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
Applicant’s election without traverse of GROUP A in the reply filed on Feb. 22, 2026 is acknowledged. Claims 12 & 13 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected GROUP B, there being no allowable generic or linking claim.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, "a belt or rope having both end portions fixed to suction cups of the fixing device or attaching/detaching means fixable to the exterior wall surface, wound around a drive part of the manipulator, and configured to suppress separation of the gondola from the exterior wall surface during work of the manipulator" (claims 1 & 2) must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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(s) 1, 2, 9 & 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lim (US 11,135,611) in view of Ohtsuki (US 4,993,913), Briese (US 2,543,348), Thompson (US 2019/0374966) and Miller (US 10,952,801).
Lim discloses an exterior wall repair device comprising:
a travel path body 102 provided on a rooftop of a target for exterior wall repairs;
a carriage 106 having a traveling part 116 capable of traveling on a travel path body and a suspending lifting/lowering part 112;
a repair device main body having-
a gondola 110 suspended and moved up and down by a suspending lifting/lowering part,
a manipulator 130, 138 arranged at a predetermined place of a gondola and performing repair work,
a shooting part 128 capable of shooting images of a region to be repaired by the manipulator,
a suction cup 140, 142, e.g. fixing device, for detachably fixing a gondola to a predetermined place on an exterior wall surface, and
a belt or rope having both end portions fixed to suction cups of a fixing device or attaching/detaching means fixable to an exterior wall surface; and
a remote control part 132, 158 capable of remotely operating a manipulator in synchronization with a manipulator.
With respect to control of a manipulator Lim discloses thusly:
The computing device 132 may be remotely controllable with the help of a remote controller 158 shown in FIG. 2. It is envisioned that with use of the remote controller 158, any function pertaining to individual components of the system 100 can be controlled wirelessly by a remotely located operator via the remote controller 158. Therefore, it may be noted that although the system 100 of the present disclosure is configured to operate autonomously with the help of data from the ultrasonic sensors 146, the paint level sensor 150, and the visual monitoring camera, embodiments of the present disclosure also allow an operator of the system 100 to remotely override any operations and provide alternative commands to the computing device 132 with the help of the remote controller 158 so that the computing device 132 may appropriately control one or more components of the system 100 in accordance with the alternative commands provided by the operator. (Column 5, lines 5-29).
Lim also discloses a GUI which implies the capability to visual control of the gondola operation. Lim does not explicitly disclose a monitor or operation gloves. Nor does Lim disclose a belt or rope wound around a drive part.
Ohtsuki discloses a suction cup 30, 32 (C3/L63-C4/L9) attached to and movable relative to manipulator 21 (FIG. 3) cup via air cylinder 29 to prevent "sway of the moving scaffold 12". It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the invention of Lim to provide a drive part on a manipulator, as taught by Ohtsuki, to prevent sway of a suspended gondola, e.g. scaffold.
Briese discloses a fixing device 110, 111 that is includes rope 109 which is tightened and loosened via winding or unwinding on drive part 106, e.g. winches, which either maintains gondola 104 in a fixed position or advances tools over the surface to be treated. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the invention of Lim to include winding a belt or rope on a drive part, as taught by Briese, to "to insure the scaler being firmly held in proper operative position during the cleaning operation" and subsequently move the scaler.
Thompson discloses a manipulator 14 provided with remote control 74. Thompson discloses that controller 74 includes a user interface that can include "a keyboard, touch screen, wireless module communicable with a smart phone, a tablet, a laptop, or any other suitable interface device." It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the invention of Lim to include as part of the remote control a monitor, e.g. screen, as taught by Thompson, such that a user can input, based on sensor data and inputs, the actions for a manipulator such as for example a spray plan.
And, Miller discloses remote control of a manipulator 10 by way of "one or more of any number of a variety of input devices, such as hand grips, joysticks, trackballs, data gloves, trigger-guns, foot pedals, hand-operated controllers, voice recognition devices, touch screens, body motion or presence sensors, and the like. In some embodiments, the control device(s) will be provided with the same degrees of freedom as the medical tools of the robotic assembly to provide the operator with telepresence; that is, the operator is provided with the perception that the control device(s) are integral with the tools so that the operator has a sense of directly controlling tools as if present at the procedure site. In other embodiments, the control device(s) may have more or fewer degrees of freedom than the associated medical tools and still provide the operator with telepresence." (C5/L44-C6/L10). It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the invention of Lim to provide remote control part having operation gloves operated by an operator, as taught by Miller, so that the operator has a sense of directly controlling tools as if present at the procedure site.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 8 is allowed. Claims 3, 4 & 11 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
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to GREGORY W ADAMS whose telephone number is (571)272-8101. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri, 8am-5pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Saul Rodriguez can be reached at (571)272-7097. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/GREGORY W ADAMS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3652