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.
Claim(s) 1, 3-8 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Bluethmann et al (US 2015/0083508). Bluethmann discloses:
With regard to claim 1 - A wheel module for a vehicle including at least two independently steered wheels to be steered independently, the wheel module comprising:
a tire 18 having a side wall defined as a side surface and a tread face defined as a front surface facing frontward of the vehicle (see Fig. 5);
a steering unit 80 configured to output a steering force for the tire;
a driving unit 72 configured to output a driving force for the tire;
a braking unit 50B configured to output a braking force for the tire; and
a suspension mechanism 37 supported by an upper end fulcrum 39 and a lower end fulcrum 39 (see Fig. 6) so as to reduce vibration or impact transmitted from a road surface,
wherein the suspension mechanism 37 includes a rod-shaped damper and a coil-shaped spring in which the rod-shaped damper is inserted (see Fig. 4), an imaginary straight line extending along a vertical direction and passing through a center of the tire in a radial direction and in a width direction of the tire is defined as a tire central axis, and the lower end fulcrum 49 of the suspension mechanism 37 is positioned away from the tire central axis when viewed from a side surface of the tire (see Figs. 4-6 and 8).
With regard to claim 3 - further comprising an arm 74 connecting the steering unit 80 and the tire 18, wherein a steering force output by the steering unit 80 is transmitted to the tire via the arm 74.
With regard to claim 4 - wherein the arm has an upper arm 74 adjacent to the steering unit 80 and a rocker arm 75 adjacent to the tire 18, the upper arm 74 and the rocker arm 75 are connected to each other so as to be rotatable about an arm coupling axis 19 extending in a horizontal direction, the arm coupling axis 19 is separated from the tire central axis when viewed from a side surface of the tire 18 (see Fig. 5), the upper end fulcrum 39 of the suspension mechanism 37 is rotatably supported by the upper arm 74, and the lower end fulcrum 39 is rotatably supported by the rocker arm 75, and the lower end fulcrum 39 of the suspension mechanism 37 is rotatable about the arm coupling axis 19 in a plane parallel to a side surface of the tire 18 (see Fig. 5).
With regard to claim 5 - wherein a positional relationship between the tire 18 and the suspension mechanism 37 is maintained when the tire 18 is steered.
With regard to claim 6 - wherein a kingpin axis 21 and the tire central axis coincide with each other when viewed from a front surface of the tire (see Fig. 5).
With regard to claim 7 - wherein the steering unit 80 includes a steering motor 95 that outputs torque, and a speed reducer 54 that reduces rotation of the steering motor and transmits the rotation to the arm (“[0048] A steering hub 86 may be positioned adjacent to the encoder read disc 48 and to a speed reducing gear set 54. In one possible embodiment, the speed reducing gear set 54 shown in FIG. 7 provides a steering speed reduction ratio of at least 50:1. In another embodiment, the reduction may be at least 100:1, e.g., reducing a 2000 RPM steering input speed to a 20 RPM actual steering speed as transmitted to the drive wheel 18. This reduction in turn amplifies steering torque, as will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art. Such steering reducer devices such as the speed reducing gear set 54 providing the desired gear reduction are commercially available off-the-shelf components, and thus are not further described herein. Other steering reduction ratios may be used without departing from the intended inventive scope.”).
With regard to claim 8 - wherein the steering motor includes a multi-winding motor having a plurality of winding sets in a redundant manner (“[0050] The seal 57 shown in FIG. 7 seals against a steering motor stack 90. The steering motor stack 90 includes a motor support race 92 and a dual-wound stator 94 having two sets of windings W1 and W2, with only a portion of the windings W1 and W2 shown schematically for illustrative simplicity.”).
Claim(s) 1, 2, and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tsunoda (JP 2014-210558) in view of Bluethmann. Tsunoda discloses:
With regard to claim 1 - A wheel module for a vehicle including at least two independently steered wheels to be steered independently, the wheel module comprising:
a tire W having a side wall defined as a side surface and a tread face defined as a front surface facing frontward of the vehicle (see Fig. 3);
a steering unit 4 configured to output a steering force for the tire;
a driving unit 3 configured to output a driving force for the tire; and
a suspension mechanism 60 supported by an upper end fulcrum P3 and a lower end fulcrum P2 (see Fig. 2) so as to reduce vibration or impact transmitted from a road surface,
wherein the suspension mechanism 60 includes a rod-shaped damper (see Fig. 2), an imaginary straight line S1 extending along a vertical direction and passing through a center of the tire W in a radial direction and in a width direction of the tire is defined as a tire central axis, and the lower end fulcrum P3 of the suspension mechanism 60 is positioned away from the tire central axis S1 when viewed from a side surface of the tire W (see Fig. 2).
Tsunoda fails to explicitly disclose a braking unit 50B configured to output a braking force for the tire, and a coil-shaped spring in which the rod-shaped damper is inserted. As seen in the rejection above, Bluethmann teaches the claimed wheel module, including a braking unit 50B configured to output a braking force for the tire, and a coil-shaped spring in which the rod-shaped damper is inserted. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was fled to modify the wheel module of Tsunoda with the teaching of Bluethmann so as to include a braking module and a coil-shaped spring surrounding the rod-shaped damper, with a reasonable expectation of success, to ensure the vehicle may properly decelerate and stop when needed and to allow for better cushion of the vehicle against road noise.
With regard to claim 2, Tsunoda discloses wherein the suspension mechanism 60 is inclined with respect to the tire central axis S1 when viewed from a side surface of the tire (see Fig. 2).
With regard to claim 9, Tsunoda discloses wherein the wheel module is an independently steered wheel for a vehicle 1 having at least one front wheel W and at least one rear wheel W, wherein the suspension mechanism 60 in the wheel module for a front wheel W is provided on a front side of the vehicle with respect to the tire central axis S1, and the suspension mechanism 60 in the wheel module for a rear wheel W is provided on a rear side of the vehicle with respect to the tire central axis S1 ( see Fig. 1A).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to TIMOTHY WILHELM whose telephone number is (571)272-6980. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30-5:30.
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/TIMOTHY WILHELM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3614 January 21, 2026