DETAILED ACTION
Claims 1-20 are presented for examination.
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 .
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(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hirshberg (US PG Pub No. 2018/0293067 A1) in view of Onda et al. (US PG Pub No. 2021/0064409 A1).
Hirshberg and Onda were disclosed in IDS dated 09/11/2023.
Regarding claim 1, Hirshberg teaches a computing system for controlling electronic systems of a vehicle, comprising:
a system processing unit that executes multiple virtual machines (VMs) to isolate different services of the vehicle ([0023], wherein a vehicle includes two or more virtual machines); and
a communication plane spanning between the multiple VMs to provide communications across the multiple VMs and with a mechatronics layer and a sensor layer of the vehicle ([0094]; [0023], wherein a hypervisor is used to transfer inputs between VMs and hardware interfaces; [0108]).
Hirshberg does not teach wherein the multiple VMs provide the different services by executing microservices that are formed to be self-contained and standardized independent of programmed functions and to interoperate with the communication plane and the multiple VMs.
Onda teaches the use of multiple VMs in a vehicle including body control VM 110A, an engine control VM 110B, an automatic driving control VM 110C, and a multimedia VM 110D ([0025]). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the invention to use multiple VMs providing the different services by executing microservices that are formed to be self-contained and standardized independent of programmed functions and to interoperate with the communication plane and the multiple VMs. One would be motivated by the desire to extend Hirshberg to be used with other vehicle control units as taught by Onda.
Regarding claim 2, Hirshberg teaches wherein the communication plane provides communications between the mechatronics layer, the sensor layer, and the multiple VMs for controlling parameters of the mechatronics layer and the sensor layer and acquiring data from the mechatronics layer and the sensor layer, and wherein the mechatronics layer includes electronic control units (ECUs) to controller actuators within the vehicle, and the sensor layer includes electronic sensors of the vehicle ([0023]: "A hypervisor can communicate with the virtual machines (VMs) and function as an intermediary between the VMs and one or more hardware interfaces that communicate with one or more hardware functions of the electric vehicle").
Regarding claim 3, Hirshberg teaches wherein the communication plane translates communications in a CAN format from the mechatronics layer into the multiple VMs and communications from the sensor layer into the multiple VMs via an abstraction layer in a VM manager ( [0111]: "The active VM interface 1304 can include any of the communications, translation, or other services required for the hypervisor 1212 to communicate with the active VM 1204 (or VM 1224 after transitioning to the second OS)").
Regarding claim 4, Hirshberg teaches wherein the communication plane further includes a control plane and a data plane to provide communications directly between components of the multiple VMs, including at least the microservices ([0105]: "The hypervisor 1212 functions to communicate information, commands, data, etc. between the VMs 1204, 1208 and the hardware interfaces 1216. The hardware interfaces 1216 may include one or more, but are not limited to, interfaces to Ethernet, USB, UART, etc. to one or more hardware devices/components 1218, as described herein, of the vehicle 100").
Regarding claim 5, Hirshberg teaches wherein the data plane is a peer-to-peer (P2P) network that provides dedicated channels broker free between the components of the VMs, and between the components and a sensor layer, wherein the data plane functions on top of a transport layer of a communication protocol to provide communications between the components ([0105]: "The hypervisor 1212 functions to communicate information, commands, data, etc. between the VMs 1204, 1208 and the hardware interfaces 1216. The hardware interfaces 1216 may include one or more, but are not limited to, interfaces to Ethernet, USB, UART, etc. to one or more hardware devices/components 1218, as described herein, of the vehicle 100").
Regarding claim 6, Hirshberg teaches wherein the control plane is an event-driven communication pathway between the components, and wherein the control plane includes a bus module with separate instances executing within the multiple VMs and linked by connectors between the multiple VMs to transfer the communications, the connectors route the communications ([0105]: "The hypervisor 1212 functions to communicate information, commands, data, etc. between the VMs 1204, 1208 and the hardware interfaces 1216. The hardware interfaces 1216 may include one or more, but are not limited to, interfaces to Ethernet, USB, UART, etc. to one or more hardware devices/components 1218, as described herein, of the vehicle 100").
Regarding claim 7, Onda teaches further comprising: an event module that executes within a utility VM of the multiple VMs and dynamically registers events on topics from the components from which the components subscribe to the events to provide an architecture for providing communications on the communication plane, wherein the event module registers the events according to configurable parameters that define the events, and wherein the microservices separately define which of the events to receive according to separately defined functions of the microservices ([0032]: "The state judging section 270 has the function of judging the state of the vehicle 12 on the basis of information of the onboard equipment group 16").
Regarding claim 8, Onda teaches wherein the events are defined from a group including: global cloud-based components separate from the vehicle, the components within the vehicle, and locally within one of the multiple VMs ([0032]: "The state judging section 270 has the function of judging the state of the vehicle 12 on the basis of information of the onboard equipment group 16").
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Hirshberg and Onda teach wherein the system processing unit executes a VM manager that controls the multiple VMs and arbitrates access to the system processing unit and additional resources of the vehicle, wherein the microservices are independent applications that integrate with the communication plane, including an infotainment VM, a utility VM, and a safety OS VM, and wherein the multiple VMs execute separate operating systems, including operating systems that are real-time operating systems functioning with timing constraints, safety operating systems that are certified according to a functional safety standard, and high-performance operating systems (Onda [0027]: "The VM control section 260 has the function of controlling the assignation of the order of activating or ending the respective VMs 110, and the resources of the CPU 20A"; Hirshberg [0023]: "a first virtual machine (VM) that executes a first operating system (OS); a second VM that executes a second OS").
Regarding claim 10, Onda teaches further comprising: a signal module, including a vehicle signal model (VSM) that is a hierarchical mapping of signals in the vehicle that arranges the signals according to groups and associates the signals with declarations, wherein the signal module implements logic to execute the declarations, the declarations indicating how to process the signals ([0017], [0032]: "The onboard equipment group 16 is sensors that are provided at the vehicle 12, and includes sensors that are mounted to respective portions of the vehicle body and respective portions of the engine" and "The state judging section 270 has the function of judging the state of the vehicle 12 on the basis of information of the onboard equipment group 16. States of the vehicle 12 include a vehicle occupant riding state, a running state, a driving state, and the like").
Regarding claim 11, Onda teaches wherein the signal module acquires a VSM filter that defines parameters for one or more of the declarations in relation to identified signals of the groups according to the VSM model, wherein the parameters specify changes to at least one function for processing the identified signals, and wherein the at least one function includes a policy that specifies when the signal module executes the function ([0017], [0032]: "The onboard equipment group 16 is sensors that are provided at the vehicle 12, and includes sensors that are mounted to respective portions of the vehicle body and respective portions of the engine" and "The state judging section 270 has the function of judging the state of the vehicle 12 on the basis of information of the onboard equipment group 16. States of the vehicle 12 include a vehicle occupant riding state, a running state, a driving state, and the like").
Regarding claim 12, Onda teaches further comprising: a rule engine that dynamically defines events according to an externally-defined rule, wherein the externally-defined rule specifies at least a condition for executing at least one of the microservices to alter a behavior of how the at least one microservice functions ([0017], [0032]: "The onboard equipment group 16 is sensors that are provided at the vehicle 12, and includes sensors that are mounted to respective portions of the vehicle body and respective portions of the engine" and "The state judging section 270 has the function of judging the state of the vehicle 12 on the basis of information of the onboard equipment group 16. States of the vehicle 12 include a vehicle occupant riding state, a running state, a driving state, and the like").
Regarding claim 13, Onda teaches wherein externally-defined rule updates a configuration of the at least one microservice through altering the behavior ([0017], [0032]: "The onboard equipment group 16 is sensors that are provided at the vehicle 12, and includes sensors that are mounted to respective portions of the vehicle body and respective portions of the engine" and "The state judging section 270 has the function of judging the state of the vehicle 12 on the basis of information of the onboard equipment group 16. States of the vehicle 12 include a vehicle occupant riding state, a running state, a driving state, and the like").
Regarding claim 14, Onda teaches further comprising: a storage module that mediates access between the multiple VMs and a data pipeline that includes a metrics pipeline, a blob pipeline, and a logging pipeline, wherein the storage module includes multiple separate ones of the microservices that provide ports for accessing the data pipeline, and wherein the storage module registers the data pipeline with a topic registry ([0084]: "The shared memory 280 shares information relating to the respective VMs 110 (the body control VM 110A, the engine control VM 110B, the automatic driving control VM 110C and the multimedia VM 110D) with the VM structuring section 250 and the VM control section 260").
Regarding claim 15, Onda teaches wherein the metrics pipeline provides data to a metrics data store that indexes the data according to time, wherein the blob pipeline provides data to a blob data store that stores bulk data while the metrics data store stores associated metadata and pointers to the bulk data, and wherein storage module stores log data in the metrics data store via the logging pipeline ([0084]: "The shared memory 280 shares information relating to the respective VMs 110 (the body control VM 110A, the engine control VM 110B, the automatic driving control VM 110C and the multimedia VM 110D) with the VM structuring section 250 and the VM control section 260").
Regarding claim 16, Hirshberg teaches further comprising: a trace collector that receives, from a cloud-based resource, a trace request, wherein the trace collector executes the trace request offline in the vehicle by collecting data in a log data store of the computing system according to parameters defined in the trace request ([0088]: "The vehicle database connectivity manager 958 allows the subsystem to receive and/or share information stored in the vehicle database. This information can be shared with other vehicle components/ subsystems and/or other entities, such as third parties and/or charging systems").
Regarding claim 17, Hirshberg teaches wherein the trace collector initiates traces at the microservices in the vehicle to track messages defined in the trace request, and wherein the trace collector offloads the collected data for the trace request to the cloud-based resource when a network is available ([0088]: "The vehicle database connectivity manager 958 allows the subsystem to receive and/or share information stored in the vehicle database. This information can be shared with other vehicle components/ subsystems and/or other entities, such as third parties and/or charging systems").
Regarding claim 18, Hirshberg teaches a computing system, comprising:
a system processing unit that executes multiple virtual machines (VMs) to isolate different services of a vehicle ([0023], wherein a vehicle includes two or more virtual machines);
a communication plane spanning between the multiple VMs and the software components to provide communications across the multiple VMs and with a mechatronics layer and a sensor layer of the vehicle ([0023], wherein a hypervisor is used to transfer inputs between VMs and hardware interfaces; [0108]).
Hirshberg does not teach a second processing unit that executes software components that are legacy components of the vehicle and wherein the multiple VMs provide the different services by executing microservices that are formed to be self-contained and standardized independent of programmed functions and to interoperate with the communication plane and the multiple VMs.
Onda teaches a second processing unit that executes software components that are legacy components of the vehicle ([0087]: "the respective VMs 110, the VM structuring section 250 and the VM control section 260 are provided at the main ECU 22, and the state judging section 270 is provided at the sub ECU 23") and the use of multiple VMs in a vehicle including body control VM 110A, an engine control VM 110B, an automatic driving control VM 110C, and a multimedia VM 110D ([0025]).
. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the invention to use multiple VMs providing the different services by executing microservices that are formed to be self-contained and standardized independent of programmed functions and to interoperate with the communication plane and the multiple VMs. One would be motivated by the desire to extend Hirshberg to be used with other vehicle control units as taught by Onda.
Regarding claim 19, Hirshberg teaches wherein the communication plane provides communications between the mechatronics layer, the sensor layer, and the multiple VMs for controlling parameters of the mechatronics layer and the sensor layer and acquiring data from the mechatronics layer and the sensor layer, and wherein the mechatronics layer includes electronic control units (ECUs) to controller actuators within the vehicle, and the sensor layer includes electronic sensors of the vehicle ([0023]: "A hypervisor can communicate with the virtual machines (VMs) and function as an intermediary between the VMs and one or more hardware interfaces that communicate with one or more hardware functions of the electric vehicle").
Regarding claim 20, Hirshberg teaches a computing system, comprising:
a system processing unit that executes multiple virtual machines (VMs) to isolate different services of a vehicle ([0023], wherein a vehicle includes two or more virtual machines);
a VM manager that executes on the system processing unit and that controls the multiple VMs and arbitrates access to the system processing unit and additional resources of the vehicle ([0023], wherein a hypervisor is used to transfer inputs between VMs and hardware interfaces; [0108]);
a communication plane spanning between the multiple VMs and the software components to provide communications across the multiple VMs and with a mechatronics layer and a sensor layer of the vehicle ([0094]; [0105], wherein the VMs are in communication with the hypervisor).
Hirshberg does not teach a second processing unit that executes software components that are legacy components of the vehicle; wherein the multiple VMs provide the different services by executing microservices that are formed to be self-contained and standardized independent of programmed functions and to interoperate with the communication plane and the multiple VMs, and wherein the microservices are independent applications that integrate with the communication plane; and a signal module that executes on one of the multiple VMs, including a vehicle signal model (VSM) that is a hierarchical mapping of signals in the vehicle that arranges the signals according to groups and associates the signals with declarations, wherein the signal module implements logic to execute the declarations, the declarations indicating how to process the signals.
Onda teaches a second processing unit that executes software components that are legacy components of the vehicle ([0087]: "the respective VMs 110, the VM structuring section 250 and the VM control section 260 are provided at the main ECU 22, and the state judging section 270 is provided at the sub ECU 23"), the use of multiple VMs in a vehicle including body control VM 110A, an engine control VM 110B, an automatic driving control VM 110C, and a multimedia VM 110D ([0025]) , and a VM control section has a function of controlling an assignation of an order of activating or ending respective VMs, and resources of a CPU, and wherein a state judging section has a function of judging a state of the vehicle on the basis of information of an onboard equipment group that includes sensors mounted to respective portions of the vehicle body and respective portions of the engine ([0017]; [0027]; [0032]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective date of the invention to use multiple VMs providing the different services by executing microservices that are formed to be self-contained and standardized independent of programmed functions and to interoperate with the communication plane and the multiple VMs a signal module that executes on one of the multiple VMs. One would be motivated by the desire to extend Hirshberg to be used with other vehicle control units as taught by Onda.
Conclusion
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/Eric C Wai/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2195
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