DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s) an information processing system for acquiring order information, generating works, setting a work group, a group field, and a work attribute, and transmitting to a target robot a message to the robot, which is a mental process. See MPEP §2106.04(a)(2)(III). This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application because the claim generally appends well-understood, routine, conventional activities previously known to the industry, specified at a high level of generality,
The claim(s) does/do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception because the steps of causing the target robot to determine an action associated with the work station when considered separately and in combination amounts to a well-understood, routine, conventional activities previously known to the industry. MPEP §2106.05(d).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4-6, 9-10, and 12-14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Zhou, Hongxia (US PG. Pub. 2024/0086840, also published as CN 113 177 827 A, the US publication is cited in this action). Relative to claims 1-2, 4-6, 9-10, and 12, Zhou discloses:
claim 1) acquiring order information including a plurality of item orders (Para. 0122; 0124);
generating, based on the order information, a plurality of works (task allocation system determines tasks based on allocated order information, Para. 0144-0145);
setting a work group including at least one of the generated plurality of works (orders are grouped into batches, Para. 0137, 0131);
setting, for the work group, a group field including a work attribute (group field may be group of allocated orders of a particular type to target workstation having an attribute, orders are allocated according to attribute of workstation, Para. 0120, 0137); and
transmitting, to a target robot (30) and based on an amount of work assigned to a workstation (20) being less than a threshold value, a message including an attribute of the workstation to cause the target robot (30) to determine an action associated with the work station (transmitting to message including the attribute of the workstation, 20, and causing the robot to determine an action associated with the workstation is inherently included. Terminal equipment 10 selects robots (30) and instructs the selected robots to pick items from storage and transport the items to a particular workstation 20, Para. 0111; allocated orders are transported by the robot 30 to the workstation 20 if the workstation 20 has orders less than a preset value, i.e, less than threshold value, Para. 0125; orders are moved, by the robots 30 to workstations 20 having an attribute according to instructions, Para. 0137);
claim 2) after the setting the group field,
determining the target robot (30) from among a plurality of robots (Para. 0107, 0111); and
transmitting, to the target robot (30), work data related to the work group (inherently included, robot is sent work data such as picking instructions and other tasks for retrieving and placing containers, including order-receiving strategies, Para. 0106-0107);
claim 4) the transmitting the message comprises:
after the transmitting the work data to the target robot (30), transmitting the message (Para. 0107, 0111), and the method further comprises causing the target robot (30) to transfer, in response to the message, an item to the work station (20)(Para. 0107; 0111; 0127; 0137; 0140), and an attribute of the item is related to the attribute of the work station (attribute of items may be item size, type, brand, weight, Para. 0115; 0143);
claim 5) the setting the work group comprises:
identifying an attribute of each item included in the order information (Para. 0115; 0143); and
setting, based on the identified attribute, at least one of the plurality of works in the work group (Para. 0115; 0143), the setting the group field comprises:
based on a determination that an attribute of an item associated with the work
group is related to the work attribute, setting the group field for the work group (Para. 0120, 0127);
claim 6) the setting the work group comprises setting, in the work group, at least one of the plurality of works related to a same buyer (Para. 0155);
claim 9) the setting the work group comprises:
identifying a location at which a work is to be performed (work is performed at target workstation 20; Para. 0121-0122); and
based on the identified location, setting the work group including at least one of the plurality of works (Para. 0136; 0145);
claim 10) the identifying the location at which the work is performed comprises:
identifying a storage location of an item related to the work (inherently included, robot is instructed to pick items from storage location in warehouse region; Para. 0111); and
identifying the identified storage location as the location at which the work is to be performed (robot performs retrieving task of picking items at storage location in warehouse, Para. 0111); and
claim 12) the generating the plurality of works
comprises: identifying a storage location of each item included in the order information (inherently included, Para. 0111); and generating a work for each identified storage location (Para. 0111; 0106; 0145).
Relative to claim 13, the disclosure of Zhou includes:
An information processing system comprising:
one or more processors (included in terminal equipment 10; Para. 0107; Para. 0205); and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the information processing system to (included in Ref. 10; Para. 0107; 0122)(Fig. 2):
acquire order information including a plurality of item orders (Para. 0107),
generate, based on the order information, a plurality of works (Para. 0144-0145);
set a work group including at least one of the generated plurality of works) (orders to be picked are grouped into batches, Para. 0137, 0131);
set, for the work group, a group field including a work attribute (group field may be group of allocated orders of a particular type to target workstation having an attribute, orders are allocated according to attribute of workstation, Para. 0120, 0137); and
transmit, to a target robot (30) and based on an amount of work assigned to a workstation being less than a threshold value, a message including an attribute of the workstation (20) to cause the target robot (30) to determine an action associated with the work station (Terminal equipment 10 selects robots (30) and instructs the selected robots to pick items from storage and transport the items to a particular workstation 20, Para. 0111; allocated orders are transported by the robot 30 to the workstation 20 if the workstation 20 has orders less than a preset value, i.e, less than threshold value, Para. 0125; orders are moved, by the robots 30 to workstations 20 having an attribute according to instructions, Para. 0137).
Relative to claim 14 the disclosure of Zhou includes:
A method performed by one or more processors (Para. 0205), the method comprising:
acquiring order information including a plurality of item orders (Para. 0107; 0115), each of the plurality of item orders includes associated item attributes (Para. 0115);
generating, based on the plurality of item orders, a plurality of works (Para. 0144-0145);
grouping, based on item attributes, the generated plurality of works into a plurality of work groups (Para. 0137, 0131, orders are grouped into batches), each work group of the plurality of work groups includes works having a same item attribute or compatible item attributes (Para. 0120; 0136; 0143);
assigning a work attribute to each of the plurality of work groups (Para. 0137);
allocating the plurality of works to a plurality of robots (Para. 0111);
measuring an amount of work to be processed at a specific work station of a plurality of work stations (see quantity of orders, Para. 0125; 0135);
based on the measured amount of work being less than a threshold value (Para. 0125), transmitting a message including an attribute of the specific work station to the plurality of robots (30)(transmitting the message is performed by the terminal equipment 10, a message including an attribute is inherently included in the instruction, Para. 0111), the attribute of the specific work station (20) indicates information related to characteristics of a subsequent work to be performed at the specific work station (Para. 0140; 0143), and the attribute of the specific work station (20) has at least one associated work attribute (Para. 0140; 0143; for instance, an attribute of a workstation may be that is has storage positions for large goods, 0136-0137); and
causing a specific robot (30) of the plurality of robots to move, in response to the message, to the specific work station (20)(Para. 0111), the specific robot (30) that moves to the specific work station (20) is a robot assigned a work having a work attribute associated with the attribute of the specific work station (20)(inherently included, robot is assigned a picking task to pick a certain type of item associated with a target workstation, Para. 0144; 0111).
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou in view of Yu et al (US PG. Pub. 2024/0208731). Relative to claim 3, Zhou discloses all claim limitations mentioned above, but does not expressly disclose:
the determining the target robot comprises determining the target robot based on at least one of: a work quota of each of the plurality of robots; or a location of each of the plurality of robots.
Yu teaches: the determining the target robot (30) comprises determining the target robot based on at least one of:
a work quota of each of the plurality of robots; or a location of each of the plurality of robots (Para. 0085; 0072), for the purpose of providing a robot-based warehousing system for storing and retrieving goods that can flexibly assign tasks to the robots, reduces travel distance, and improves overall efficiency (Para. 0002; 0005; 0035).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Zhou so that the determining the target robot comprises determining the target robot based on: a work quota of each of the plurality of robots, or a location of each of the plurality of robots described above, as taught in Yu, for the purpose of providing a robot-based warehousing system for storing and retrieving goods that can flexibly assign tasks to the robots, reduces travel distance, and improves overall efficiency.
Claim(s) 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou in view of Yoshitake et al (US PG. Pub. 2019/036,7276). Relative to claim 7, Zhou discloses all claim limitations mentioned above, but does not expressly disclose:
the setting the work group comprises: based on a delivery destination of each item, setting, in the work group, at least one work related to the delivery destination within a predetermined distance.
Yoshitake teaches: based on a delivery destination of each item, setting, in the work group, at least one work related to the delivery destination within a predetermined distance (articles may grouped and moved to the same workstation based on delivery destinations, Para. 0067), for the purpose of providing a technique for controlling an article carrying system that reduces wait times and improves throughput of articles picking work (Para. 0002; 0006; 0008).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art on or before the time of the filing to modify the system of Zhou with the setting, in the work group, at least one work related to the delivery destination within a predetermined distance described above, as taught in Yoshitake, for the purpose of providing a technique for controlling an article carrying system that reduces wait times and improves throughput of articles picking work.
Claim(s) 8 and 11 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou in view of Leonardo et al (US PG. Pub. 2023/0022085). Relative to claims 8 and 11, Zhou discloses all claim limitations mentioned above, but does not expressly disclose:
Claim 8) based on an order shift of an item, setting at least one work group related to a same order shift as a group for the order shift; or
Claim 11) the setting the work group comprises: determining a processing sequence for each of the plurality of works; and
setting, based on the determined processing sequence of each of the plurality of works, the work group.
Leonardo teaches:
Claim 8) based on an order shift of an item, setting at least one work group related to a same order shift as a group for the order shift (pick jobs may be classified during a worker shift, Para. 0046); and
Claim 11) the setting the work group comprises: determining a processing sequence for each of the plurality of works (Para. 0051, system sequences pick jobs); and setting, based on the determined processing sequence of each of the plurality of works, the work group (Para. 0051-0052), for the purpose of providing an improved method of assigning pick jobs to autonomous vehicles that uses pick rate data to allow for more efficient use of the resources at the fulfillment center, thereby enabling faster completion of pick jobs thereby improving the satisfaction of customers and merchants (Para. 0003; 0032).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art on or before the time of the filing to modify the method of Zhou with the determining a processing sequence for each of the plurality of works, and setting at least one work group related to a same order shift as a group for the order shift as taught in Leonardo, for the purpose of providing an improved method of assigning pick jobs to autonomous vehicles that uses pick rate data to allow for more efficient use of the resources at the fulfillment center, thereby enabling faster completion of pick jobs thereby improving the satisfaction of customers and merchants.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Zhang, Shu-min (CN 113 762 820 A): receives multiple orders, and determines order types based on items in the order, transmits tasks to target robots to retrieve and move items to a selected workstation based on the order type or type of item such that same or similar items go to same workstation that is designated for that type of order or item, and determines storage locations from which robots are to retrieve items.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YOLANDA RENEE CUMBESS whose telephone number is (571)270-5527. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ernesto Suarez can be reached at 571-270-5565. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/YOLANDA R CUMBESS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3655