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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is responsive to applicant’s filing of 5/10/2023. Claims 1-20 are pending and rejected.
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.
Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim et al. (US 20210402977) in view of Harrison et al. (US 20230271599) in further view of Sugawara et al. (DE112013007677 T5), with citations per the machine translation, wherein Kim et al. teaches:
(re: cl 1) A method for automatically applying braking during downhill motion (¶89-adjusting torque premised upon surface incline) and performing regenerative braking, comprising: a) determining a state of an acceleration pedal of a vehicle and a state of a braking pedal of the vehicle (¶48-regenerative braking ; ¶44-#120 accelerator pedal sensor; ¶52-No braking sensor);
setting, using a processor, a set velocity of the vehicle (¶40-control of algorithm via processor; ¶98-#1100-processor);
and e) performing, using a brake controller, regenerative braking on the vehicle using a disturbance observer (DOB) structure and a feedback controller to maintain the target velocity of the vehicle (¶9-“disturbance observer”; ¶9-wheel sensors closing about target speed).
Harrison et al. teaches what Kim et al. lacks of:
b) when the state of the acceleration pedal is off and the state of the braking pedal is off (¶79-feet off pedals),
c) determining, using the processor, whether a value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is greater than a threshold velocity of the vehicle (¶118-“ The falling vehicle speed threshold may be a value from the range approximately 5kph to approximately 10kph, such as approximately 7kph. The falling vehicle speed threshold may be a vehicle speed that corresponds to an engine speed greater than or equal to an engine idle speed setpoint.”; ¶119-“A slight hysteresis may be introduced between the falling vehicle speed threshold and the rising vehicle speed threshold, to prevent excessive switching during low-speed driving. The rising vehicle speed threshold may be a greater value, from the range greater than approximately 5kph to approximately 15kph, such as approximately 9kph ;¶68-cruise control setpoint);
d) when the value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is greater than the threshold velocity of the vehicle, setting, using the processor, a target velocity of the vehicle equal to a sum of the set velocity of the vehicle and the threshold velocity of the vehicle (¶117-119- uses a target with hysteresis envelope thresholds to increase the torque to close about the target velocity - differences between target and hysteresis threshold envelope speeds are the difference in target and threshold).
It 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, for Kim et al. when the state of the acceleration pedal is off and the state of the braking pedal is off to facilitate cruise control operation (¶68) as taught by Harrison et al..
It 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, for Kim et al. to determining, using the processor, whether a value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is greater than a threshold velocity of the vehicle as to prevent excessive switching during driving (¶119) as taught by Harrison et al..
Sugawara et al. teaches what Kim et al. lacks of:
setting, using a processor, a set velocity of the vehicle to be equal to a current velocity of the vehicle (¶95-“ pressing a speed setting switch for car cruise control, etc., during running, a current vehicle speed is recorded as a running speed set value.”; ¶117-“ when the driver presses a speed setting switch for a cruise control or the like, the running speed setting device 3 detects the pressing of the switch, and the vehicle speed at that time is memorized as the running speed set value.”).
It 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, for Kim et al. to set velocity of the vehicle to be equal to a current velocity of the vehicle as to keep the vehicle at constant speed as taught by Sugawara et al. and enhance fuel economy, reduce driver fatigue, and improve safety by maintaining a constant speed as one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize.
Harrison et al. further teaches:
(re: cl 2) wherein the determining the state of the acceleration pedal and the state of the braking pedal comprises at least one of the following: receiving, from an acceleration pedal position sensor, the state of the acceleration pedal; and receiving, from a braking pedal position sensor, the state of the braking pedal (¶93-“the human-machine interface 226 is a foot-operated control such as the accelerator pedal or brake pedal. The control system 208 may monitor the foot-operated control for the vehicle creep deactivation signal 404 by monitoring for a pattern of actuations of the foot-operated control, such as a plurality of depressions of the brake pedal. The pattern of actuations may comprise a predetermined temporal pattern.” ).
It 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, for Kim et al. to receive accelerator and brake position state information to ascertain whether to adjust vehicle speed and regenerative braking (¶82- adjusting motor torque; ¶83-adjust vehicle speed) as taught by Harrison et al. including controlling cruise control as one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize.
Kim et al. further teaches:
(re: cl 3) wherein the performing regenerative braking on the vehicle using the DOB structure and a feedback controller comprises using a regenerative braking torque calculator, calculating a regenerative braking torque (¶80-“The calculator 176 receives the driver-required-torque and the compensation torque as an input. The calculator 176 compensates for the driver-required-torque by subtracting the compensation torque from the driver-required-torque.”);
and applying the regenerative braking torque on the vehicle (¶81-“Once torque distribution based on the required torque is determined, the power distributor 177 may transmit the engine torque command and the motor torque command respectively to the EMS 110 and the MCU 140 to control the vehicle hardware P.”).
(re: cl 4) wherein the performing regenerative braking on the vehicle using the DOB structure and a feedback controller comprises: monitoring, using one or more wheel speed sensors, a wheel speed of one or more wheels of the vehicle (¶81-wheel speed sensors-“the HCU 160 may measure the revolution per minute of each wheel through each wheel speed sensor mounted on each wheel”).
(re: cl 5) further comprising, when the value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is not greater than the threshold velocity of the vehicle, performing, using the brake controller, regenerative braking on the vehicle using the DOB structure to maintain a velocity of the vehicle (CL1-“ a hysteresis circuit for determining whether to compensate for the required torque based on the compensation torque; and a calculator for calculating a compensated required torque using the required torque and the compensation torque.” -hysteresis circuit as threshold envelope velocities used to trigger increases & decreases in torque to maintain velocity within a target range).
(re: cl 6) wherein the performing regenerative braking on the vehicle using the DOB structure comprises: using a regenerative braking torque calculator, calculating a regenerative braking torque; and applying, using the brake controller, the regenerative braking torque on the vehicle (¶80-“The calculator 176 receives the driver-required-torque and the compensation torque as an input. The calculator 176 compensates for the driver-required-torque by subtracting the compensation torque from the driver-required-torque.”);
and applying the regenerative braking torque on the vehicle (¶81-“Once torque distribution based on the required torque is determined, the power distributor 177 may transmit the engine torque command and the motor torque command respectively to the EMS 110 and the MCU 140 to control the vehicle hardware P.”).
(re: cl 7) wherein the performing regenerative braking on the vehicle using the DOB structure comprises: monitoring, using one or more wheel speed sensors, a wheel speed of one or more wheels of the vehicle (¶81-wheel speed sensors-“the HCU 160 may measure the revolution per minute of each wheel through each wheel speed sensor mounted on each wheel”).
(re: cl 8) A system for automatically applying braking during downhill motion and performing regenerative braking, comprising: a vehicle (¶82-electrified vehicle) comprising:
a processor (¶40-control of algorithm via processor; ¶98-#1100processor)
an acceleration pedal (¶82-accelerator pedal);
set a set velocity of the vehicle (¶40-control of algorithm via processor; ¶98-#1100-processor);
perform regenerative braking on the vehicle using a disturbance observer (DOB) structure and a feedback controller to maintain the target velocity of the vehicle (¶9-“disturbance observer”; ¶9-wheel sensors closing about target speed).
Harrison et al. teaches what Kim et al. lacks of:
a braking pedal (¶79-brake pedal);
and a brake controller (¶69-“ control system 208 would then control the braking “), wherein the processor is configured to: determine a state of the acceleration pedal and a state of the braking pedal (¶79-feet off pedals);
when the state of the acceleration pedal is off and the state of the braking pedal is off (¶79-feet off pedals),
determine whether a value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is greater than a threshold velocity of the vehicle (¶118-“ The falling vehicle speed threshold may be a value from the range approximately 5kph to approximately 10kph, such as approximately 7kph. The falling vehicle speed threshold may be a vehicle speed that corresponds to an engine speed greater than or equal to an engine idle speed setpoint.”; ¶119-“A slight hysteresis may be introduced between the falling vehicle speed threshold and the rising vehicle speed threshold, to prevent excessive switching during low-speed driving. The rising vehicle speed threshold may be a greater value, from the range greater than approximately 5kph to approximately 15kph, such as approximately 9kph ;¶68-cruise control setpoint);
when the value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is greater than the threshold velocity of the vehicle, set a target velocity of the vehicle equal to a sum of the set velocity of the vehicle and the threshold velocity of the vehicle (¶117-119- uses a target with hysteresis envelope thresholds to increase the torque to close about the target velocity- differences between target and hysteresis threshold envelope speeds are the difference in target and threshold);
and perform, using a brake controller (¶118-“ The falling vehicle speed threshold may be a value from the range approximately 5kph to approximately 10kph, such as approximately 7kph. The falling vehicle speed threshold may be a vehicle speed that corresponds to an engine speed greater than or equal to an engine idle speed setpoint.”; ¶119-“A slight hysteresis may be introduced between the falling vehicle speed threshold and the rising vehicle speed threshold, to prevent excessive switching during low-speed driving. The rising vehicle speed threshold may be a greater value, from the range greater than approximately 5kph to approximately 15kph, such as approximately 9kph ;¶68-cruise control setpoint);
determine whether a value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is greater than a threshold velocity of the vehicle (¶117-119- uses a target with hysteresis envelope thresholds to increase the torque to close about the target velocity-- differences between target and hysteresis threshold envelope speeds are the difference in target and threshold).
It 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, for Kim et al. when the state of the acceleration pedal is off and the state of the braking pedal is off to facilitate cruise control operation (¶68) as taught by Harrison et al..
It 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, for Kim et al. to determining, using the processor, whether a value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is greater than a threshold velocity of the vehicle as to prevent excessive switching during driving (¶119) as taught by Harrison et al..
It 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, for Kim et al. to determining, using the processor, whether a value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is greater than a threshold velocity of the vehicle as to prevent excessive switching during driving (¶119) as taught by Harrison et al..
Sugawara et al. teaches what Kim et al. lacks of:
setting, using a processor, a set velocity of the vehicle to be equal to a current velocity of the vehicle (¶95-“ pressing a speed setting switch for car cruise control, etc., during running, a current vehicle speed is recorded as a running speed set value.”; ¶117-“ when the driver presses a speed setting switch for a cruise control or the like, the running speed setting device 3 detects the pressing of the switch, and the vehicle speed at that time is memorized as the running speed set value.”).
It 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, for Kim et al. to set velocity of the vehicle to be equal to a current velocity of the vehicle as to keep the vehicle at constant speed as taught by Sugawara et al. and enhance fuel economy, reduce driver fatigue, and improve safety by maintaining a constant speed as one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize.
Harrison et al. further teaches:
(re: cl 9) wherein: the vehicle comprises one or more of the following: an acceleration pedal position sensor; and a braking pedal position sensor, and the determining the state of the acceleration pedal and the state of the braking pedal comprises at least one of the following: receiving, from the acceleration pedal position sensor, the state of the acceleration pedal; and receiving, from the braking pedal position sensor, the state of the braking pedal. (“¶93-the human-machine interface 226 is a foot-operated control such as the accelerator pedal or brake pedal. The control system 208 may monitor the foot-operated control for the vehicle creep deactivation signal 404 by monitoring for a pattern of actuations of the foot-operated control, such as a plurality of depressions of the brake pedal. The pattern of actuations may comprise a predetermined temporal pattern.” ).
It 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, for Kim et al. to receive accelerator and brake position state information to ascertain whether to adjust vehicle speed and regenerative braking (¶82- adjusting motor torque; ¶83-adjust vehicle speed) as taught by Harrison et al. including controlling cruise control as one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize.
Kim et al. further teaches:
(re: cl 10) wherein the performing regenerative braking on the vehicle using the DOB structure and a feedback controller comprises: using a regenerative braking torque calculator, calculating a regenerative braking torque; (¶80-“The calculator 176 receives the driver-required-torque and the compensation torque as an input. The calculator 176 compensates for the driver-required-torque by subtracting the compensation torque from the driver-required-torque.”);
and applying the regenerative braking torque on the vehicle (81-“Once torque distribution based on the required torque is determined, the power distributor 177 may transmit the engine torque command and the motor torque command respectively to the EMS 110 and the MCU 140 to control the vehicle hardware P.”).
(re: cl 11) the vehicle comprises: one or more wheels; and one or more wheel speed sensors, and the performing regenerative braking on the vehicle using the DOB structure and a feedback controller comprises: monitoring, using the one or more wheel speed sensors, a wheel speed of the one or more wheels of the vehicle (¶81-wheel speed sensors-“the HCU 160 may measure the revolution per minute of each wheel through each wheel speed sensor mounted on each wheel”).
(re: cl 12) wherein the processor is further configured to: when the value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is not greater than the threshold velocity of the vehicle, perform, using the brake controller, regenerative braking on the vehicle using the DOB structure to maintain a velocity of the vehicle (CL1-“ a hysteresis circuit for determining whether to compensate for the required torque based on the compensation torque; and a calculator for calculating a compensated required torque using the required torque and the compensation torque.” -hysteresis circuit as threshold envelope velocities used to trigger increases & decreases in torque to maintain velocity within a target range).
(re: cl 13) wherein the performing regenerative braking on the vehicle using the DOB structure comprises: using a regenerative braking torque calculator, calculating a regenerative braking torque (¶80-“The calculator 176 receives the driver-required-torque and the compensation torque as an input. The calculator 176 compensates for the driver-required-torque by subtracting the compensation torque from the driver-required-torque.”);
and applying, using the brake controller, the regenerative braking torque on the vehicle (¶81-“Once torque distribution based on the required torque is determined, the power distributor 177 may transmit the engine torque command and the motor torque command respectively to the EMS 110 and the MCU 140 to control the vehicle hardware P.”).
(re: cl 14) wherein: the vehicle comprises: one or more wheels; and one or more wheel speed sensors, and the performing regenerative braking on the vehicle using the DOB structure comprises: monitoring, using the one or more wheel speed sensors, a wheel speed of the one or more wheels of the vehicle (¶81-wheel speed sensors-“the HCU 160 may measure the revolution per minute of each wheel through each wheel speed sensor mounted on each wheel”).
Kim et al. teaches:
(re: cl 15) A system for automatically applying braking during downhill motion and performing regenerative braking, comprising: a vehicle (¶82-electrified vehicle) comprising: an acceleration pedal (¶82-accelerator pedal);
set a set velocity of the vehicle (¶40-control of algorithm via processor; ¶98-#1100-processor); (¶68-cruise control setpoint interface);
and perform, using a brake controller, regenerative braking on the vehicle using a disturbance observer (DOB) structure and a feedback controller to maintain the target velocity of the vehicle (¶9-“disturbance observer”; ¶9-wheel sensors closing about target speed).
Harrison et al. teaches what Kim et al. lacks of:
a braking pedal (¶79-brake pedal);
and a brake controller (¶69-“ control system 208 would then control the braking “);
and a computing device, comprising a processor and a memory, configured to store programming instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: determine a state of the acceleration pedal and a state of the braking pedal (¶79-feet off pedals);
when the state of the acceleration pedal is off and the state of the braking pedal is off (¶79-feet off pedals);
determine whether a value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is greater than a threshold velocity of the vehicle (¶117-119- uses a target with hysteresis envelope thresholds to increase the torque to close about the target velocity-- differences between target and hysteresis threshold envelope speeds are the difference in target and threshold);
when the value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is greater than the threshold velocity of the vehicle, set a target velocity of the vehicle equal to a sum of the set velocity of the vehicle and the threshold velocity of the vehicle (¶117-119- uses a target with hysteresis envelope thresholds to increase the torque to close about the target velocity- differences between target and hysteresis threshold envelope speeds are the difference in target and threshold);
It 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, for Kim et al. when the state of the acceleration pedal is off and the state of the braking pedal is off to facilitate cruise control operation (¶68) as taught by Harrison et al..
It 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, for Kim et al. to determining, using the processor, whether a value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is greater than a threshold velocity of the vehicle as to prevent excessive switching during driving (¶119) as taught by Harrison et al..
It 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, for Kim et al. to determining, using the processor, whether a value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is greater than a threshold velocity of the vehicle as to prevent excessive switching during driving (¶119) as taught by Harrison et al..
Sugawara et al. teaches what Kim et al. lacks of:
setting, using a processor, a set velocity of the vehicle to be equal to a current velocity of the vehicle (¶95-“ pressing a speed setting switch for car cruise control, etc., during running, a current vehicle speed is recorded as a running speed set value.”; ¶117-“ when the driver presses a speed setting switch for a cruise control or the like, the running speed setting device 3 detects the pressing of the switch, and the vehicle speed at that time is memorized as the running speed set value.”).
It 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, for Kim et al. to set velocity of the vehicle to be equal to a current velocity of the vehicle as to keep the vehicle at constant speed as taught by Sugawara et al. and enhance fuel economy, reduce driver fatigue, and improve safety by maintaining a constant speed as one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize.
Harrison et al. further teaches:
(re: cl 16) wherein: the vehicle comprises one or more of the following: an acceleration pedal position sensor; and a braking pedal position sensor, and the determining the state of the acceleration pedal and the state of the braking pedal comprises at least one of the following: receiving, from the acceleration pedal position sensor, the state of the acceleration pedal; and receiving, from the braking pedal position sensor, the state of the braking pedal (“¶93-the human-machine interface 226 is a foot-operated control such as the accelerator pedal or brake pedal. The control system 208 may monitor the foot-operated control for the vehicle creep deactivation signal 404 by monitoring for a pattern of actuations of the foot-operated control, such as a plurality of depressions of the brake pedal. The pattern of actuations may comprise a predetermined temporal pattern.” ).
It 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, for Kim et al. to receive accelerator and brake position state information to ascertain whether to adjust vehicle speed and regenerative braking (¶82- adjusting motor torque; ¶83-adjust vehicle speed) as taught by Harrison et al. including controlling cruise control as one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize.
Kim et al. further teaches:
(re: cl 17) wherein the performing regenerative braking on the vehicle using the DOB structure and a feedback controller comprises: using a regenerative braking torque calculator, calculating a regenerative braking torque(¶80-“The calculator 176 receives the driver-required-torque and the compensation torque as an input. The calculator 176 compensates for the driver-required-torque by subtracting the compensation torque from the driver-required-torque.”);
and applying the regenerative braking torque on the vehicle (¶81-“Once torque distribution based on the required torque is determined, the power distributor 177 may transmit the engine torque command and the motor torque command respectively to the EMS 110 and the MCU 140 to control the vehicle hardware P.”).
(re: cl18) wherein: the vehicle comprises: one or more wheels; and one or more wheel speed sensors, and the performing regenerative braking on the vehicle using the DOB structure and a feedback controller comprises: monitoring, using the one or more wheel speed sensors, a wheel speed of the one or more wheels of the vehicle (¶81-wheel speed sensors-“the HCU 160 may measure the revolution per minute of each wheel through each wheel speed sensor mounted on each wheel”).
(re: cl 19) wherein the programming instructions, when executed, are further configured to cause the processor to: when the value of the current velocity of the vehicle minus the set velocity of the vehicle is not greater than the threshold velocity of the vehicle, perform, using the brake controller, regenerative braking on the vehicle using the DOB structure to maintain a velocity of the vehicle (CL1-“ a hysteresis circuit for determining whether to compensate for the required torque based on the compensation torque; and a calculator for calculating a compensated required torque using the required torque and the compensation torque.” -hysteresis circuit as threshold envelope velocities used to trigger increases & decreases in torque to maintain velocity within a target range).
(re: cl 20) wherein the performing regenerative braking on the vehicle using the DOB structure comprises: using a regenerative braking torque calculator, calculating a regenerative braking torque (¶80-“The calculator 176 receives the driver-required-torque and the compensation torque as an input. The calculator 176 compensates for the driver-required-torque by subtracting the compensation torque from the driver-required-torque.”);
and applying, using the brake controller, the regenerative braking torque on the vehicle (¶81-“Once torque distribution based on the required torque is determined, the power distributor 177 may transmit the engine torque command and the motor torque command respectively to the EMS 110 and the MCU 140 to control the vehicle hardware P.”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's
disclosure.
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/M.E.B/
Examiner, Art Unit 3655
/JACOB S. SCOTT/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3655