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 .
Status of Claims
This Office Action is in response to the amendment filed on October 24, 2025. Claims 1, 3-8, 10-15, 17-19 and 23 are pending. Claims 1 and 23 are independent.
Response to Arguments
Applicants’ amendments and arguments have been fully considered. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 3-8, 10-15, 17-19 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Publication No. 20180202129 to Fujii et al. (hereinafter “Fujii”).
Claim(s) 1, 3-8, 10-15, 17-19 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Fujii.
With respect to independent claims 1, 8, 15 and 23, Fujii discloses (a) acquiring information pertaining to a deposition state of an object deposited (see paragraph [0039]: The acquisition unit 62 acquires a plurality of pieces of the current topographical data 70 indicating a current topography of the work site.);
(b) specifying a destination of the object in an excavation target region, the destination being in accordance with the deposition state (see paragraphs [0063] and [0077]: the navigation controller 40 and the work unit controller 50 may also control the work unit 20 based on the corrected first current topographical data 71 as the current topographical data 70. In this case, since the work unit 20 is controlled based on the first current topographical data 71 having more improved accuracy, the work unit 20 can be controlled accurately. Water content of earth and sand to be working targets in a work site, and geological information such as compositions of soil or rocks may also be used as the parameter information. In this case, the navigation controller 40 stores, in the storage unit 45, for example, the geological information measured by a measuring instrument and the like as the data for each grid area G in a manner correlated to the positional information.); and
(c) instructing an excavator to move the object to the destination (see paragraph [0033]: The work unit controller 50 generates and outputs a work unit command value adapted to control operation of the work unit 20 based on the target blade edge positional data.);
(d) evaluating ease of excavation of the object with reference to the information pertaining to the deposition state (see paragraphs [0034], [0056] and [0070]: As illustrated in FIG. 4, current topographical data 70 is data related to a height position (Z-coordinate) in each grid area G in the case of sectioning the work site into a plurality of grid areas G in the X-direction and Y-direction of the global coordinate system. The grid area G is set to have a square shape, for example, but not limited thereto, and may have other shapes such as a rectangle, a parallelogram, and a triangle. The adjustment unit 66 calculates differences for a plurality of grid areas G belonging to the respective angle groups in a similar manner as the arithmetic unit 64 does, and calculates an average value or a center value of the differences. The measuring method for the current topographical data 70 set as the first current topographical data 71 and the measuring method for the current topographical data 70 set as the second current topographical data 72 are preliminarily determined, and the setting unit 63 sets the first current topographical data 71 and the second current topographical data 72 based on the methods by which the current topographical data 70 is measured, but not limited thereto. For example, the setting unit 63 may set the first current topographical data 71 and the second current topographical data 72 based on a command or input by an operator.); and
(e) controlling the excavator to move an arm of the excavator to move the object (see paragraph [0063]: the work unit controller 50 may also control the work unit 20 based on the corrected first current topographical data 71 as the current topographical data 70. In this case, since the work unit 20 is controlled based on the first current topographical data 71 having more improved accuracy, the work unit 20 can be controlled accurately. Furthermore, since the work unit 20 can surely excavate the ground of a work site, so-called missed swing of the blade 21 can be avoided.), wherein in
(b), the destination is specified with reference to the ease of excavation (see paragraph [0063]: the correction unit 65 corrects the first current topographical data 71 based on the derived estimated error function F1 (Step ST60). After that, the navigation controller 40 and the work unit controller 50 may also control the work unit 20 based on the corrected first current topographical data 71 as the current topographical data 70. In this case, since the work unit 20 is controlled based on the first current topographical data 71 having more improved accuracy, the work unit 20 can be controlled accurately.).
With respect to dependent claims 3, 10 and 17, Fujii discloses wherein the information pertaining to the deposition state includes a height of the object and information pertaining to a gradient of the height of the object, and in (d), the ease of excavation is evaluated with reference to the height of the object and the gradient of the height of the object (see paragraphs [0044] and [0054]: The arithmetic unit 64 calculates, for each of the grid areas G, a height data difference between the first current topographical data 71 and the second current topographical data 72 at the same position in a grid area G. A plurality of height data differences calculated for each of the grid areas G is stored in the storage unit 45 as difference data 82. The blade edge 21 p of the blade 21 can be prevented from separating from the ground at the time of automatically controlling the work unit 20. For example, in the case of automatically controlling the work unit 20 based on the first current topographical data 71 in a grid area G including no second current topographical data 72 and including only the first current topographical data 71, the correction unit 65 revises height data of the first current topographical data 71 by an estimated error amount.).
With respect to dependent claims 4, 11 and 18, Fujii discloses wherein in (d), the ease of excavation is evaluated with reference to an evaluation value concerning an average gradient of the height in an excavation range and an evaluation value concerning an average height at a far position in the excavation range and an average height in the excavation target region (see paragraph [0054]: The correction unit 65 corrects the first current topographical data 71 based on the estimated error function F1 found in the arithmetic unit 64. Meanwhile, the correction unit 65 may also correct the first current topographical data 71 only in the case where a value of the first current topographical data 71 becomes smaller before and after correction. In this case, the value of the current topographical data 71 can be prevented from becoming larger than an actual current topography. Therefore, the blade edge 21 p of the blade 21 can be prevented from separating from the ground at the time of automatically controlling the work unit 20. For example, in the case of automatically controlling the work unit 20 based on the first current topographical data 71 in a grid area G including no second current topographical data 72 and including only the first current topographical data 71, the correction unit 65 revises height data of the first current topographical data 71 by an estimated error amount.).
With respect to dependent claims 5, 12 and 19, Fujii discloses wherein in (b), among a plurality of destination candidates, a destination candidate for which a result of evaluation of the ease of excavation in (d) is relatively low is specified as the destination (see paragraph [0040] and [0064]: Accuracy, a range including data, and the like of the plurality of pieces of current topographical data 70 acquired by the acquisition unit 62 may be varied by a measuring method and the like. For example, current topographical data 70 acquired by performing measurement by making a vehicle travel in the work site has low measurement accuracy because a travel speed during the measurement is fast. The bulldozer 100 newly travels in a grid area G not including so far highly-accurate second current topographical data 72 and including only relatively low-accurate first current topographical data 71 and then new second current topographical data 72 is generated for this grid area G, the adjustment unit 66 may perform processing to update the estimated error function F1. In this case, the adjustment unit 66 updates the estimated error amount based on the difference data 82 of the first current topographical data 71 from the second current topographical data 72.).
With respect to dependent claims 6 and 13, Fujii discloses wherein the destination of the object is a position at which a height of the object in the excavation target region is lower than at another position (see paragraph [0034]: current topographical data 70 is data related to a height position (Z-coordinate) in each grid area G in the case of sectioning the work site into a plurality of grid areas G in the X-direction and Y-direction of the global coordinate system. Meanwhile, the current topographical data 70 is only needed to be the data related to height data of any position in a grid area G, and for example, may be height data at a center position of a grid area G or may also be height data at four corners of a grid area G.).
With respect to dependent claims 7 and 14, Fujii discloses wherein the excavation target region is a region in which the object is deposited and in which excavation is capable of being carried out (see paragraphs [0032] and [0077]: The navigation controller 40 generates, for example, a virtual target ground surface on which the current topography indicated by the current topographical data is offset downward by a predetermined distance, and generates the target blade edge positional data such that the blade edge 21 p conforms to the virtual target ground surface. Water content of earth and sand to be working targets in a work site, and geological information such as compositions of soil or rocks may also be used as the parameter information.).
Conclusion
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/DEMETRA R SMITH-STEWART/Examiner, Art Unit 3661
/PETER D NOLAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3661