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 .
Response to Amendments
Applicant’s amendments, filed 01/02/2026, have been entered into the record. Applicant’s amendments to the claims overcome the claim objections and rejections under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) set out in the previous office action. Claims 1-3, 7-17, and 19-21 stand rejected. Claim 6 contains allowable subject matter but is objected to as depending upon a rejected claim. Claims 4-5 and 18 were cancelled by the applicant.
Information Disclosure Statement
The IDS filed 01/07/2026 has been considered by the examiner.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s remarks, filed 01/02/2026, have been carefully considered. However, said remarks are moot because the new ground of rejection relies upon a combination using a new reference that was not applied in the prior rejection of record for the limitations specifically challenged in the argument.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 12-17, and 19-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (H. Zhou, Z. Yao and M. Lu, "UWB/Lidar Coordinate Matching Method With Anti-Degeneration Capability," in IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 3344-3352, 1 Feb.1, 2021, doi: 10.1109/JSEN.2020.3023738.) in view of Ray (U.S. Pub. No. 2020/0309897 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Zhou et al. discloses (note: what Zhou does not teach is struck through),
A method for determining the locations of one or more components of a location-determining system in an environment (abs., “This article presents a ultra-wideband (UWB)/Lidar coordinate matching method…” The examiner notes that UWB coordinates come from UWB sensors in the environment. See, e.g., fig. 1), the method comprising: providing a surveying device (fig. 2) comprising: (i) a ranging subsystem comprising a transmitter and a receiver configured to receive signals transmitted by the transmitter and reflected off objects in the environment (p. 3348, section IV, para. 2, “Fig. 2 is our handheld device used in the experiments which consists of…a Lidar sensor…Note that the 3D Lidar SLAM algorithm used in our experiments is the LOAM [15] algorithm.” The examiner notes that the LOAM algorithm is used to generate 3D maps, as can be seen in figs. 3, 6. See also J. Zhang and S. Singh, “LOAM: Lidar odometry and mapping in real-time,” in Proc. Robotics: Sci. Syst. Conf. (RSS), Berkeley, CA, USA. Cambridge, MA, USA : MIT Press, Jan. 2014, pp. 109–111.); and (ii) a communication subsystem configured for transmitting signals to the said one or more components or detecting signals from the said one or more components (p. 3348, section IV, paras. 1-2, “Each UWB anchor is connected to a wireless communication module that uploads the sensor data to a server…Fig. 2 is our handheld device used in the experiments which consists of…a wireless communication module.” The examiner further notes that, per p. 3345, section III, para. 1, the UWB SLAM is provided by peer-to-peer range measurements between UWB nodes, including the UWB anchor on the surveying device); moving the surveying device in the environment whilst operating the ranging subsystem and the communication subsystem (p. 3348, section A, para. 1, “In the first experiment, a person lifted the handheld device from the ground and walked slowly around the pool.”);(p. 3348, section IV, para. 2, “Fig. 2 is our handheld device used in the experiments which consists of a computer…”) to:(p. 3348, section A, para. 2, “…as shown in fig. 3b, the two coordinate systems were matched together after the trajectory matching process and the estimated locations of the UWB sensors under the Lidar global coordinate system were close to what they really were.” The examiner notes that the two coordinate systems are the UWB global coordinate system and the Lidar global coordinate system, as disclosed in the same paragraph. The examiner further notes that the trajectory matching process is being understood as a correlation of the Lidar map with data received from the UWB components).
Ray teaches,
…determining, for a component of the one or more components, a timing offset between a clock of the surveying device and a clock of that component (at least para. 0015, “In accordance with some embodiments, the combined radar/communications system further comprises: a timing correlation module which is configured to extract timing information from respective timing headers in packets received from at least three transmitting platforms using correlation; a position demodulation module which is configured to extract position information from respective position predictions in the packets received from the at least three transmitting platforms using demodulation; and a time and position calculation module which is configured to compute the local position and time offset of the combined radar/communications system using the timing and position information received from the at least three transmitting platforms. The local position data is included in the packet of data transmitted by the common radar/communications transmitter. The time offset is used to adjust a local clock.”); and causing one or more processors to: in dependence of the determined timing offset, correlate information collected by the ranging subsystem with data received by or from the one or more components to determine the positions of the one or more components (at least 0105, “A computer system onboard the aircraft 46a is configured to compute the local position and time offset of the radar system 48a using the timing and position information received from the radar systems 48b-48d. The time offset is used to adjust a local clock onboard the aircraft 46a. The computed local position of aircraft 46a may be used to compute the distance separating aircraft 46a from any one of the other three aircraft 46b-46d.” See also fig. 19, communications Rx system Is used to set system clock 80, which is in turn used in cooperative radar processing, specifically the demod/remod filter that separates out radar returns from communication information to support accurate ranging. See also fig. 10 and para. 01015, “The computed local position of aircraft 46a may be used to compute the distance separating aircraft 46a from any one of the other three aircraft 46b-46d. With cooperating FMCW radar systems at known distances, some of these returns could be filtered using a demod/remod filter, as will be described in more detail below with reference to FIG. 17B.”).
Zhou and Ray are analogous to the claimed invention because they are in the same field of endeavor. It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Zhou with the timing-offset determination of Ray. Determining timing offset between two devices in a communication system is a common technique in the art for accurately determining distances between objects. Thus, incorporating a timing-offset system like the system of Ray with the combined ranging/communications system of Zhou would be an obvious technique to use to ensure accurate data fusion.
Regarding claim 12, Zhou et al. in view of Ray teaches the method of claim 1. Zhou et al. further discloses,
…wherein the surveying device moves autonomously (p. 3347, last line-3348, first line, “Additionally, if the robot equipped with the Lidar sensor and the mobile UWB sensor moves slowly...” The examiner notes that, per p. 3344, section I, para. 1, UWB/Lidar SLAM disclosed in the reference is explicitly for “truly autonomous robots”).
Regarding claim 13, Zhou et al. in view of Ray teaches the method as claimed in claim 1. Zhou et al. further teaches,
…wherein: the one or more components are sensors configured to receive signals from a transmitter attached to the surveying device; the one or more components are transmitters configured to transmit signals to a sensor attached to the surveying device; or the one or more components are passive markers configured to reflect signals to a detector attached to the surveying device (p. 3345, section III(A), para. 1, “In our proposed scheme, one UWB sensor is located at the origin of the Lidar body frame and the other UWB anchors are placed at unknown locations. The peer-to-peer range measurements are provided by each pair of UWB nodes.” The examiner notes that UWB sensors and anchors receive and transmit signals).
Regarding claim 14, Zhou et al. in view of Ray teaches the method of claim 1. Zhou et al. further discloses,
…wherein: the positions of the one or more components are determined absolutely; or the positions of the one or more components are determined relatively (fig. 3, caption, “Views of the UWB sensor locations under the Lidar global coordinate system. The green dots represent the positions of the UWB sensors.” The examiner notes that, per the final paragraph of section I, the Lidar global coordinate system has an origin at the geometric center of the Lidar sensor at time t = 0, thus indicating that the UWB sensor positions are determined relative to the geometric center of the Lidar sensor at an initial time).
Regarding claim 15, Zhou et al. in view of Ray teaches the method of claim 14. Zhou et al. further discloses,
…wherein the positions of the one or more components are determined relatively with reference to one of the components of the location-determining system or with reference to a starting location of the surveying device (fig. 3, caption, “Views of the UWB sensor locations under the Lidar global coordinate system. The green dots represent the positions of the UWB sensors.” The examiner notes that, per the final paragraph of section I, the Lidar global coordinate system has an origin at the geometric center of the Lidar sensor at time t = 0, thus indicating that the UWB sensor positions are determined relative to the geometric center of the Lidar sensor at an initial time).
Regarding claim 16, Zhou et al. in view of Ray teaches the method of claim 1. Zhou et al. further discloses,
…further comprising providing a user interface (p. 3348, section IV, para. 2, “Fig. 2 is our handheld device used in the experiments which consists of a computer (Intel NUC8i7h), a Lidar sensor (Velodyne VLP16), a wireless communication module and a display screen.”) via which a user can verify or adjust the determined positions of the one or more components (fig. 4, noting that determining the error of the point pairs with/without the anti-degeneration algorithm requires knowledge of both the actual and measured positions of the UWB sensors).
Regarding claim 17, Zhou et al. in view of Ray teaches the method of claim 1. Zhou et al. further discloses,
…wherein the signals are radio signals (p. 3345, section III(A), para. 1, “…the other UWB anchors are placed at unknown locations.” The examiner notes that UWB anchors transmit and receive radio signals).
Regarding claim 19, Zhou et al. in view of Ray teaches the method of claim 1. Zhou et al. further discloses,
…wherein the method is for determining the locations of two or more components of the location-determining system in the environment, the communication subsystem is configured for transmitting signals to the said two or more components or detecting signals from the said two or more components (p. 3345, section III(A), para. 1, “In our proposed scheme, one UWB sensor is located at the origin of the Lidar body frame and the other UWB anchors are placed at unknown locations. The peer-to-peer range measurements are provided by each pair of UWB nodes.” The examiner notes that UWB sensors and anchors receive and/or transmit signals), and the one or more processors are caused to correlate information collected by the ranging subsystem with data received by or from the two or more components to determine the positions of the two or more components (fig. 3, showing the positions of the UWB sensors on the Lidar map).
Regarding claim 20, the same cited section and rationale as claim 1 is applied.
Regarding claim 21, the same cited section and rationale as claim 1 is applied.
Claims 2-3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. in view of Ray as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Yavari et al. (Yavari, M. and Nickerson, B.G. (2014, March 27). Ultra wideband wireless positioning systems. [Technical report, University of New Brunswick].
Regarding claim 2, Zhou et al. discloses a method as claimed in claim 1. Zhou et al. further discloses (note: what Zhou et al. does not further disclose is struck through),
…wherein the correlating step comprises comparing, over time, one or more (p. 3347, section C, para., 4, “In the first step, m, m ≥ 4 points are sampled from the estimated trajectory of the Lidar sensor provided by the Lidar SLAM to the columns of XL. The coordinates of the same points estimated by the UWB SLAM are ascribed to the columns of XU”.).
That is, Zhou et al. discloses determining UWB node positions based on signals they transmit, but is silent as to how said signals are used to determine UWB node positions. Yavari et al. discloses determining the positions of UWB nodes by comparing signal characteristics of the signals sent by the nodes (p. 8, para. 1, “In the two-step approach, positioning is based on parameters extracted from the signal…the two-step approach imposes less complexity and is close in performance to the direct approach, so the two step approach is more prevalent in practice.”).
Zhou et al. and Yavari et al. are both analogous to the claimed invention because they are both in the same field of endeavor, namely UWB positioning. It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use signal characteristics to determine the position of UWB nodes, as Yavari et al. does, in the invention of Zhou et al. because the signal characteristic approach of Yavari et al. is less complex and has similar performance quality to the direct approach (see Yavari, p. 8, para. 1).
Regarding claim 3, Zhou et al. in view of Ray and further in view of Yavari et al. discloses the method of claim 2. Zhou et al. is silent as to how UWB node positions are extracted from the UWB nodes, and therefore does not teach,
…wherein the one or more signal characteristics comprise one or more of: a time at which a signal is received by or from the one or more components, a time-of-flight of a signal received by or from the one or more components, a time difference of arrival of a signal received at two different receivers, and a direction from which a signal is received by or from the one or more components
Yavari et al. teaches,
…wherein the one or more signal characteristics comprise one or more of: a time at which a signal is received by or from the one or more components, a time-of-flight of a signal received by or from the one or more components, a time difference of arrival of a signal received at two different receivers, and a direction from which a signal is received by or from the one or more components (pp. 10-15 disclose methods of determining UWB position using time of arrival, time difference of arrival, and angle of arrival positioning methods. Additionally, p. 36 discloses a time-of-flight calculation, “Consequently, each of the nodes has an estimate of the round trip time, Tr, and turn around time, Tta.”).
It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use one or more of the above signal characteristics to determine the position of UWB nodes, as Yavari et al. does, in the invention of Zhou et al. because the signal characteristic approach of Yavari et al. is less complex and has similar performance quality to the direct approach (see Yavari, p. 8, para. 1). Furthermore, the listed techniques are common techniques in the art that a skilled inventor would be well aware of.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. in view of Ray as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Song et al. (Y. Song, M. Guan, W. P. Tay, C. L. Law and C. Wen, "UWB/LiDAR Fusion For Cooperative Range-Only SLAM," 2019 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, QC, Canada, 2019, pp. 6568-6574, doi: 10.1109/ICRA.2019.8794222.).
Regarding claim 7, Zhou et al. in view of Ray discloses the method of claim 1. Zhou et al. does not disclose,
…wherein the correlating step further comprises determining, for a component of the one or more components, at least one aspect of the orientation of that component.
Song et al. discloses,
…wherein the correlating step further comprises determining, for a component of the one or more components, at least one aspect of the orientation of that component (p. 6570, “construct/update LiDAR map as well as UWB map using…beacons’ pose estimates.” The examiner notes that the beacons’ pose estimates are understood to include their orientations, since pose refers to the six-dimensional position and orientation of the beacon).
Song et al. is analogous to the claimed invention because it is in the same field of endeavor, namely UWB/LIDAR fusion for SLAM. It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhou et al. with the orientation sensor of Song et al. because the pose of the beacon affects its measurement position in UWB ranging, and is therefore useful to know in correlating UWB and LIDAR maps. See, e.g., the discussion in section I, paras. 1-2 of Song et al. regarding the accumulated errors due to incorrect measurements of a robot’s pose.
Claims 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. in view of Ray and further in view of Song et al. as applied to claim 7 above, and further in view of Van de Velde (Van de Velde, S. (2019, Feb. 7). How ultra-wideband indoor positioning creates new artistic experiences. Pozyx. https://www.pozyx.io/newsroom/how-uwb-indoor-positioning-creates-new-artistic-experiences.).
Regarding claim 8, Zhou et al. in view of Ray and further in view of Song et al. teaches a method as claimed in claim 7. Zhou et al. does not teach,
wherein the correlating step comprises determining the yaw aspect of the orientation of that component.
Song et al. teaches (note: what Song et al. does not teach is struck through),
wherein the correlating step comprises determining
Van de Velde teaches determining the yaw aspect of the orientation of a component in a UWB beacon system (p. 3, para. 8).
Van de Velde is analogous to the claimed invention because it is in the same field of endeavor. It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhou et al. with the orientation sensor of Song et al. for the reasons disclosed above with respect to claim 7. Further modifying the invention of Zhou et al. with the determination of the yaw aspect of orientation of Van de Velde would be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art because, although Song et al.’s pose determination is silent as to the specific aspects of the pose that are determined, roll, pitch, and yaw are the most common methods of describing a pose measurement.
Regarding claim 9, Zhou et al. in view of Ray and further in view of Song et al. teaches a method as claimed in claim 7. Zhou et al. does not teach,
…wherein the roll and/or pitch aspects of the orientation of that component are determined by an orientation sensor associated with that component.
Song et al. does not teach,
…wherein the roll and/or pitch aspects of the orientation of that component are determined by an orientation sensor associated with that component.
Van de Velde teaches using an orientation sensor to determine the roll and/or pitch aspects of the orientation of a component in a UWB beacon system (p. 3, para. 8).
It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhou et al. with the orientation sensor of Song et al. for the reasons disclosed above with respect to claim 7. Further modifying the invention of Zhou et al. with the determination of the yaw aspect of orientation of Van de Velde would be obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art because, although Song et al.’s pose determination is silent as to the specific aspects of the pose that are determined, roll, pitch, and yaw are the most common methods of describing a pose measurement.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. in view of Ray as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Leeper et al.
Regarding claim 10, Zhou et al. teaches a method as claimed in claim 1. Zhou et al. does not teach,
…wherein the correlating step further comprises determining, for a component of the one or more components of the location-determining system, a timing offset between that component and another component of the location-determining system, said timing offset being due to signal propagation delays in a network used to synchronise a clock comprised by the component and a clock comprised by said another component
Leeper et al. teaches,
…wherein the correlating step further comprises determining, for a component of the one or more components of the location-determining system, a timing offset between that component and another component of the location-determining system, said timing offset being due to signal propagation delays in a network used to synchronise a clock comprised by the component and a clock comprised by said another component (para. 0052, “In blocks 414 and 416, respectively, the ranging agents 112, 114 of the devices 102, 104 exchange the recorded transmit and receive strobe times, from which signal propagation delay (tp) and timing offset (to) may be calculated.”).
It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Zhou et al. as modified by Yavari et al. with the clock timing offset determination of Leeper et al. because clock timing offset is a known source of error in UWB positioning (see, e.g., Yavari, p. 36). Leeper et al.’s method mitigates this error by determining the timing offset.
Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. in view of Ray as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Gong et al. (S. Gong, H. Liu, Y. Hu and J. Zhang, "ROS-based object localization using RFID and laser scan," 2012 IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation, Shenyang, China, 2012, pp. 406-411, doi: 10.1109/ICInfA.2012.6246839.).
Regarding claim 11, Zhou et al. in view of Ray discloses a method as claimed in claim 1. Zhou et al. further discloses (note: what Zhou et al. does not disclose is struck through),
…forming a three-dimensional map of the environment using the information collected by the ranging subsystem (p. 3348, section IV, para. 2, “Fig. 2 is our handheld device used in the experiments which consists of…a Lidar sensor…Note that the 3D Lidar SLAM algorithm used in our experiments is the LOAM [15] algorithm.” The examiner notes that the LOAM algorithm is used to generate 3D maps, as can be seen in figs. 3, 6. See also J. Zhang and S. Singh, “LOAM: Lidar odometry and mapping in real-time,” in Proc. Robotics: Sci. Syst. Conf. (RSS), Berkeley, CA, USA. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, Jan. 2014, pp. 109–111.), and refining the determined locations of the one or more components by, for at least one of the components: forming an initial determination of that component's position (p. 3346, para. 2, “…we use the classic MDS algorithm to initialize the UWB positions”);
Gong et al. discloses,
…refining the determined locations of the one or more components by, for at least one of the components: forming an initial determination of that component's position (section III(B), “While the antenna carried by mobile robot detects a RFID tag, our system will record a position of the robot and estimate the existing area of the object.”); and searching the three-dimensional map in at least the region of that initially determined position for a shape corresponding to the shape of the component (section III(C), “The information store in the RFID tag just include object id. The object information is retrieved from a database according the object id. As our software architecture mentioned, the semantic information of object can guide the robot to choose a suitable feature extraction algorithm to further detect the object.” The examiner notes that Table 1 shows that shape is one piece of object information that is used, and, per section III(D), the shape of the object is used to determine its location with the laser rangefinder); and adopting the position of that shape in the three-dimensional map as the determined position of the component (section III(D), “With the certain a circle has detected in the RFID tag existing area, if there is not ambiguous information such as multi-circle in the same existing area. It just make sure the circle which is detected is the flowerpot attached the tag.”).
Gong et al. is analogous to the claimed invention because it is within the same field of endeavor. It would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the UWB/LIDAR fusion of Zhou et al. with the component shape determination of Gong et al. because the use of the LIDAR to determine the shape corresponding to the shape of the component allows for the use of UWB tags as indicators of obstacles in the environment, thus making it easier for the surveying device to move through the environment without hitting said obstacles.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the objections, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
Regarding claim 6, Zhou et al. as modified by Ray, Yavari et al. and Leeper et al. discloses a method as claimed in claim 5, but fails to disclose,
…wherein determining the timing offset between the clock of the surveying device and the clock of the component comprises: maintaining a histogram representing a plurality of estimated timing offsets by, for each estimated timing offset: identifying two instances in time where one or more characteristics of the signals received by or from the component are substantially the same; identifying two instances in time where the location or path trajectory of the surveying device is substantially the same; and in response to determining that a time difference according to the clock comprised by the component between the two signal characteristic instances is substantially equal to a time difference according to the clock comprised by the surveying device between the two location or path trajectory instances, incrementing a bin of the histogram that represents a time difference between the first of the two signal characteristic instances according to the clock of the component and the first of the two location or path trajectory instances according to the clock of the surveying device, that time difference being an estimated timing offset; and determining the timing offset between the clock of the surveying device and the clock of the component in dependence on the maintained histogram.
Ray teaches determining a timing offset between a clock of the surveying device and a clock of the component, but does not teach,
…wherein determining the timing offset between the clock of the surveying device and the clock of the component comprises: maintaining a histogram representing a plurality of estimated timing offsets by, for each estimated timing offset: identifying two instances in time where one or more characteristics of the signals received by or from the component are substantially the same; identifying two instances in time where the location or path trajectory of the surveying device is substantially the same; and in response to determining that a time difference according to the clock comprised by the component between the two signal characteristic instances is substantially equal to a time difference according to the clock comprised by the surveying device between the two location or path trajectory instances, incrementing a bin of the histogram that represents a time difference between the first of the two signal characteristic instances according to the clock of the component and the first of the two location or path trajectory instances according to the clock of the surveying device, that time difference being an estimated timing offset; and determining the timing offset between the clock of the surveying device and the clock of the component in dependence on the maintained histogram.
Yavari et al. discloses a surveying device comprising a clock and a plurality of components comprising a clock, but fails to disclose,
…determining the timing offset between the clock of the surveying device and the clock of the component comprises: maintaining a histogram representing a plurality of estimated timing offsets by, for each estimated timing offset: identifying two instances in time where one or more of the measured characteristics of the signals received by or from the component are substantially the same; identifying two instances in time where the location or path trajectory of the surveying device is substantially the same; and in response to determining that a time difference according to the clock of the component between the two signal characteristic instances is substantially equal to a time difference according to the clock of the surveying device between the two location or path trajectory instances, incrementing a bin of the histogram that represents a time difference between the first of the two signal characteristic instances according to the clock of the component and the first of the two location or path trajectory instances according to the clock of the surveying device, that time difference being an estimated timing offset; and determining the timing offset between the clock of the surveying device and the clock of the component in dependence on the maintained histogram.
Leeper et al. discloses determining the timing offset between the clock of the surveying device and the clock of the component, but fails to disclose,
…determining the timing offset between the clock of the surveying device and the clock of the component comprises: maintaining a histogram representing a plurality of estimated timing offsets by, for each estimated timing offset: identifying two instances in time where one or more of the measured characteristics of the signals received by or from the component are substantially the same; identifying two instances in time where the location or path trajectory of the surveying device is substantially the same; and in response to determining that a time difference according to the clock of the component between the two signal characteristic instances is substantially equal to a time difference according to the clock of the surveying device between the two location or path trajectory instances, incrementing a bin of the histogram that represents a time difference between the first of the two signal characteristic instances according to the clock of the component and the first of the two location or path trajectory instances according to the clock of the surveying device, that time difference being an estimated timing offset; and determining the timing offset between the clock of the surveying device and the clock of the component in dependence on the maintained histogram.
Thus, Ray, Yavari et al. and Leeper et al. fail to correct the deficiencies in Zhou et al.
In reference to independent claim 6, the prior art made of record individually or in any combination, fails to teach, render obvious, or fairly suggest to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing the combination of the claimed features of claim 6. Therefore, claim 6 contains subject matter that is allowable over prior art.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
H. Zhou, Z. Yao and M. Lu, "Lidar/UWB Fusion Based SLAM With Anti-Degeneration Capability," in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 70, no. 1, pp. 820-830, Jan. 2021, doi: 10.1109/TVT.2020.3045767.
Zebra Technologies, Dart UWB Hub and Sensors [spec sheet]. 2013. https://cdn.logic-control.com/docs/zebra-technologies/Mobile%20Computers/Location%20Technologies/Ultra%20Wideband/dsdart-uwbhub-sensors-datasheet-en-us.pdf
J. Zhang and S. Singh, “LOAM: Lidar odometry and mapping in real-time,” in Proc. Robotics: Sci. Syst. Conf. (RSS), Berkeley, CA, USA. Cambridge, MA, USA : MIT Press, Jan. 2014, pp. 109–111.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Vladimir Magloire can be reached at (571) 270-5144. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/Anna K. Gosling/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/VLADIMIR MAGLOIRE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3648
Prosecution Insights