DETAILED ACTION
Election/Restrictions
Claims 11-17 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 9 January 2026. NOTE: The previous Office Action inadvertently examined the non-elected claims 11-17. Therefore, the current Office Action is also Non-Final.
Claim Objections
Claims 4 and 5 are objected to because of the following informalities: the phrase “of a cleaning program” should be added after the word “selection” in line 1 of both claims. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claims 1, 3 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Taylor et al. (2006/0020369).
Regarding claim 1, Taylor discloses a floor cleaning device that has at least one housing (150), at least one cleaning tool (104), and at least one sensor for capturing vibrations (optional vibration detector; paragraph 31), wherein the floor cleaning device is designed and set up to move autonomously in a cleaning environment and to perform cleaning tasks, with Taylor disclosing at least the following method steps for operating a floor cleaning device are included: capturing at least one vibration measurement value with the sensor during operation of the floor cleaning device (detecting level of particulates with the vibration sensor; paragraph 31); comparing the vibration measurement value with at least one reference value (the disclosure in paragraph 29 that a high level will result in more thorough cleaning and a low level will result in less thorough cleaning, requires the resulting value to be compared to some reference value or range of values to determine whether the detected level is high or low compared to the reference value); and adjusting at least one contact parameter between the cleaning tool and a surface to be cleaned depending on the result of the comparison (paragraph 29 also references changing the speed, direction and overlap of the cleaner in response to the detected level, wherein the speed and direction of contact may be considered to be contact parameters).
Regarding claim 3, the previously discussed method step of changing the speed, direction and overlap of the cleaner in response to the detected level is considered to be equivalent to the step of selecting a cleaning program (changing the speed, direction, path and/or overlap of the cleaner would all be programmed functions) from a plurality of cleaning programs (must have at least programs for normal, high and low levels of detected debris) depending on the contact parameter present after adjusting and operating the floor cleaning device with the selected cleaning program (the contact parameter is modified in response to the detected value, such that the selection of the program is in response to the detected values and the contact parameter; i.e. if a detected value would result in a need for more thorough cleaning, the program that provides the necessary contact parameter will be selected to provide the required parameter that will be present after adjusting the operation, which is understood to be equivalent to the claimed selection of a program, as supported in the disclosure of the current application).
Regarding claim 7, as discussed above, the adjustment of contact parameter(s) takes place in the predefined steps of detecting the level of particulate via the vibration sensor, comparing to a reference value, then selecting the change to the parameter(s).
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 4-6 and 8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Taylor et al. (2006/0020369).
Regarding claim 4, as discussed supra, Taylor selects a cleaning program that includes modifying the parameter of speed, direction and/or overlap based on the detected dirt levels, wherein the entire point of detecting and modifying cleaning parameters is to effectively complete cleaning. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to also take into account whether the contact parameter was reduced or increased to the extent that a desired cleaning result can be achieved with the contact parameter present after the adjustment for the type of surface to be cleaned (effectively, the desired output for a selected program would modify the parameter(s) to the extent that a desired cleaning can be achieved).
Regarding claim 5, as previously discussed, the options disclosed by Taylor for adjusting the cleaning parameter include reducing the speed of the robot and the robot cleaner backing up (paragraph 29), wherein it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to optionally provide more than one parameter change to make the cleaning function more thorough. For instance, reducing speed and backing up the cleaner simultaneously would be equivalent to selecting a cleaning program in which at least one predetermined location in the cleaning environment is passed over at least twice (by backing up over a location after passing over it first) if the contact parameter (speed) was reduced in the adjustment and/or if the contact parameter falls below a predetermined threshold value.
Regarding claim 6, when the parameter change is selected to back the robot up, as discussed supra, the passing over twice will take place in differing directions.
Regarding claim 8, each operation of the floor cleaning device starts with at least one predetermined (default) contact parameter, and it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to perform the steps of capturing, comparing and adjusting are repeatedly (at multiple spots along the surface being cleaned and/or at the same spot previously detected to determine if the parameters need further adjustment and/or if the previously detected area has been cleaned completely) until the vibration measurement value falls below a threshold value or falls within a tolerance range (for instance, when a high level of particulate is detected, and the robot is instructed to back up for additional cleaning, the sensor will take additional/repeated readings to detect if the level of particulate has properly been reduced/removed).
Claims 1, 2, 7 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Tan (CN 113693514).
Regarding claim 1, Tan discloses a floor cleaning device that has at least one housing (1), at least one cleaning tool (4), and at least one sensor for capturing vibrations (“jolty vibration sensing assembly; second to last full paragraph of English language translation page 10), wherein the floor cleaning device is designed and set up to move autonomously in a cleaning environment and to perform cleaning tasks, with Taylor disclosing at least the following method steps for operating a floor cleaning device are included: capturing at least one vibration measurement value with the sensor during operation of the floor cleaning device (second to last full paragraph of English language translation page 10); comparing the vibration measurement value with at least one reference value (the previously cited disclosure indicates that when the vibration sensor detects that the cleaning robot has a toss or vibration, it can judge that the cleaning robot has left a first region, wherein the cleaner will typically experience some toss or vibration during any use, such that it would have been obvious to anyone of ordinary skill in the art for the detected toss/vibration to be compared to a reference value above the vibration that would be experienced during normal use, and indicate leaving a first region if the detected toss/vibration value is above a certain threshold, which is common in the art for any type of logic controller as disclosed by Tan); and adjusting at least one contact parameter between the cleaning tool and a surface to be cleaned depending on the result of the comparison (page 10 of the English language translation indicates that the cleaning assembly will be set to a lifted or lowered state depending on which area the cleaner is in, such the contact parameter of being in contact with the surface or not will be adjusted in response to the vibration measurement).
Regarding claim 2, as discussed above, when the contact parameter or Tan that is varied is the contact with the surface, the parameter will also vary for contact force and contact area (zero for a raised positioned and a value above zero for contact/lowered position for both).
Regarding claim 7, as discussed above, the adjustment of contact parameter(s) takes place in the predefined steps of detecting the level of particulate via the vibration sensor, comparing to a reference value, then selecting the change to the parameter(s).
Regarding claim 9, Tan further discloses each operation of the floor cleaning device starts with at least one predetermined contact parameter, and in that the steps of capturing, comparing and adjusting are performed repeatedly (English language translation page 8 indicates that the detection device can detect the cleaning device at a second travel distance or time and that the second value is compared to a threshold value to output a fourth detection result, suggesting that the values are detected at set distances, which would be equivalent to a predetermined zone, and/or for a predetermined time) until the vibration measurement value falls below a threshold value or falls within a tolerance range (as well as after the vibration measurement value falls below a threshold value or falls within a tolerance range).
Regarding claim 10, as discussed above, when the method step of detecting and comparing is performed at time intervals, the steps of capturing and comparing will be repeated at predetermined times.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Each of Leinhos et al. (2017/0371341), Xu et al. (2022/0047141) and Strang et al. (2023/0135649) disclose similar cleaning methods to the applicant’s claimed invention.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRYAN R MULLER whose telephone number is (571)272-4489. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm.
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/BRYAN R MULLER/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3723 2 July 2026
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