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 .
Claims 1-6 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on April 18, 2023 has been considered by the examiner.
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 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Publication No. 2019/0168380 to Morimura in view of Japanese Patent No. JP2018161692 to Yamada et al. in view of (A machine translation of the Yamada patent is enclosed and referred to herein).
Regarding claim 1, the Morimura publication teaches a system for a workpiece automatic conveyance device configured to deliver a workpiece gripped by a robot-side chuck 33 configured in a robot hand to a partner device, a contact detection device (see paragraph 0051) provided in the robot hand and configured to detect contact at a predetermined portion with the partner device; and a control device configured to calculate a position of the robot hand during the contact based on a contact detection signal from the contact detection device. See paragraph 0051.
However, the Morimura publication lacks a teaching that it is a teaching system that allows for the calculation of the position of the robot hand.
The Yamada patent teaches a learning system for the position of a manipulator that uses calculations to learn or teach the position. See pages 4 and 5 of the translation.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the subject invention to modify the Morimura publication to have the learning or teaching system as taught by Yamada, as it would have been combining known prior art elements using known methods to provide the predictable result of having a more accurate way to calculate the position of the robot hand.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-6 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
U.S. Patent No. 6,519,860 to Beig et al. teaches position sensor with feedback.
U.S. Publication No. 2017/0326701 to Morimura teaches a machine tool.
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/JUSTIN HOLMES/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3655
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