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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 04/16/2026 has been entered.
Status of Claims
Applicant filed an RCE on 04/16/2026. Claims 1, 2, 6, 11, 12, 16, and 20 are currently amended. Claims 1–20 are currently pending examination.
Response to Arguments
Regarding the claim rejections under 35 USC 101: Applicant's arguments filed 04/16/2026 have been fully considered and they are persuasive. The claim rejections under 35 USC 101 have been withdrawn.
Regarding the claim rejections under 35 USC 103: Applicant's arguments and amendment filed on 04/16/2026 with respect to the prior rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. § 103 have been fully considered but they are moot in view of the new ground of rejection set forth below, which does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument, in view of Fagergren et al. (US20220148342A1) in view of Otto et al. (US20200346688A1) and further in view of Dankers (US20130085642A1).
Claim Objections
Claim 18 is objected to because of the following informalities: the claim appears to recite "incudes" rather than "includes." Appropriate correction is required.
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 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.
The factual inquiries 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.
Claims 1–8 and 10-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fagergren et al. (US20220148342A1) in view of Otto et al. (US20200346688A1), hereinafter referred to as Fagergren and Otto.
Regarding claims 1 and 11, Fagergren discloses
A method for predicting component life, the method comprising: ("The system 10 is for predicting maintenance/replacement period for a component of a vehicle. The system comprises a central control unit 12." — [0042]; "there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs configured to be executed by one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions for performing the method" — [0077]);
receiving, from at least one vehicle sensor of a vehicle, at least one vehicle signal, while the vehicle is being operated; ("A steering sensor 20 may be provided to detect the desired steering activity. The steering sensor 20 may send driver input signals to a steering regulator 24" — [0044]; "the steering sensor 20, or a separate sensor, may detect angular deviations of the road wheels 16, for instance due to one or more of the road wheels 16 of the vehicle running over bumps or other rough road features" — [0045]; "The operation of the steering actuator 14 may be monitored by an actuator sensor 26." — [0046]; "the first step may be carried out during normal operation of a vehicle driving from a start to a destination" — [0060]; "the velocity data indicative of the velocity of the vehicle may be acquired over time" — [0066]);
wherein the at least one steering system signal includes at least one measurement corresponding to a motor torque of a steering system motor of a steering system, while the steering system is in operation; ("the generated second parameter value is a measured torque value given by an electric motor of the steering actuator to compensate for road disturbances" — [0015]; "The operation of the steering actuator 14 may be monitored by an actuator sensor 26. For instance, the steering actuator 14 may comprise an electric motor, and the actuator sensor 26 may measure the torque applied by the electric motor." — [0046]; "the method further comprises the step of determining the magnitude of torque given by the electric motor" — [0016], [0069]; see also [0068]);
calculating at least one road surface condition metric based on the at least one vehicle signal and the at least one steering system signal, wherein the at least one road surface condition metric is calculated while the vehicle traverses a path corresponding to the at least one road surface condition metric; ("By analysing how much and/or how often the steering actuator compensates for such angular deviations, a good estimation is obtained of the roughness of the ground on which the vehicle has travelled and thus the forces that have affected components of the vehicle. The performance of the steering actuator may be monitored continuously/repeatedly, eg. by sampling output data over time, and because the compensation for the angular deviations is directly related to the roughness experienced by the wheels" — [0011]; "from the torque value, which represents the compensation for the angular deviation of the road wheels due to road disturbances, the deviation angle may be obtained. In turn, from the deviation angle, the magnitude of the road disturbance may be obtained, for instance the size of a bump" — [0065]; "When a vehicle runs at a high speed the roughness of the road will affect the components of the vehicle more" — [0066]; "during normal operation of a vehicle driving from a start to a destination" — [0060]);
Fagergren does not explicitly disclose
receiving, from at least one steering system sensor via a vehicle controller area network bus, at least one steering system signal.
calculating a duty cycle for at least one vehicle component;
detecting an event occurrence based on the at least one vehicle signal and the at least one steering system signal;
determining an event type associated with the event occurrence;
determining a damage estimate value for the at least one vehicle component based on a severity level associated with the event occurrence, the at least one vehicle signal, and the at least one steering system signal; and
calculating a remaining component life value for the at least one vehicle component based on the damage estimate value for the at least one vehicle component, the duty cycle for the at least one vehicle component, and the at least one road surface condition metric.
However, Otto does teach
receiving, from at least one steering system sensor via a vehicle controller area network bus, at least one steering system signal ("the controllers 112 and 122 SbW system 40 communicate with each other through CAN interface (or other similar digital communication protocols)." — [0035]; "The odometer calculation is performed using a vehicle speed input received via the CAN 265." — [0068]; "The controller 16 receives a vehicle speed signal 14 representative of the vehicle velocity from a vehicle velocity sensor 17. … Motor velocity may be measured with a tachometer, or any other device, and transmitted to controller 16 as a motor velocity signal 21." — [0023]; "Further, the monitoring system 200 tracks motor torque (or handwheel torque) cycles" — [0050]);
calculating a duty cycle for at least one vehicle component; ("using a structure of cycle counters and event monitors to track the usage and operating environment of the steering system over time" — [0040]; "The monitoring system 200 tracks use and life of the steering system 40 using position based cycle counting … to account for varying levels of usage based wear." — [0049]; "The counts from each category (520) are used to normalize the present running status of the steering system 40 (in counts) against the life counts (from the completion of DV). This facilitates a real-time estimation of use-life." — [0060]; "Distance vs. Speed Monitoring can categorize the vehicle 100 use into 3 types: Urban, Residential and Highway." — [0071]; Otto's cycle counters / usage categorization / % use-of-life constitute calculating a duty cycle as a measure of usage/loading intensity over time);
detecting an event occurrence based on the at least one vehicle signal and the at least one steering system signal; ("based on a determination that the attribute signal rises above an upper threshold and subsequently falls below a lower threshold" — [0003], [0004], [0078]; "using a structure of cycle counters and event monitors to track the usage and operating environment of the steering system over time" — [0040]; "the monitoring system 200 records a number of times the motor position in the steering system 40 goes above an upper threshold (deg_upper) and back below a lower threshold (deg_lower)" — [0053]; "The attribute signal can be the motor position, the temperature, the torque, and the like" — [0078]);
determining an event type associated with the event occurrence; ("selecting a subset of categories based on a frequency content of the attribute signal. The method further includes selecting a category from the subset of categories based on a peak load" — [0003], [0004], [0078]; "based on the frequency content and the peak load, the position tracking can be categorized into 4 categories (520) represented by one of low frequency—low load, low frequency—high load, high frequency—low load, and high frequency—high load, respectively." — [0059]; see also urban/residential/highway use types — [0071]);
determining a damage estimate value for the at least one vehicle component based on a severity level associated with the event occurrence, the at least one vehicle signal, and the at least one steering system signal; (“the monitoring system 200 tracks motor torque (or handwheel torque) cycles to account for high stress usage. The monitoring system 200 also tracks temperature gradient cycles counting to identify transient thermal events in the steering system 40. The monitored cycles can be distinguished between high (shock) and low gradient.” [0050]; "The peak load is defined as the total system torque equivalent of motor and handwheel torque." — [0055]; "If the peak load 415 is above a load threshold, the peak load 415 can be labeled as 'high load' and 'low load' otherwise. The peak load in this case can be the maximum value of motor torque during the position counting" — [0059]; "The method further includes incrementing a counter for the selected category (910)." — [0080]; high-load vs. low-load severity bins with category counters accumulate usage/damage counts tied to motor/handwheel torque signals);
calculating a remaining component life value for the at least one vehicle component based on the damage estimate value for the at least one vehicle component, the duty cycle for the at least one vehicle component, and the at least one road surface condition metric; (“the monitoring system 200 can monitor and keep track of position cycles to account for varying levels of usage based wear.” [0049]; "computing the use-life based on a ratio of the counter for the selected category and a predetermined count for said selected category" — [0003], [0080]; "This facilitates a real-time estimation of use-life." — [0060]; "% Use of life" ratio of Type i counts to Type i counts per DV — [0060], Eq. (1);
Examiner note: Otto's use-life from categorized damage/duty counters, when combined with Fagergren's road-disturbance wear metric, yields remaining component life based on damage, duty cycle, and road surface condition metric).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the steering-torque-based road-disturbance wear prediction of Fagergren to (i) receive steering/vehicle sensor signals via a vehicle controller area network bus, (ii) calculate a duty cycle for a vehicle component using cycle counters / usage intensity, (iii) detect an event occurrence from vehicle and steering signals (threshold rise/fall), (iv) determine an event type (frequency × peak-load categories), (v) determine a damage estimate value based on a severity level (peak motor/handwheel torque load bins with category counters), and (vi) calculate remaining component life from the damage estimate, the duty cycle, and the road surface condition metric, as taught by Otto, because Otto expressly teaches grafting classified cyclic loading events, severity-based counters, and real-time use-life computation onto EPS/SbW motor torque and related onboard steering sensor signals communicated over CAN. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to combine Otto with Fagergren to improve fidelity of the remaining-life determination by accounting for discrete categorized loading events (e.g., high-frequency/high-load cycles) and explicit duty/usage intensity in addition to cumulative road-disturbance loading inferred from EPS motor torque, with a reasonable expectation of success because both references address steering-system prognostics / use-life using EPS motor torque and related onboard steering sensors in the same automotive steering art (see at least [0049, 0050, 0055, 0059, 0060 and 0080]).
Regarding claims 2 and 12, Fagergren does not explicitly disclose
wherein the at least one vehicle signal is received via the vehicle controller area network bus.
However, Otto does teach
wherein the at least one vehicle signal is received via the vehicle controller area network bus ("communicate through controlled area network (CAN) interface (or other similar digital communication protocols)." — [0002]; "the controllers 112 and 122 SbW system 40 communicate with each other through CAN interface (or other similar digital communication protocols)." — [0035]; "The odometer calculation is performed using a vehicle speed input received via the CAN 265." — [0068]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Fagergren so that the at least one vehicle signal is received via the vehicle controller area network bus as taught by Otto, because Otto teaches receiving vehicle speed and inter-controller steering signals over CAN as the standard vehicle data bus for EPS/SbW sensor networking, with a reasonable expectation of success in the same automotive steering art. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to combine Otto with Fagergren to route Fagergren's vehicle/steering sensor signals over the known CAN bus for onboard prognostics integration (see at least [0035, 0068])..
Regarding claims 3 and 13, Fagergren discloses
wherein the at least one vehicle signal is associated with at least one of wheel slip value, wheel speed, vehicle acceleration, handwheel angle, engine torque, and brake torque ("the velocity data indicative of the velocity of the vehicle may be acquired over time" — [0066]; "acceleration of a component" / vertical, lateral and longitudinal acceleration — [0014], [0064]).
Regarding claims 4 and 14, Fagergren discloses
wherein the at least one vehicle signal is associated with a vehicle system ("the vehicle comprising a power-assisted steering system including a steering actuator" — [0007], [0043]; "the term 'component' can be an individual component such as a spring, a suspension part, a bellow, etc, however, it can also be a vehicle subsystem, such as the braking sub-system, the engine, the fuel-subsystem, etc." — [0012]).
Regarding claims 5 and 15, Fagergren discloses
wherein the vehicle system includes a suspension system ("Some examples of components that will wear out quicker due to large road disturbances are springs, engine suspension, bellows, etc." — [0003]; "the term 'component' can be an individual component such as a spring, a suspension part, a bellow, etc" — [0012]).
Regarding claims 6 and 16, Fagergren discloses
wherein the vehicle system includes the steering system ("the vehicle comprising a power-assisted steering system including a steering actuator" — [0007], [0043]; "The system 10 is for predicting maintenance/replacement period for a component of a vehicle. The system comprises a central control unit 12. The vehicle comprises a power-assisted steering system including a steering actuator 14 which is arranged to control the direction of road wheels 16 of the vehicle." — [0042], [0043]).
Regarding claims 7 and 17, Fagergren discloses
wherein the steering system includes an electronic power steering system ("the vehicle comprising a power-assisted steering system including a steering actuator" — [0007], [0043]; "the generated second parameter value is a measured torque value given by an electric motor of the steering actuator" — [0015]; "the steering actuator 14 may comprise an electric motor, and the actuator sensor 26 may measure the torque applied by the electric motor." — [0046]).
Regarding claims 8 and 18, Fagergren does not explicitly disclose
wherein the at least one steering system signal further includes at least one other measurement corresponding to a motor velocity.
However, Otto does teach
wherein the at least one steering system signal further includes at least one other measurement corresponding to a motor velocity ("Motor velocity may be measured with a tachometer, or any other device, and transmitted to controller 16 as a motor velocity signal 21." — [0023]; "The position signal 20, velocity signal 21, and a torque signal(s) 18 among others, are applied to the controller 16." — [0029]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Fagergren in view of Otto so that the at least one steering system signal further includes at least one other measurement corresponding to a motor velocity as taught by Otto, because Otto expressly provides a motor velocity signal 21 alongside torque and position for EPS control and monitoring. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to combine Otto's motor velocity measurement with Fagergren's EPS motor-torque road-wear monitoring to enrich the steering-system signal set used for prognostics, with a reasonable expectation of success in the same EPS art (see at least [0023, 0029]).
Regarding claim 10, Fagergren discloses
further comprising, based on a determination that the remaining component life value is less than a threshold, generating a warning ("If a positive determination is made, the central control unit 12 may send a maintenance/replacement signal or message. For instance, it may be a visual, audible and/or tactile signal. It may be a text message sent to a local computer/screen in the driver's compartment of the vehicle" — [0052]; "when the converted value exceeds said one or more thresholds it is determined … that maintenance/replacement of the component is due" — [0065]).
Claims 9, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fagergren in view of Otto as applied to claims 1 and 11 above, and further in view of Dankers (US20130085642A1), hereinafter referred to as Dankers.
Regarding claims 9 and 19, Fagergren in view of Otto does not explicitly disclose
wherein the at least one road surface condition metric corresponds to at least one of a road roughness, a road friction, and a road surface type.
However, Dankers does teach
wherein the at least one road surface condition metric corresponds to at least one of a road roughness, a road friction, and a road surface type ("the invention intends to analyze the surface, which a vehicle is about to traverse, in order to estimate or to predict properties of the surface, such as surface type, the tire-surface traction, and/or the surface structure." — [0019]; "the analysis of the surface comprises a surface type, variation, gradation, irregularities, fluids, ice, snow, surface traction, grip, and/or surface friction and/or surface structure such as potholes, rocks, obstacles, bumps, ruts, ridges, undulation, and/or altitudinal variation." — [0041]; "spectral models can be constructed for sand, fine gravel, coarse gravel, leaves, brick, cobble-stone, and asphalt." — [0072]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Fagergren and Otto so that the at least one road surface condition metric corresponds to at least one of a road roughness, a road friction, and a road surface type as taught by Dankers, because Dankers teaches forward-looking visual road-surface analysis that classifies surface type and estimates traction/friction and structure (roughness/hazards) to improve vehicle safety and control. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to combine Dankers with Fagergren in view of Otto to enrich the road-condition input to the component-life model beyond steering-torque-inferred roughness alone (adding friction and surface-type classification), yielding more accurate duty-cycle and damage-based remaining life estimates, with a reasonable expectation of success in the same automotive road-surface / vehicle-control art (see at least [0019, 0041, 0072]).
Regarding claim 20, Fagergren discloses
An apparatus for predicting component life, the apparatus comprising: a processor; and a memory including instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: ("The system 10 is for predicting maintenance/replacement period for a component of a vehicle. The system comprises a central control unit 12." — [0042]; "a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs configured to be executed by one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions for performing the method" — [0077]; "The processor(s) … executing computer code stored in memory. The system may have an associated memory" — [0078]);
wherein the at least one steering system signal includes at least one measurement corresponding to a motor torque of a steering system motor of a steering system, while the steering system is in operation; ("the generated second parameter value is a measured torque value given by an electric motor of the steering actuator to compensate for road disturbances" — [0015]; "The operation of the steering actuator 14 may be monitored by an actuator sensor 26. For instance, the steering actuator 14 may comprise an electric motor, and the actuator sensor 26 may measure the torque applied by the electric motor." — [0046]; "the method further comprises the step of determining the magnitude of torque given by the electric motor" — [0016], [0069]; see also [0068]);
calculate at least one road surface condition metric based on the at least one vehicle signal and the at least one steering system signal, wherein the at least one road surface condition metric is calculated while the vehicle traverses a path corresponding to the at least one road surface condition metric; ("By analysing how much and/or how often the steering actuator compensates for such angular deviations, a good estimation is obtained of the roughness of the ground on which the vehicle has travelled and thus the forces that have affected components of the vehicle. The performance of the steering actuator may be monitored continuously/repeatedly, eg. by sampling output data over time, and because the compensation for the angular deviations is directly related to the roughness experienced by the wheels" — [0011]; "from the torque value, which represents the compensation for the angular deviation of the road wheels due to road disturbances, the deviation angle may be obtained. In turn, from the deviation angle, the magnitude of the road disturbance may be obtained, for instance the size of a bump" — [0065]; "When a vehicle runs at a high speed the roughness of the road will affect the components of the vehicle more" — [0066]; "during normal operation of a vehicle driving from a start to a destination" — [0060]);
Fagergren does not explicitly disclose
receive, from at least one vehicle sensor of a vehicle, at least one vehicle signal via a vehicle controller area network bus, while the vehicle is being operated;
receive, from at least one steering system sensor via a vehicle controller area network bus, at least one steering system signal;
the at least one road surface condition metric corresponding to at least one of a road roughness, a road friction, and a road surface type;
calculate a duty cycle for at least one vehicle component;
detect an event occurrence based on the at least one vehicle signal and the at least one steering system signal;
determine an event type associated with the event occurrence;
determine a damage estimate value for the at least one vehicle component based on a severity level associated with the event occurrence, the at least one vehicle signal, and the at least one steering system signal; and
calculate a remaining component life value for the at least one vehicle component based on the damage estimate value for the at least one vehicle component, the duty cycle for the at least one vehicle component, and the at least one road surface condition metric.
However, Otto does teach
receive, from at least one vehicle sensor of a vehicle, at least one vehicle signal via a vehicle controller area network bus, while the vehicle is being operated; ("communicate through controlled area network (CAN) interface" — [0002], [0035]; "vehicle speed input received via the CAN 265" — [0068]; vehicle speed / motor torque / motor velocity sensor signals while operated — [0023], [0050]);
receive, from at least one steering system sensor via a vehicle controller area network bus, at least one steering system signal ("communicate through controlled area network (CAN) interface" — [0002], [0035]; "Further, the monitoring system 200 tracks motor torque (or handwheel torque) cycles" — [0050]; motor velocity / torque signals — [0023]);
calculate a duty cycle for at least one vehicle component; ("using a structure of cycle counters and event monitors to track the usage and operating environment of the steering system over time" — [0040]; "The monitoring system 200 tracks use and life of the steering system 40 using position based cycle counting … to account for varying levels of usage based wear." — [0049]; "The counts from each category (520) are used to normalize the present running status of the steering system 40 (in counts) against the life counts (from the completion of DV). This facilitates a real-time estimation of use-life." — [0060]; "Distance vs. Speed Monitoring can categorize the vehicle 100 use into 3 types: Urban, Residential and Highway." — [0071]; cycle counters / usage categorization / % use-of-life constitute calculating a duty cycle as a measure of usage/loading intensity over time);
detect an event occurrence based on the at least one vehicle signal and the at least one steering system signal; ("based on a determination that the attribute signal rises above an upper threshold and subsequently falls below a lower threshold" — [0003], [0004], [0078]; "using a structure of cycle counters and event monitors to track the usage and operating environment of the steering system over time" — [0040]; "the monitoring system 200 records a number of times the motor position in the steering system 40 goes above an upper threshold (deg_upper) and back below a lower threshold (deg_lower)" — [0053]; "The attribute signal can be the motor position, the temperature, the torque, and the like" — [0078]);
determine an event type associated with the event occurrence; ("selecting a subset of categories based on a frequency content of the attribute signal. The method further includes selecting a category from the subset of categories based on a peak load" — [0003], [0004], [0078]; "based on the frequency content and the peak load, the position tracking can be categorized into 4 categories (520) represented by one of low frequency—low load, low frequency—high load, high frequency—low load, and high frequency—high load, respectively." — [0059]; see also urban/residential/highway use types — [0071]);
determine a damage estimate value for the at least one vehicle component based on a severity level associated with the event occurrence, the at least one vehicle signal, and the at least one steering system signal; (“the monitoring system 200 can monitor and keep track of position cycles to account for varying levels of usage based wear.” [0049]; “the monitoring system 200 tracks motor torque (or handwheel torque) cycles to account for high stress usage. The monitoring system 200 also tracks temperature gradient cycles counting to identify transient thermal events in the steering system 40. The monitored cycles can be distinguished between high (shock) and low gradient.” [0050]; "The peak load is defined as the total system torque equivalent of motor and handwheel torque." — [0055]; "If the peak load 415 is above a load threshold, the peak load 415 can be labeled as 'high load' and 'low load' otherwise. The peak load in this case can be the maximum value of motor torque during the position counting" — [0059]; "The method further includes incrementing a counter for the selected category (910)." — [0080]; high-load vs. low-load severity bins with category counters accumulate usage/damage counts tied to motor/handwheel torque signals);
calculate a remaining component life value for the at least one vehicle component based on the damage estimate value for the at least one vehicle component, the duty cycle for the at least one vehicle component, and the at least one road surface condition metric; ("computing the use-life based on a ratio of the counter for the selected category and a predetermined count for said selected category" — [0003], [0080]; "This facilitates a real-time estimation of use-life." — [0060]; "% Use of life" ratio of Type i counts to Type i counts per DV — [0060], Eq. (1); Otto's use-life from categorized damage/duty counters, when combined with Fagergren's road-disturbance wear metric, yields remaining component life based on damage, duty cycle, and road surface condition metric).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the steering-torque-based road-disturbance wear prediction of Fagergren to (i) receive steering/vehicle sensor signals via a vehicle controller area network bus, (ii) calculate a duty cycle for a vehicle component using cycle counters / usage intensity, (iii) detect an event occurrence from vehicle and steering signals (threshold rise/fall), (iv) determine an event type (frequency × peak-load categories), (v) determine a damage estimate value based on a severity level (peak motor/handwheel torque load bins with category counters), and (vi) calculate remaining component life from the damage estimate, the duty cycle, and the road surface condition metric, as taught by Otto, because Otto expressly teaches grafting classified cyclic loading events, severity-based counters, and real-time use-life computation onto EPS/SbW motor torque and related onboard steering sensor signals communicated over CAN. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to combine Otto with Fagergren to improve fidelity of the remaining-life determination by accounting for discrete categorized loading events (e.g., high-frequency/high-load cycles) and explicit duty/usage intensity in addition to cumulative road-disturbance loading inferred from EPS motor torque, with a reasonable expectation of success because both references address steering-system prognostics / use-life using EPS motor torque and related onboard steering sensors in the same automotive steering art (see at least [0049, 0050, 0055, 0059, 0060 and 0080]).
Fagergren in view of Otto does not explicitly disclose
the at least one road surface condition metric corresponding to at least one of a road roughness, a road friction, and a road surface type.
However, Dankers does teach
the at least one road surface condition metric corresponding to at least one of a road roughness, a road friction, and a road surface type ("estimate or to predict properties of the surface, such as surface type, the tire-surface traction, and/or the surface structure." — [0019]; "surface type … surface traction, grip, and/or surface friction and/or surface structure such as potholes, rocks, obstacles, bumps" — [0041]; surface-type spectral models for asphalt, brick, cobble, gravel, etc. — [0072]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination of Fagergren and Otto so that the at least one road surface condition metric corresponds to at least one of a road roughness, a road friction, and a road surface type as taught by Dankers, because Dankers teaches forward-looking visual road-surface analysis that classifies surface type and estimates traction/friction and structure (roughness/hazards) to improve vehicle safety and control. One of ordinary skill would have been motivated to combine Dankers with Fagergren in view of Otto to enrich the road-condition input to the component-life model beyond steering-torque-inferred roughness alone (adding friction and surface-type classification), yielding more accurate duty-cycle and damage-based remaining life estimates, with a reasonable expectation of success in the same automotive road-surface / vehicle-control art (see at least [0019, 0041, 0072]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to AHMED ALKIRSH whose telephone number is (703) 756-4503. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:00 am-5:00 pm EST.
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/A.A./Examiner, Art Unit 3668
/Fadey S. Jabr/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3668
