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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 12/19/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
1. Claims 1, 2, 4-16 and 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Hao (2024/0157832).
As to claims 1, 11 and 15: Hao teaches a method for controlling a plurality of energy storage elements (116a, b, figures 1-2) in a vehicle (figure 1) having a first power bus (126a, figure 2) and a second power bus (126b), the method comprising:
for a first time interval (paragraph 0035, first period of time), connecting a first subset of the plurality of energy storage elements to the first power bus and a second subset of the plurality of energy storage elements to the second power bus (switch S4 open, S5 is closed, which shunts power from 116a to 126a and 116b to 126b); and
for a second time interval (paragraph 0035, second period of time), connecting the first subset of energy storage elements to the second power bus and the second subset of energy storage elements to the first power bus (switch S5 open, which shunts power from from 116a to 126b and power from 116b to 126a) to increase equalization of states of charge between the first subset of energy storage elements and the second
subset of energy storage elements (paragraph 0037).
As to claims 2, 13 and 16: Hao teaches selecting at least two of the energy storage elements based at least in part on their states of charge (paragraph 0037, wherein the battery pack charging current is chosed based on SoC difference); and
including the at least two energy storage elements in the first subset
of the plurality of energy storage elements (elements 116a and 116b are considered).
As to claims 4, 12, 14, 18 and 20: Hao teaches that the first time interval and the second time
interval are determined by one or more controllers using model predictive control (paragraph 0012, wherein a controller determines a charging mode based on a dynamic determination).
As to claim 5: Hao teaches that the first time interval and the second time
interval are each greater than or equal to zero seconds (paragraph 0035 expresses that an ideal situation is that the first and second time periods are substantially equal, which indicates that the interval is nontrivial).
As to claims 6 and 19: Hao teaches changing connections among the plurality of energy storage elements so that one of the energy storage elements of the first subset of the plurality of energy storage elements is contained in the second subset of energy storage
elements and one of the energy storage elements of the second subset of energy storage elements is contained in the first subset of energy storage elements (categorized from figure 2);
for a third time interval, connecting the first subset of the plurality of
energy storage elements to the first power bus and the second subset of the plurality of energy storage elements to the second power bus; and
for a fourth time interval, connecting the first subset of energy storage
elements to the second power bus and the second subset of energy storage
elements to the first power bus to increase equalization of states of charge
between the first subset of energy storage elements and the second subset of
energy storage elements (paragraphs 0050-0053 express switches S1-S3 which open and close on a different time interval to connect two different subsets of energy storage elements alternately to two different power busses).
As to claim 7: Hao teaches that the third time interval and the fourth time interval are determined by one or more controllers using model predictive control (paragraph 0012, wherein a controller determines a charging mode based on a dynamic determination).
As to claim 8: Hao teaches changing connections among the plurality of energy storage elements so that one of the energy storage elements of the first subset of the plurality of energy storage elements is swapped in the first subset of energy storage
elements with one other of the energy storage elements in the first subset of
energy storage elements (“auxiliary device”, paragraph 0050);
for a third time interval, connecting the first subset of the plurality of
energy storage elements to the first power bus and the second subset of the
plurality of energy storage elements to the second power bus; and
for a fourth time interval, connecting the first subset of energy storage
elements to the second power bus and the second subset of energy storage
elements to the first power bus to increase equalization of states of charge
between the first subset of energy storage elements and the second subset of
energy storage elements (paragraphs 0050-0052 express switches S1-S3 which open and close on a different time interval to connect two different subsets of energy storage elements alternately to two different power busses, paragraph 0052 expressing independent port charging mode, which are different calculated intervals from the ones explained in paragraphs 0035-0037).
As to claim 9: Hao teaches that the third time interval and the fourth time
interval are determined by one or more controllers using model predictive control (paragraph 0012, wherein a controller determines a charging mode based on a dynamic determination).
As to claim 10: Hao teaches changing connections among the plurality of energy storage elements so that one of the energy storage elements of the first subset of the plurality of energy storage elements is swapped in the first subset of energy storage
elements with one other of the energy storage elements in the first subset of
energy storage elements (“auxiliary device”, paragraph 0050);
for a fifth time interval, connecting the first subset of the plurality of
energy storage elements to the first power bus and the second subset of the
plurality of energy storage elements to the second power bus; and
for a sixth time interval, connecting the first subset of energy storage
elements to the second power bus and the second subset of energy storage
elements to the first power bus to increase equalization of states of charge
between the first subset of energy storage elements and the second subset of
energy storage elements (paragraphs 0050-0053 express switches S1-S3 which open and close on a different time interval to connect two different subsets of energy storage elements alternately to two different power busses, wherein paragraph 0053 explains a parallel mode, which is a different mode from the expressed independent port charging mode, with different calculated intervals).
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.
2. Claims 3 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hao (2024/0157832) as applied to claims 1 and 15, and further in view of Iwata (6,218,643). The teachings of Hao are discussed above.
As to claims 3 and 17: Hao teaches the limitations of claims 1 and 15.
Hao is silent as to that the selection of the element is determined in part due to its temperature.
Iwata teaches selecting a battery to connect a load to by detecting the temperature of the battery (column 7, lines 33-57).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the instant invention to combine the teachings of Hao with the teachings of Iwata so that the vehicle temperature can be configured and the batteries can be balanced more easily. Hao (paragraph 0029) envisions powering heating elements, which is the goal of Iwata (abstract), and thus a combination of the two would be natural and obvious.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DAVID P TARDIF whose telephone number is (571)270-7810. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 11AM-7:30PM. If the examiner cannot be reached by telephone, he can be reached through the following email address: david.tardif@uspto.gov
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone and email are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Thomas Pham can be reached on (571)272-3689. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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DAVID TARDIF
Examiner
Art Unit 2876
/DAVID TARDIF/
Examiner, Art Unit 2876
david.tardif@uspto.gov
/MATTHEW MIKELS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2876
