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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claims 1-9 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.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 11/15/2025.
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 21 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by KOMURA US 2018/0281547 A1.
Regarding claims 21, KOMURA discloses
Outdoor power equipment comprising: a left drive motor (fig. 1, item 12Af) configured to operate a left drive wheel (item 18Lf) on a left side of the outdoor power equipment; a right drive motor (item 12Ar) configured to operate a right drive wheel (item 18Rr) on a right side of the outdoor power equipment [0079, 0084]; a sensor (items 32 and 34 together to estimate Δϕi) configured to detect an incline of a surface over which the outdoor power equipment is travelling [0085]; and at least one drive motor controller (item 14) communicatively coupled to the sensor and configured to control the left drive motor and the right drive motor, the at least one drive motor controller configured to: receive the detected incline from the sensor; determine a roll angle (ϕi-ϕ) of the outdoor power equipment based on the detected incline; and operate the left drive motor at a left drive speed and the right drive motor at a right drive speed based on the roll angle [0066-0069,0083,0084,0085,0086, 0103, 0104, 0110] (It should be noted that the control unit 14 calculates different target rotation angles. Fig. 8 shows two different angular velocities profile for left and right motors or actuators).
Regarding claim 23, KOMURA discloses
, wherein the sensor comprises an accelerometer or a gyroscope [0085].
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.
Claim 22 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KOMURA US 2018/0281547 A1.
Regarding claim 22, KOMURA does not explicitly say “wherein at least one motor drive controller includes a left drive motor controller configured to control the left drive motor and a right drive motor controller configured to control the right drive motor.” However, KOMURA discloses one motor drive controller for both the motors. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to us multiple motor drive controllers in KOMURA’s teachings to provide better safety and redundancy.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 24-29 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Claims 24 and 27 disclose details about using an user input.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Pursifull et al. (US 2018/0244310 A1) disclose control of a steering of a vehicle.
Bucher (US 2005/0217230 A1) a lawnmower having a tilt sensor.
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/BICKEY DHAKAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2896