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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 01/29/2026 has been entered.
Status of Claims
Applicant filed RCE on 01/29/2026, Claims 2-20 were amended. Claims 1, 5, 9, 13, 16, and 20 have been amended, claims 4, 6, 12, 14, and 19 have been canceled and new claims 21-25 have been added. Claims 1-3, 5, 7-11, 13, 15-18, and 20-25 are pending and presented for examination.
Response to Arguments
Regarding the claim rejections under 35 USC 103: Applicant's arguments filed 01/29/2026 with respect to Sawasaki (US 20070276541 A1) in view of Ebrahimi Afrouzi et al. (US 20210089040 A1) have been fully considered but they 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.
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.
Claims 1-3, 5, 7-11, 13, 15-18 and 20-25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ebrahimi Afrouzi et al. (US 20210089040 A1) in view of Borenstein et al. (“Mobile Robot Positioning: Sensors and Techniques,” Chapter 7 – Landmark Navigation, 1996),further in view of Nourbakhsh et al. (Dervish: An Office-Navigating Robot, AI Magazine, 1995), hereinafter referred to as Ebrahimi Afrouzi, Borenstein and Nourbakhsh.
Regarding claims 1, 9 and 16, Ebrahimi Afrouzi discloses An autonomous driving control apparatus (“Some embodiments may provide an autonomous or semi-autonomous robot including communication, mobility, actuation, and processing elements.” [0240]) comprising:
at least one sensor, one or more processors and memory storing instructions (” a processor, a memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor effectuates robotic operations, a controller, a plurality of sensors (e.g., tactile sensor, obstacle sensor, temperature sensor, imaging sensor, light detection and ranging (LIDAR) sensor, camera, depth sensor, time-of-flight (TOF) sensor, TSSP sensor, optical tracking sensor, sonar sensor, ultrasound sensor, laser sensor, light emitting diode (LED) sensor, etc.)” [0240]);
after stopping the movement of the driving device ([0536] “In some embodiments, the processor may smoothen a path with systematic discrepancies between odometry (Odom) and an OTS due to momentum of the robot (e.g., when the robot stops rotating).”).
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach obtain, using the at least one sensor and while a driving device is being autonomously controlled, data about a driving route of the driving device, the data comprising a cumulative quantity of edge pairs identified along the driving route;
stop a movement of the driving device based on a comparison between the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route and edge pair data previously stored in the memory;
Nourbakhsh does teach obtain, using the at least one sensor and while a driving device is being autonomously controlled, data about a driving route of the driving device, the data comprising a cumulative quantity of edge pairs identified along the driving route; (Pg.3 “As DERVISH moves down the hallway… it continually compares its side sonar readings… If DERVISH detects any of these three features [closed doors, open doors, open hallways], it combines it with the feature on the other side… to generate a percept pair…” (cumulative updates via percept pairs along the route).
stop a movement of the driving device based on a comparison between the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route and edge pair data previously stored in the memory; (Pg.7 “Whenever DERVISH detects a percept, it looks at the topological map to determine its most likely position. As long as this new state corresponds to a node along the path, it continues execution without interruption, even if it missed some earlier expected percepts. DERVISH stops and replans when it is no longer on the path because it either has overshot the turn or is actually on a different hallway than previously assumed.” Percept pairs “update the state set” by comparing cumulative features against the stored topological map until expected position conditions are met (leading to stop/align actions). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Nourbakhsh teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Nourbakhsh explicitly teaches obtain, using the at least one sensor and while a driving device is being autonomously controlled, data about a driving route of the driving device, the data comprising a cumulative quantity of edge pairs identified along the driving route; stop a movement of the driving device based on a comparison between the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route and edge pair data previously stored in the memory.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include obtain, using the at least one sensor and while a driving device is being autonomously controlled, data about a driving route of the driving device, the data comprising a cumulative quantity of edge pairs identified along the driving route; stop a movement of the driving device based on a comparison between the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route and edge pair data previously stored in the memory, as taught by Nourbakhsh, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Nourbakhsh, P.3 and P.7]).
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach using the at least one sensor, at least one image while rotating the driving device in place, wherein the at least one image comprises room number information; determine, based on the at least one image, that the driving device has reached a destination, wherein the driving device is determined to have reached the destination when the room number information matches a room number corresponding to the destination.
Borenstein does teach using the at least one sensor, at least one image while rotating the driving device in place, ( Ch. 7, p. 174: “ navigation module… consists of a custom-made pan-and-tilt table, a CCD camera…” (rotation via pan-and-tilt for image capture after approximate positioning).
wherein the at least one image comprises room number information; (Ch. 7, p. 175: “…natural landmarks such as alphanumeric signs, semi-permanent structures, or doorways.”
determine, based on the at least one image, that the driving device has reached a destination, wherein the driving device is determined to have reached the destination when the room number information matches a room number corresponding to the destination. ( Ch. 7, p. 175: “This expected appearance is then used in a coarse-to-fine normalized correlation-based matching algorithm that yields the robot’s relative distance and bearing with regard to that landmark.” (Matching to known landmarks including alphanumeric signs/room numbers). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Borenstein teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Borenstein explicitly teaches using the at least one sensor, at least one image while rotating the driving device in place, wherein the at least one image comprises room number information; determine, based on the at least one image, that the driving device has reached a destination, wherein the driving device is determined to have reached the destination when the room number information matches a room number corresponding to the destination.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include using the at least one sensor, at least one image while rotating the driving device in place, wherein the at least one image comprises room number information; determine, based on the at least one image, that the driving device has reached a destination, wherein the driving device is determined to have reached the destination when the room number information matches a room number corresponding to the destination, as taught by Borenstein, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Borenstein, Ch. 7, p. 174-175]).
Regarding claims 2, 10 and 17,
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach compare the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route with the edge pair quantity corresponding to the destination;
stop the movement of the driving device based on the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route being equal to the edge pair quantity corresponding to the destination.
Nourbakhsh does teach compare the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route with the edge pair quantity corresponding to the destination; (Pg.7 “Whenever DERVISH detects a percept, it looks at the topological map to determine its most likely position. As long as this new state corresponds to a node along the path, it continues execution without interruption, even if it missed some earlier expected percepts. DERVISH stops and replans when it is no longer on the path because it either has overshot the turn or is actually on a different hallway than previously assumed.” Cumulative “percept pair” updates compare against stored map quantities/expected features per location.
stop the movement of the driving device based on the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route being equal to the edge pair quantity corresponding to the destination (P. 7 “the robot knows its initial and final locations and has a map of the world, it constructs only one path to the goal and begins to traverse this path. Whenever DERVISH detects a percept, it looks at the topological map to determine its most likely position.” State updates continue with cumulative percept pairs until termination at expected location via matching to stored data.). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Nourbakhsh teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Nourbakhsh explicitly teaches compare the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route with the edge pair quantity corresponding to the destination; stop the movement of the driving device based on the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route being equal to the edge pair quantity corresponding to the destination.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include compare the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route with the edge pair quantity corresponding to the destination; stop the movement of the driving device based on the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route being equal to the edge pair quantity corresponding to the destination, as taught by Nourbakhsh, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Nourbakhsh, P.3 and P.7]).
Regarding claims 3, 11 and 18,
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach rotate the driving device in place such that the destination is within directional range of the at least one sensor.
Borenstein does teach rotate the driving device in place such that the destination is within directional range of the at least one sensor. ( Ch. 7, p. 174: “…a custom-made pan-and-tilt table, a CCD camera…” (to bring landmarks into view after approximate positioning). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Borenstein teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Borenstein explicitly teaches rotate the driving device in place such that the destination is within directional range of the at least one sensor.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include rotate the driving device in place such that the destination is within directional range of the at least one sensor, as taught by Borenstein, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Borenstein, Ch. 7, p. 174-175]).
Regarding claims 5 and 13,
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach cause the driving device to stop rotating based on the room number information matching a room number corresponding to the destination.
Borenstein does teach cause the driving device to stop rotating based on the room number information matching a room number corresponding to the destination. Borenstein, Ch. 7, p. 175: “…used in a coarse-to-fine normalized correlation-based matching algorithm…” (adjustment stops once match is confirmed). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Borenstein teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Borenstein explicitly teaches cause the driving device to stop rotating based on the room number information matching a room number corresponding to the destination.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include cause the driving device to stop rotating based on the room number information matching a room number corresponding to the destination, as taught by Borenstein, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Borenstein, Ch. 7, p. 174-175]).
Regarding claim 7,
provide, based on the determination that the driving device has reached the destination, a notification indicating arrival of the driving device at the destination (“a notification that the robot has reached a particular location” [0822]).
Regarding claim 8,
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach wherein a first cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a first room accessible from a building hallway, wherein a second cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a second room accessible from the building hallway, and wherein the edge pair data previously stored in the memory comprises at least one of edge pair information for one or more left rooms accessible from the building hallway, or edge pair information for one or more right rooms accessible from the building hallway, or room number information for the one or more left rooms and the one or more right rooms.
Nourbakhsh does teach wherein a first cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a first room accessible from a building hallway, wherein a second cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a second room accessible from the building hallway, and wherein the edge pair data previously stored in the memory comprises at least one of edge pair information for one or more left rooms accessible from the building hallway, or edge pair information for one or more right rooms accessible from the building hallway, or room number information for the one or more left rooms and the one or more right rooms. (Pg.7 “Whenever DERVISH detects a percept, it looks at the topological map to determine its most likely position. As long as this new state corresponds to a node along the path, it continues execution without interruption, even if it missed some earlier expected percepts. DERVISH stops and replans when it is no longer on the path because it either has overshot the turn or is actually on a different hallway than previously assumed.” and P. 3 “…it combines it with the feature on the other side… to generate a percept pair…” (side-specific left/right features tracked cumulatively along the hallway for room positioning). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Nourbakhsh teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Nourbakhsh explicitly teaches wherein a first cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a first room accessible from a building hallway, wherein a second cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a second room accessible from the building hallway, and wherein the edge pair data previously stored in the memory comprises at least one of edge pair information for one or more left rooms accessible from the building hallway, or edge pair information for one or more right rooms accessible from the building hallway, or room number information for the one or more left rooms and the one or more right rooms.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include wherein a first cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a first room accessible from a building hallway, wherein a second cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a second room accessible from the building hallway, and wherein the edge pair data previously stored in the memory comprises at least one of edge pair information for one or more left rooms accessible from the building hallway, or edge pair information for one or more right rooms accessible from the building hallway, or room number information for the one or more left rooms and the one or more right rooms, as taught by Nourbakhsh, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Nourbakhsh, P.3 and P.7]).
Regarding claim 15,
provide, based on the determination that the driving device has reached the destination, a notification indicating arrival of the driving device at the destination (“a notification that the robot has reached a particular location” [0822]).
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach wherein a first cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a first room accessible from a corridor, and wherein a second cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a second room accessible from the corridor.
Nourbakhsh does teach wherein a first cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a first room accessible from a corridor, and wherein a second cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a second room accessible from the corridor (Pg.7 “Whenever DERVISH detects a percept, it looks at the topological map to determine its most likely position. As long as this new state corresponds to a node along the path, it continues execution without interruption, even if it missed some earlier expected percepts. DERVISH stops and replans when it is no longer on the path because it either has overshot the turn or is actually on a different hallway than previously assumed.” and (P. 3 “…it combines it with the feature on the other side… to generate a percept pair…” (side-specific left/right features tracked cumulatively along the hallway for room positioning). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Nourbakhsh teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Nourbakhsh explicitly teaches wherein a first cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a first room accessible from a corridor, and wherein a second cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a second room accessible from the corridor.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include wherein a first cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a first room accessible from a corridor, and wherein a second cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a second room accessible from the corridor, as taught by Nourbakhsh, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Nourbakhsh, P.3 and P.7]).
Regarding claim 20,
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach cause the driving device to stop rotating based on the room number information matching a room number corresponding to the destination.
Borenstein does teach cause the driving device to stop rotating based on the room number information matching a room number corresponding to the destination ( Ch. 7, p. 175: “…used in a coarse-to-fine normalized correlation-based matching algorithm…” (adjustment stops once match is confirmed). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Borenstein teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Borenstein explicitly teaches cause the driving device to stop rotating based on the room number information matching a room number corresponding to the destination.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include to cause the driving device to stop rotating based on the room number information matching a room number corresponding to the destination, as taught by Borenstein, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Borenstein, Ch. 7, p. 174-175]).
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach wherein a first cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a first room accessible from a corridor, and wherein a second cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a second room accessible from the corridor.
Nourbakhsh does teach wherein a first cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a first room accessible from a corridor, and wherein a second cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a second room accessible from the corridor. (Pg.7 “Whenever DERVISH detects a percept, it looks at the topological map to determine its most likely position. As long as this new state corresponds to a node along the path, it continues execution without interruption, even if it missed some earlier expected percepts. DERVISH stops and replans when it is no longer on the path because it either has overshot the turn or is actually on a different hallway than previously assumed.” and (P. 3 “…it combines it with the feature on the other side… to generate a percept pair…” (side-specific left/right features tracked cumulatively along the hallway for room positioning). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Nourbakhsh teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Nourbakhsh explicitly teaches wherein a first cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a first room accessible from a corridor, and wherein a second cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a second room accessible from the corridor.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include wherein a first cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a first room accessible from a corridor, and wherein a second cumulative quantity value of the edge pairs identified along the driving route corresponds to a second room accessible from the corridor, as taught by Nourbakhsh, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Nourbakhsh, P.3 and P.7]).
Regarding Claim 21,
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach wherein the driving device is determined to have reached the destination when the room number information matches a room number corresponding to the destination.
Borenstein does teach wherein the driving device is determined to have reached the destination when the room number information matches a room number corresponding to the destination. ( Ch. 7, p. 175: “…natural landmarks such as alphanumeric signs… This expected appearance is then used in a coarse-to-fine normalized correlation-based matching algorithm…”). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Borenstein teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Borenstein explicitly teaches wherein the driving device is determined to have reached the destination when the room number information matches a room number corresponding to the destination.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include wherein the driving device is determined to have reached the destination when the room number information matches a room number corresponding to the destination, as taught by Borenstein, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Borenstein, Ch. 7, p. 174-175]).
Regarding Claim 22,
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach wherein the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route comprises: a first cumulative quantity of edge pairs of first rooms identified along the driving route, wherein the first rooms are located on a first side of a hallway.
Nourbakhsh does teach wherein the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route comprises: a first cumulative quantity of edge pairs of first rooms identified along the driving route, wherein the first rooms are located on a first side of a hallway. (P. 3 “…combines it with the feature on the other side… to generate a percept pair…” (cumulative tracking of side-specific features). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Nourbakhsh teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Nourbakhsh explicitly teaches wherein the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route comprises: a first cumulative quantity of edge pairs of first rooms identified along the driving route, wherein the first rooms are located on a first side of a hallway.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include wherein the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route comprises: a first cumulative quantity of edge pairs of first rooms identified along the driving route, wherein the first rooms are located on a first side of a hallway, as taught by Nourbakhsh, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Nourbakhsh, P.3 and P.7]).
Regarding Claim 23,
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach wherein the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route further comprises: a second cumulative quantity of edge pairs of second rooms identified along the driving route, wherein the second rooms are located on a second side of the hallway opposite to the first side of the hallway.
Nourbakhsh does teach wherein the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route further comprises: a second cumulative quantity of edge pairs of second rooms identified along the driving route, wherein the second rooms are located on a second side of the hallway opposite to the first side of the hallway. (P. 1 “DERVISH sees a hallway on its left and knows that the hallway is opposite the door.” and P. 3: Percept pairs combine features “on the other side” (opposite sides of the hallway). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Nourbakhsh teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Nourbakhsh explicitly teaches obtain, using the at least one sensor and while a driving device is being autonomously controlled, data about a driving route of the driving device, the data comprising a cumulative quantity of edge pairs identified along the driving route; stop a movement of the driving device based on a comparison between the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route and edge pair data previously stored in the memory.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include obtain, using the at least one sensor and while a driving device is being autonomously controlled, data about a driving route of the driving device, the data comprising a cumulative quantity of edge pairs identified along the driving route; stop a movement of the driving device based on a comparison between the cumulative quantity of the edge pairs identified along the driving route and edge pair data previously stored in the memory, as taught by Nourbakhsh, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Nourbakhsh, P.3 and P.1]).
Regarding Claim 24,
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach wherein the cumulative quantity of the identified edge pairs corresponding to an integer N indicates that a location of the stopped driving device corresponds to an N-th room from a reference point of a side of a hallway.
Nourbakhsh does teach wherein the cumulative quantity of the identified edge pairs corresponding to an integer N indicates that a location of the stopped driving device corresponds to an N-th room from a reference point of a side of a hallway, (P. 7 “Whenever DERVISH detects a percept, it looks at the topological map to determine its most likely position. As long as this new state corresponds to a node along the path, it continues execution without interruption, even if it missed some earlier expected percepts. DERVISH stops and replans when it is no longer on the path because it either has overshot the turn or is actually on a different hallway than previously assumed.” Cumulative percept pairs indicate position as the N-th feature/node along the hallway from a reference.). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Nourbakhsh teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Nourbakhsh explicitly teaches wherein the cumulative quantity of the identified edge pairs corresponding to an integer N indicates that a location of the stopped driving device corresponds to an N-th room from a reference point of a side of a hallway.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include wherein the cumulative quantity of the identified edge pairs corresponding to an integer N indicates that a location of the stopped driving device corresponds to an N-th room from a reference point of a side of a hallway, as taught by Nourbakhsh, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Nourbakhsh, P.3 and P.7]).
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach wherein each edge pair of the identified edge pairs corresponds to two vertical parallel edges spaced apart from each other at a predetermined distance.
Borenstein does teach wherein each edge pair of the identified edge pairs corresponds to two vertical parallel edges spaced apart from each other at a predetermined distance. (Ch. 7, p. 174: “long vertical edges, such as doors” (parallel edges spaced by door width). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Borenstein teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Borenstein explicitly teaches wherein each edge pair of the identified edge pairs corresponds to two vertical parallel edges spaced apart from each other at a predetermined distance.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include wherein each edge pair of the identified edge pairs corresponds to two vertical parallel edges spaced apart from each other at a predetermined distance, as taught by Borenstein, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Borenstein, Ch. 7, p. 174-175]).
Regarding Claim 25,
Ebrahimi Afrouzi does not explicitly teach wherein each edge pair of the identified edge pairs corresponds to two vertical side edges of a room door.
Borenstein does teach wherein each edge pair of the identified edge pairs corresponds to two vertical side edges of a room door. (Ch. 7, p. 174: “Most computer vision-based natural landmarks are long vertical edges, such as doors and wall junctions…”). Both Ebrahimi Afrouzi and Borenstein teach methods for autonomous driving Control of a mobile robot and determining whether a driving device (e.g., a mobile robot) reaches a destination. However, Borenstein explicitly teaches wherein each edge pair of the identified edge pairs corresponds to two vertical side edges of a room door.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the autonomous driving Control method of Ebrahimi Afrouzi to also include wherein each edge pair of the identified edge pairs corresponds to two vertical side edges of a room door, as taught by Borenstein, with a reasonable expectation of success. Doing so improves the efficiency of an autonomous mobile robot reaching its destination (With regard to this reasoning, see at least [Borenstein, Ch. 7, p. 174-175]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AHMED ALKIRSH whose telephone number is (703) 756-4503. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00 am-5:00 pm EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, FADEY JABR can be reached on (571) 272-1516. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/AA/Examiner, Art Unit 3668
/Fadey S. Jabr/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3668
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