DETAILED ACTION
Final 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 .
Claims 1-20 are pending.
Claims 1-20 are rejected below.
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, 4-9, 11-16, 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Keller (U.S. PG Pub. 2014/0277806) in view of Abukwaik (U.S. PG Pub. 2022/0342382).
As to claims 1, 8 and 15, Keller a method for monitoring and controlling energy use in an industrial process, the method comprising: receiving, by a processing circuit, data describing energy use in the industrial process from one or more data sources[0020 the energy agents 12 may use the infrastructure provided by the energy management system 10 to exchange information and communicate with each other such that energy related to each industrial automation system device may be processed and analyzed. For instance, the energy agents 12 within devices such as industrial automation drives, motor starters, contactors, programmable controllers, switchgear, energy meters, robots, robot controllers, human machine interfaces]; contextualizing, by the processing circuit, the data describing the energy use in the industrial process[0025, 0028 provide energy objectives or goals for the energy management system 10. The grid 30 may include an electrical grid that may be coupled to the industrial automation system. In certain embodiments, the energy agents 12 may interact with the grid 30 to determine its energy output, capabilities, and the like. [T]he energy agents 12 in the energy management system 10 may provide an energy information backplane for the industrial automation system such that the new devices can virtually "plug" into the energy information backplane. That is, the energy agents 12 embedded within the new devices may provide other energy agents 12 with information such as actual energy used, device specifications, actual and predicted energy costs,]; generating, by the processing circuit, an energy data model based on the contextualized data[0023, 0029 he main controller 18 may be positioned at the top of a hierarchy of the energy management system 10. As such, the energy agent 12 embedded within the main controller 18 may propagate or send energy objectives and commands to each energy agent 12 that may correspond to a device downstream or in a lower level in the hierarchy of the energy management system 10. In this manner, the energy agents 12 may provide infrastructure, agent protocol, and modeling tools that may be directly applicable to dynamically managing the energy of the corresponding industrial automation system.]; executing, by the processing circuit, the energy data model to determine key performance indicators for the energy use in the industrial process[0055 – energy usage for example]; displaying, by the processing circuit, the key performance indicators to a user[0055 In certain embodiments, the visualization agent 40 of the electronic device 16 may display the energy data in a manner that may be most useful to the user of the electronic device 16. For instance, the visualization agent 40 of the electronic device 16 may display graphical representations of the energy being used by the drive 20 given its proximity to the drive.]; determining, by the processing circuit, if the key performance indicators are above one or more pre-determined thresholds[0056 outside of goals]; and taking a corrective action in response to the key performance indicators being above the one or more pre-determined thresholds [0056 ensure that goals are being met].
Keller teaches most of the claimed invention, but fails to teach all of the claimed invention, however, this is an obvious variation and is taught by Abukwaik as follows:
As to claims 1, 8 and 15, Abukwaik teaches wherein the energy data model is a graph-based model that describes relationships between the data describing the energy use, one or more industrial assets associated with the industrial process, and the industrial process [0022].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date to include the teachings of Abukwaik into the system and methods of Keller. The motivation to combine is that Abukwaik teaches the present disclosure describes a method for maintaining and/or for improving the plants and processes and/or their equipment elements[0016].
As to claims 2, 9 and 16, wherein the one (only one is needed) or more data sources include an electric meter[0020], a non-electric meter, and a production sensor, and wherein the data describing the energy use includes an electricity consumption and demand, a water consumption and demand, a gas consumption and demand, and a number of produced units.
As to claims 4, 11 and 18, wherein the method further comprises: receiving, by the processing circuit, an extensible data model describing an organizational structure of an enterprise associated with the energy use; and extending, by the processing circuit, the extensible data model to include the energy data model[0059].
As to claims 5, 12 and 19, wherein the key performance indicators comprise at least one of an energy demand value, an energy consumption value [0055], a cost energy value, a carbon emissions value, and a production unit value.
As to claims 6 and 13, wherein the key performance indicators are generated on an on- demand basis [0055 as energy is used by the industrial process].
As to claims 7, 14 and 20, wherein the corrective action comprises implementing a control action for a piece of equipment to lower an energy usage amount for the industrial process[0041 – operating mode such as off or minimal energy usage].
Claim(s) 3, 10, and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Keller (U.S. PG Pub. 2014/0277806) in view of Abukwaik (U.S. PG Pub. 20220342382) in view of Wang (U.S. PG Pub. 2022/0187894).
Keller in view of in view of Abukwaik teach most of the claimed invention, but fails to teach all of the claimed invention, specifically claims 3, 10 and 17. However this is an obvious variation and is taught by Wang as follows:
As to claims 3, 10 and 17, Wang teaches wherein the graph based model comprises: a plurality of nodes representing entities associated with the energy in the industrial process[0071]; and a plurality of edges describing relationships between the plurality of nodes[0073]. (see figs. 1 and 2). Abukwaik also teaches energy uses [0022].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date to include the teachings of Wang into the system and methods of Keller in view of in view of Abukwaik. The motivation to combine is that Wang teaches using edge cloud coordination can quickly generate a power supply scheme and a power consumption scheme at an edge node in an industrial field [0075].
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see page 8 of the response, filed 4-6-26, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-2, 4-9, 11-16, 18-20 under 35 USC 102 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Abukwaik (U.S. PG Pub. 20220342382).
Conclusion
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NATHAN L LAUGHLIN whose telephone number is (571)270-1042. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8AM-4PM.
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/NATHAN L LAUGHLIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2119
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