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 .
DETAILED ACTION
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, 4-7, 9-15, 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kormann (2006/0026939).
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Kormann teaches the claimed device, except as noted:
“[0010] The invention proposes that the cut height of the front harvesting attachment be controlled automatically as a function of a measured characteristic of the plants being harvested. The characteristic is detected by means of an appropriate sensor (for example, an optical sensor that preferably operates in the near infrared region in reflection or transmission mode) arranged at any desired location in the material flow. The characteristic of the plants detected by the sensor may be an amount of a material contents of the plant such as the contents of protein, nitrogen or energy or a magnitude previously stored in memory …”
1. An agricultural machine configured to harvest a crop having stalks, comprising:
a main frame (12); a plurality of wheels or tracks supporting the main frame from a ground surface and configured to drive the agricultural machine in a forward direction to harvest the crop (14, 16); a crop header mounted on the main frame and including a header frame extending transversely to the forward direction and having a transverse width, the crop header being configured to receive stalks of the crop to be cut by the crop header as the agricultural machine moves in the forward direction (20); and
at least one on-the-go nitrate (see teachings below) sensor mounted on the agricultural machine and oriented to collect electromagnetic energy reflected from or emitted by the stalks (infrared (IR) optical sensor is fundamentally an electromagnetic energy sensor that detects or reflects IR radiation, a part of the electromagnetic spectrum (EMR) longer than visible light, working by sensing emitted heat or reflected IR light from the objects, i.e. from corn stalks),
the sensor being configured to generate a nitrate level signal representative of a nitrate level in the stalks (see quote above).
It would have been known to one having ordinary skill in the art that by definition nitrogen (N) is the essential nutrient, while nitrate is a specific, mobile form of nitrogen that plants absorb, with the corn stalk acting as a temporary storage unit, therefore the sensor would have detected the contents of nitrate in the corn stalk, and
with a reasonable expectation of success since if the stalk has ample nitrate-nitrogen at season's end, it means excess N was available, but if it's low (below 700 ppm), the plant likely pulled N from the stalk to feed the grain, indicating deficiency, therefore helping farmers fine-tune future N application.
4. The agricultural machine of claim 1, wherein: the at least one on-the-go nitrate sensor includes a plurality of on-the-go nitrate sensors mounted on the crop header and spaced across the transverse width of the crop header (see teachings below).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that to mount the sensors “at any desired location” (see par. 10 above) would include the header, and that mere multiplication of the essential working parts, i.e. the sensors, involves only routine skill in the art, and is within the level of ordinary skill in the art.
5. The agricultural machine of claim 1, wherein: the at least one on-the-go nitrate sensor is configured to operate based on infrared reflectance spectroscopy (already discussed above in re cl. 1).
6. The agricultural machine of claim 1, wherein: the at least one on-the-go nitrate sensor is configured to operate based on laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (see teachings below).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that the “appropriate sensor” (see par. 10 above) would include and would be within the skill to pick and choose from the type of sensor used, and as demonstrated in view of claim 5, the particular sensor is not critical.
7. The agricultural machine of claim 1, wherein: the at least one on-the-go nitrate sensor is mounted on the crop header (already addressed in re claim 4, the same teaching applies here).
9. The agricultural machine of claim 1, wherein: the crop header includes a plurality of snouts attached to the header frame and spaced across the transverse width of the header frame, such that two adjacent snouts define a stalk receiving opening therebetween for receiving the stalks of the crop (fig 1; snouts/dividers and obvious gap therebetween); and
the at least one on-the-go nitrate sensor is mounted on a side wall of at least one of the snouts (see in re cl. 4, 7, i.e. obvious arrangement).
10. The agricultural machine of claim 1, further comprising: an operator's station including a visual display (48); and a controller (38) configured to receive the nitrate level signal and to display data representative of the nitrate level signal on the visual display in real-time (see teachings in par. 18; NOTE: the particular sensor is as discussed in re cl. 1).
11. The agricultural machine of claim 1, wherein: the crop header is configured for harvesting corn (par. 15).
12. The agricultural machine of claim 1, wherein: the crop header includes a plurality of snouts attached to the header frame and spaced across the transverse width of the header frame, such that two adjacent snouts define a stalk receiving opening therebetween for receiving the stalks of the crop (already addressed in re cl. 9); and
the agricultural machine further includes an electromagnetic energy source mounted on at least one of the snouts and configured to transmit electromagnetic energy onto the stalks received in the stalk receiving opening (arrangement already addressed in re cl. 4 or 7; the energy source or IR already discussed in re cl. 1).
13. The agricultural machine of claim 1, wherein: the at least one on-the-go nitrate sensor is oriented to collect electromagnetic energy reflected from or emitted by the stalks before the stalks are cut by the crop header (see teachings below).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that while it appears the prior art teaches sensing “during” crop flow, however it would involve only routine skill in the art, or it is within the level of ordinary skill in the art to pick and choose sensing from “before” (cl. 13), “during or after” (cl. 14), since there is no criticality as demonstrated in claims 13 and 14.
14. The agricultural machine of claim 1, wherein: the at least one on-the-go nitrate sensor is oriented to collect electromagnetic energy reflected from or emitted by the stalks during cutting or after the stalks are cut by the crop header (already addressed in re cl. 14).
The following method steps are already addressed above in view of the apparatus, unless otherwise noted:
15. A method of automatically performing an end-of-season stalk nitrate test when harvesting a crop having stalks, comprising: harvesting the crop with a crop header including a header frame extending transversely to a forward harvesting direction, the crop header being configured to cut stalks of the crop as the agricultural machine moves in the forward harvesting direction; collecting electromagnetic energy reflected from or emitted by the stalks with at least one on-the-go nitrate sensor; and generating a nitrate level signal with the at least one on-the-go nitrate sensor representative of a nitrate level in the stalks (cl. 1).
19. The method of claim 15, wherein: the collecting step further includes collecting the electromagnetic energy reflected from or emitted by lower end portions of the stalks before the stalks are cut by the crop header (cl. 13).
20. The method of claim 15, wherein: the collecting step further includes collecting the electromagnetic energy reflected from or emitted by lower end portions of the stalks during cutting or after the stalks are cut by the crop header (cl. 14).
Claim(s) 8, 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kormann (2006/0026939), in view of Ruff et al (2020/0272971).
Kormann teaches above the claimed invention, except as noted:
8. The agricultural machine of claim 7, further comprising: a header height control system including a header height sensor configured to detect a header height above a ground surface, a header height adjustment actuator, and a controller configured to receive a header height signal from the header height sensor and to generate a command signal to the header height adjustment actuator to control the header height (not shown).
Ruff teaches that it has been known to provide a header height sensor, header height adjustment controller and adjustment actuator to provide for a header operating criteria (par. 123)
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to provide the header of Kormann with the teachings of Ruff, with a reasonable expectation of success since it would allow the header to follow the ground contour or ground undulations while collecting corn stalk data.
16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: controlling a header height of the crop header so that the collecting electromagnetic energy is performed at a consistent height above a ground surface (already addressed in view of the apparatus in cl. 8).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 2-3, 17-18 is/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
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. See form 892.
Vandike et al (2022/0113142) teaches in par. 33, detecting a characteristic of a crop constituent during harvesting.
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/ARPAD FABIAN-KOVACS/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3671