multidimensional feature extraction to measured voltage and current signals so an effective classification and decoupling events detected upon the switching on/off of the loads, and this leads to a progressive load classification and decomposition to disaggregate instantaneous power usages by loads – [0034]).”
In regards to Claim 18, Yang in view of Rao discloses the claimed invention as detailed above. Yang further teaches “wherein the method further comprises operating one or more visual and/or audio indicators associated with one or more controllable loads of the second plurality of loads to provide a signal to a user regarding which load set of the electrical circuit is the isolated load set (the electronic control unit is configured to display power information for one or more loads – [0122]).”
In regards to Claim 20, Yang teaches “Iteratively and automatically controlling or instructing to turn ON one branch set having one or more branches of the plurality of branches at a time while remaining branches of the plurality of branches are turned OFF to isolate the one branch set (the system/method may include a power on/off sequence to turn each load on/off in a specific order [i.e. iteratively and automatically control], such as to differentiate from several different loads that may be substantially the same and that may be wired to a single circuit breaker, and knowing the order of the sequence, the system may decompose each of the substantially identical loads from another and the system may monitor the health status of each individual load – [0134]);
obtaining an electrical signature of each isolated branch set (the system may isolate the electrical signatures of each load/appliance and then they can be analyzed, i.e. obtained – [0128]); and
disaggregating at least one load of the plurality of loads using two or more of the electrical signatures obtained (method includes progressive load classification and decomposition that is configured to disaggregate instantaneous power usages by load cluster tiers and load clusters, where the method maintains multiple load clusters and using the maintained clusters to breakdown the main power usage into multiple power profiles where each power profile may represent disaggregated power usage for one load cluster and load cluster tiers are utilized to disaggregate main power progressively depending on the availability of information – [0043]);
wherein for a particular iteration of automatically controlling or instructing to turn ON a particular branch set when the particular branch set is isolated, the method further comprises: iteratively and automatically controlling or instructing to turn ON one load set of a second plurality of loads connected to the particular branch set at a time while remaining loads of the plurality of loads on the particular branch set that can be turned OFF are turned OFF to isolate the load set until all loads of the second plurality of loads have been included in at least one isolated load set (the system/method may include a power on/off sequence to turn each load on/off in a specific order [i.e. iteratively and automatically control], such as to differentiate from several different loads that may be substantially the same and that may be wired to a single circuit breaker, and knowing the order of the sequence, the system may decompose each of the substantially identical loads from another and the system may monitor the health status of each individual load – [0134]); and
obtaining an electrical signature of each isolated load set wherein at least two different loads that are disaggregated include first and second loads of the second plurality of loads (method includes progressive load classification and decomposition that is configured to disaggregate instantaneous power usages by load cluster tiers and load clusters, where the method maintains multiple load clusters and using the maintained clusters to breakdown the main power usage into multiple power profiles where each power profile may represent disaggregated power usage for one load cluster and load cluster tiers are utilized to disaggregate main power progressively depending on the availability of information – [0043]; the system may isolate the electrical signatures of each load/appliance and then they can be analyzed, i.e. obtained – [0128]).”
Yang is silent with regards to the language of “wherein turning ON the one branch set and turning OFF the remaining branches is performed by controlling the plurality of branch circuit breakers to turn ON one or more branch circuit breakers corresponding to the one branch set and to turn OFF one or more branch circuit breakers corresponding to the remaining branches.”
Rao teaches “wherein turning ON the one branch set and turning OFF the remaining branches is performed by controlling the plurality of branch circuit breakers to turn ON one or more branch circuit breakers corresponding to the one branch set and to turn OFF one or more branch circuit breakers corresponding to the remaining branches (“In some embodiments, integrated gateway 503 is configured to perform several local energy management functions including, for example: voltage-sensing the grid; controlling islanding main service breaker 501 ; controlling circuit breakers of circuit breakers 504 individually and in groups, measuring power & energy in real-time from each branch, computing total power at who panel level; and communicating wirelessly (e.g., using cellular, Wifi, Bluetooth, or other standard) with external devices as well as any suitable cloud-hosted platform. The system may be configured to monitor and control various electrical loads 506 .” – [0118], Figure 5)”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Yang to incorporate the teaching of Rao to utilizing circuit breakers with each branch to turn on/off to determine the power and energy for each branch. By utilizing circuit breaker control with each branch, this is an improvement that yields predictable results when monitoring and controlling electrical loads in a system.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang in view of Rao as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Madane (US20250199039).
In regards to Claim 4, Yang in view of Rao discloses the claimed invention as detailed above. Yang further teaches “wherein a particular iteration of operation a) is performed by automatically controlling to turn ON the isolated branch set and to turn OFF the remaining branches by controlling branch circuit breakers that correspond to respective branches of the plurality of branches (the system/method may include a power on/off sequence to turn each load on/off in a specific order, such as to differentiate from several different loads that may be substantially the same and that may be wired to a single circuit breaker, and knowing the order of the sequence, the system may decompose each of the substantially identical loads from another and the system may monitor the health status of each individual load – [0134]).”
Yang is silent with regards to the language of “smart branch circuit breakers”
Madane teaches “smart branch circuit breakers (smart circuit breaker – [0062]).”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Yang in view of Rao to incorporate the teaching of Madane to utilize smart circuit breakers. Yang teaches in [0004] that intelligent electrical control and management systems are being connected with new smart devices, the utilization of smart circuit breakers as taught by Madane yields predictable results in the monitoring and control of loads in systems.
Claims 8 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yang in view of Rao as applied to claim 2 and 15 above, and further in view of Clifton (US20180041072).
In regards to Claim 8, Yang in view of Rao discloses the claimed invention as detailed above. Yang is silent with regards to the language of “wherein the at least one processing device upon execution of the instructions is further configured to: determine a location of the respective isolated load sets; and add the respective isolated load sets to a circuit mapping based on the corresponding location determined for the respective isolated load sets.”
Clifton teaches “wherein the at least one processing device upon execution of the instructions is further configured to: determine a location of the respective isolated load sets; and add the respective isolated load sets to a circuit mapping based on the corresponding location determined for the respective isolated load sets (circuit mapping is used for determining the spatial and physical location of the various components of the system, their relative location with respect to each other and the electric grid, as well as determining upon which circuits each appliance and smart asset is coupled, what their identity is, the character of their load, and when and how much energy they are pulling or supplying to the grid – [0167]).”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Yang in view of Rao to incorporate the teaching of Clifton to perform circuit mapping with the determination of spatial and physical locations of components in a system. By utilizing the spatial and physical locations of components with the circuit mapping, this is an improvement that yields predictable results in the analysis of the grid and the disaggregation of loads in a grid.
In regards to Claim 17, Yang in view of Rao discloses the claimed invention as detailed above. Yang is silent with regards to the language of “wherein the method further comprises: determining a location of the respective isolated load sets; and adding the respective isolated load sets to a circuit mapping based on the corresponding location determined for the respective isolated load sets.”
Clifton teaches “wherein the method further comprises: determining a location of the respective isolated load sets; and adding the respective isolated load sets to a circuit mapping based on the corresponding location determined for the respective isolated load sets (circuit mapping is used for determining the spatial and physical location of the various components of the system, their relative location with respect to each other and the electric grid, as well as determining upon which circuits each appliance and smart asset is coupled, what their identity is, the character of their load, and when and how much energy they are pulling or supplying to the grid – [0167]).”
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Yang to incorporate the teaching of Clifton to perform circuit mapping with the determination of spatial and physical locations of components in a system. By utilizing the spatial and physical locations of components with the circuit mapping, this is an improvement that yields predictable results in the analysis of the grid and the disaggregation of loads in a grid.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10-13 and 19 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
In regards to Claim 10 and 19:
Zhang (US20220075337) teaches in in [0030] a power topology discover method, and further details in [0046] that the recursive power topology identification method is based on the Bayesian principle. Zhang further details that [0029] that the topology results over time are not impacted or is minimally impacted by bad event records and data and further details in [0074] that the proposed solution has an inherent property of robustness in that the convergence to a correct power topological graph generated based on device connected probabilities provides a straight-forward hierarchical virtualization.
Cahill (US20240348085) teaches a ladder logic diagram of a logic control programming, where each rung in the ladder logic diagram can correspond to a particular load or one or more synchronized loads within a particular device in [0026].
Madane (US20250199039) teaches in [0012] and [0065] that the loads can be classified into categories that include complex loads.
Yang, Rao Zhang, Cahill, and Madane are silent with regards to the language of “wherein the at least one processing device upon execution of the instructions is further configured to: identify one or more loads of the second plurality of loads that were not successfully isolated in any of the isolated load sets or for which a disaggregated electrical signature was not successfully obtained;
provide instructions to a user for manually isolating the respective identified one or more loads;
obtain disaggregated electrical signatures of the respective identified one or more loads after being manually isolated;
attempt to classify the respective identified one or more loads based on each identified load's corresponding disaggregated electrical signature;
determine a location of the respective identified one or more loads; and
add the respective identified one or more loads to a circuit mapping using results of the attempt to classify and the location.” As Yang and Zhang both perform the operation automatically and are detailed to go through the entire topology of the power network, it would not be obvious one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Yang or Zhang to identify loads that were not isolated or the electrical signature was not obtained and to have a user manually isolate the loads. Yang details in [0134], the process automatically turns on and off in a sequence each device, it would not be obvious to modify Yang to identify loads that were not isolated as its process automatically isolates all the loads. Furthermore, Zhang as detailed using a Bayesian method faces a similar issue.
Claims 11-13 are dependent on Claim 10.
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.
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/YOSSEF KORANG-BEHESHTI/Examiner, Art Unit 2857
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