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 .
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.
Claims 1, 5-6, 8, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Heichal (USPUB 2011/0223459).
As to Claim 1, Heichal discloses a battery swap control method, applied to a battery charging and swap station, wherein the battery charging and swap station comprises a parking platform and a battery swap apparatus, the parking platform is arranged to allow a vehicle with a battery to be swapped to be parked on the parking platform, and the battery swap apparatus comprises a plurality of locking/unlocking mechanisms, which are arranged to be capable of locking/unlocking battery locking mechanisms by means of locking/unlocking heads, and the battery swap control method comprising: acquiring a first real-time operation parameter of each locking/unlocking head in a process of locking the battery locking mechanisms by the locking/unlocking mechanisms (Paragraph 122); determining, based on the first real-time operation parameter acquired, whether the locking/unlocking head has a locking fault; if any of the locking/unlocking heads has a locking fault, acquiring a number and positions of the locking/unlocking heads having the locking fault; determining whether a first locking completion condition is satisfied according to the acquired number and positions of locking/unlocking heads; and determining that locking is completed when the first locking completion condition is satisfied (Paragraph 131).
As to Claim 5, Heichal discloses the battery swap control method according to claim 1, further comprising: sending out alarm information when the first locking completion condition is not satisfied (Paragraph 122).
As to Claim 6, Heichal discloses the battery swap control method according to claim 1, wherein the first real-time operation parameter comprises a first real-time torque and the number of turns, and the step of “determining, based on the first real-time operation parameter acquired, whether the locking/unlocking head has a locking fault” further comprises: comparing each first real-time torque with a corresponding target torque threshold, and comparing each number of turns with a corresponding target threshold number of turns; and if the first real-time torque is smaller than the corresponding target torque threshold or the number of turns is smaller than the corresponding target threshold number of turns, determining that the locking/unlocking head has the locking fault (Paragraph 122 and 138).
As to Claim 8, Heichal discloses the battery swap control method according to claim 1, further comprising: transmitting fault position information to a server when the first locking completion condition is satisfied (Paragraph 122).
As to Claim 15, Heichal discloses a battery swap control system, applied to a battery charging and swap station, where the battery charging and swap station includes a parking platform and a battery swap apparatus, the parking platform is arranged to allow a vehicle with a battery to be swapped to be parked on the parking platform, and the battery swap apparatus includes a plurality of locking/unlocking mechanisms, which are arranged to be capable of locking/unlocking battery locking mechanisms by means of locking/unlocking heads, and the battery swap control system includes: a control module configured to control the locking/unlocking mechanisms to lock the battery locking mechanisms; an acquiring module configured to acquire a first real-time operation parameter of each locking/unlocking head in a process of locking the battery locking mechanisms by the locking/unlocking mechanisms; and a determination module configured to determine, based on the first real-time operation parameter acquired, whether the locking/unlocking head has a locking fault, where the acquiring module is further configured to acquire the number and positions of the locking/unlocking heads having the locking fault when any of the locking/unlocking heads has a locking fault; and the determination module is further configured to determine whether a first locking completion condition is satisfied according to the acquired number and positions of locking/unlocking heads; and determine that locking is completed when the first locking completion condition is satisfied (Paragraphs 122, 131, and 138).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-4, 7, 9-14, and 16-20 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 ROBERT J GRANT whose telephone number is (571)270-5820. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9am - 5:30pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Drew Dunn can be reached at (571)272-2312. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ROBERT GRANT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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