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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 01/15/2026 with respect to claim(s) 1-20 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive or moot in view of new ground of rejection provided below which was necessitated based on Applicant’s amendment to the claims. The new ground of rejection of claim 1 is based on in combination of Zhou, Najah, Quan, Ban, and Niu. Niu teaches generating an analytical solution of joint parameters of all possible different configurations of the robot type (See at least Page 4 Para 1 “analytical solution module performs inverse kinematics calculation based on the DH parameter set of the standard form of the robot to be solved”, Page 7 Para 14 “The method of the present disclosure is equally applicable to other configurations of industrial robots.”).
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3, 6, and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US 20190111562 A1) (Hereinafter Zhou), in view of Najah (WO2018196232A1), Quan et al. (CN 118809574 A) (Hereinafter Quan), Ban et al. (US 20140156072 A1) (Hereinafter Ban), and further in view of Niu et al. (CN116673966A) (Hereinafter Niu).
Regarding Claim 1, Zhou teaches a method of reducing calculation time for inverse kinematics for a robotic arm (See at least Para [0003] “In order to solve the problem above, the present disclosure provides a numerical method for obtaining the inverse kinematics of a six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist, which can quickly obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics, reduce the computation amount for the robot controller, and improve the real-time performance.”) comprising:
…
using an analytical solver (See at least Para [0028] “The present disclosure has the beneficial effects that: the algorithm skillfully uses the analytical solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with a non-offset wrist as the approximate solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist to obtain the approximate pose…The algorithm has less calculation amount, faster convergence, and higher efficiency, and has less burden for a robot controller. This method can increase the response speed, and has better real-time performance.”) …
providing the analytical solution of joint parameters as a seed value to a numerical solver (See at least Para [0068] “The algorithm skillfully uses the analytical solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with a non-offset wrist as the approximate solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist to obtain the approximate pose; the error between the approximate pose and the expected pose is obtained and an equivalent axial angle is used to represent the pose rotation increment between the approximate pose and the expected pose of the terminal coordinate frame…the iterative point is continuously updated to approach the expected pose, so as to obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics meeting the actual accuracy requirement finally. The algorithm has less calculation amount, faster convergence, higher efficiency, less burden to a robot controller and this method provides better real-time performance and can improve the efficiency.”) …
determining the numerical solution using the numerical solver and the seed value, the numerical solution comprising joint parameters for the robotic arm (See at least Para [0028] “… the iterative point is continuously updated to approach the expected pose, so as to obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics meeting the actual accuracy requirement finally. The algorithm has less calculation amount, faster convergence, and higher efficiency, and has less burden for a robot controller. This method can increase the response speed, and has better real-time performance.”, Para [0029] “… Therefore, the algorithm can also be used for obtaining numerical solutions of the inverse kinematics of other six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist.”) …, wherein the numerical solver comprises an algorithm utilizing the as-manufactured kinematic model (See at least Para[0029] When the algorithm selects the initial point for the iterative method, the initial iterative point is specifically selected around the expected numerical solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist on the basis of the inverse kinematics… Therefore, the algorithm can also be used for obtaining numerical solutions of the inverse kinematics of other six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist.”); and
moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution to place … the robotic arm in the desired location (See at least Para [0003] “In order to solve the problem above, the present disclosure provides a numerical method for obtaining the inverse kinematics of a six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist, which can quickly obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics, reduce the computation amount for the robot controller, and improve the real-time performance.”).
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out …
determining as-designed values for components of a robotic type, wherein the as- designed values comprise a number of designed lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic type, and the as-designed values correspond to a design of the robotic type;
generating an as-designed kinematic model using the design values of the robot type;
… based on the as-designed values of a robot type to generate an analytical solution of joint
parameters of all possible different configurations of the robot type to achieve a desired location of a tool center point of the robot type and corresponds to a specific instance of the robot type, wherein the robotic arm has the robot type, and wherein the analytical solver comprises an algorithm utilizing the as-designed kinematic model;
… for the robotic arm of the robot type; and
determining as-manufactured values for components of the robotic arm, wherein the as- manufactured values comprise a number of manufactured lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic arm, and wherein the as-manufactured values correspond to manufacturing of the robotic arm, and wherein any differences between the as-manufactured values and the as- designed values are due to manufacturing tolerances;
generating an as-manufactured kinematic model of the robotic arm using the as- manufactured values;
… to achieve the desired location of a tool center point of the robotic arm.
… the tool center point of…
Najah teaches …
determining as-designed values for components of a robotic type, wherein the as- designed
values comprise a number of designed lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic type, and the as-designed values correspond to a design of the robotic type (See at least Page 1 Para 4 “Industrial robots are designed and built to provide very high repeatability to perform predictive tasks. They usually have good repeatability, but they are poorly accurate, and accuracy is usually an order of magnitude worse than repeatability. The accuracy of the robot has not been developed to meet the maturity level of the production process. This is because each industrial robot is manufactured within a certain tolerance. There will be no two identical mechanical units. However, each robot controller uses the same control model with ideal parameters, which defaults to all mechanical units being identical. Therefore, there is always a certain error between the ideal position in the robot model and the actual position of the robot.”);
generating an as-designed kinematic model using the design values of the robot type
(See at least Page 1 Para 5 “Robot calibration is a proven method that greatly improves the accuracy of robot positioning. This process identifies real geometric parameters in the kinematic structure of the robot…”, Page 1 Para 4 “Industrial robots are designed and built to provide very high repeatability to perform predictive tasks. They usually have good repeatability, but they are poorly accurate, and accuracy is usually an order of magnitude worse than repeatability. The accuracy of the robot has not been developed to meet the maturity level of the production process. This is because each industrial robot is manufactured within a certain tolerance. There will be no two identical mechanical units. However, each robot controller uses the same control model with ideal parameters, which defaults to all mechanical units being identical. Therefore, there is always a certain error between the ideal position in the robot model and the actual position of the robot.”); …
determining as-manufactured values for components of the robotic arm, wherein the as- manufactured values comprise a number of manufactured lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic arm, and wherein the as-manufactured values correspond to manufacturing of the robotic arm, and wherein any differences between the as-manufactured values and the as- designed values are due to manufacturing tolerances (See at least Page 1 Para 4 “Industrial robots are designed and built to provide very high repeatability to perform predictive tasks. They usually have good repeatability, but they are poorly accurate, and accuracy is usually an order of magnitude worse than repeatability. The accuracy of the robot has not been developed to meet the maturity level of the production process. This is because each industrial robot is manufactured within a certain tolerance. There will be no two identical mechanical units. However, each robot controller uses the same control model with ideal parameters, which defaults to all mechanical units being identical. Therefore, there is always a certain error between the ideal position in the robot model and the actual position of the robot.”);
generating an as-manufactured kinematic model of the robotic arm using the as-
manufactured values (See at least Page 1 Para 5 “Robot calibration is a proven method that greatly improves the accuracy of robot positioning. This process identifies real geometric parameters in the kinematic structure of the robot…”, Page 1 Para 4 “Industrial robots are designed and built to provide very high repeatability to perform predictive tasks. They usually have good repeatability, but they are poorly accurate, and accuracy is usually an order of magnitude worse than repeatability. The accuracy of the robot has not been developed to meet the maturity level of the production process. This is because each industrial robot is manufactured within a certain tolerance. There will be no two identical mechanical units. However, each robot controller uses the same control model with ideal parameters, which defaults to all mechanical units being identical. Therefore, there is always a certain error between the ideal position in the robot model and the actual position of the robot.”);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Ohara and include the feature of determining as-designed values for components of the robotic arm, wherein the as- designed values comprise a number of designed lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic arm, and the as-designed values correspond to a design of the robotic arm, and generating an as-designed kinematic model using the design values of the robot type, determining as-manufactured values for components of the robotic arm, wherein the as- manufactured values comprise a number of manufactured lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic arm, and wherein the as-manufactured values correspond to manufacturing of the robotic arm, and wherein any differences between the as-manufactured values and the as- designed values are due to manufacturing tolerances;
and generating an as-manufactured kinematic model of the robotic arm using the as- manufactured values, thereby incorporating the generated as-designed kinematic model and as-manufactured kinematic model in the calculation which will provide less calculation amount, and increased calculation accuracy (See at least Page 1 Para 5 “Robot calibration is a proven method that greatly improves the accuracy of robot positioning…”).
Quan teaches
… based on the as-designed values of a robot type to generate an analytical solution of
joint Parameters … to achieve a desired location of a tool center point of the robot type and corresponds to a specific instance of the robot type (See at least Page 1 “Determine the DH parameters of the rigid-flexible hybrid manipulator based on the physical configuration information of the rigid-flexible hybrid manipulator and a preset manipulator configuration mapping model, wherein the manipulator configuration mapping model is used to map the physical manipulator configuration of the rigid-flexible hybrid manipulator into a desired manipulator configuration suitable for inverse kinematics solution, and the manipulator configuration mapping model is generated based on mapping cross orthogonal active joints into mutually orthogonal rotational joints and swinging joints in physical space;”), wherein the robotic arm has the robot type (See at least Page 4 Para 6 “It can be seen that the present application can meet different requirements for rigid-flexible hybrid robotic arms through different combination types.”, Page 3 Para 13 “In this embodiment, the combination types of two adjacent joints include: a purely rigid combination joint, a rigid-flexible combination joint and a purely flexible combination joint; the purely rigid combination joint includes: a first rigid joint and a second rigid joint; the rigid-flexible combination joint includes: a first rigid joint and a first flexible joint; the purely flexible combination joint includes: a first flexible joint and a second flexible joint.”);
… for the robotic arm of the robot type (See at least Page 4 Para 6 “It can be seen that the present application can meet different requirements for rigid-flexible hybrid robotic arms through different combination types.”, Page 3 Para 13 “In this embodiment, the combination types of two adjacent joints include: a purely rigid combination joint, a rigid-flexible combination joint and a purely flexible combination joint; the purely rigid combination joint includes: a first rigid joint and a second rigid joint; the rigid-flexible combination joint includes: a first rigid joint and a first flexible joint; the purely flexible combination joint includes: a first flexible joint and a second flexible joint.”); and
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Quan and include the feature of using design values of a robot type to generate an analytical solution of joint parameters, thereby provide less calculation amount, faster convergence, and higher efficiency, and has less burden for a robot controller with increase in the response speed, and better real-time performance (See at least Page 9 Para 9 “… Through such processing, the amount of calculation required later can be greatly reduced, which greatly reduces the requirements for electronic equipment, improves the real-time control, and reduces the hardware cost. This processing method allows the solution of inverse kinematics to be completed on many embedded devices, enriching the application scenarios of rigid-flexible hybrid manipulators.”).
Ban teaches
… to achieve the desired location of a tool center point of the robotic arm (See at least Para [0009] “In order to achieve the object described above, according to a first aspect, a measurement apparatus for determining a position of a tool center point of a tool, which is attached to a tool attachment surface of an arm tip portion of a robot..”, Para [0051] “In step T5, based on the position of the touch-up point and the position of the robot stored in measurement result storage section 12a and alignment result storage section 12b, respectively, tool center point position calculation section 11b calculates the position of tool center point 31 according to the following algorithm.”).
… the tool center point of (See at least Para [0009] “In order to achieve the object described above, according to a first aspect, a measurement apparatus for determining a position of a tool center point of a tool, which is attached to a tool attachment surface of an arm tip portion of a robot..”, Para [0051] “In step T5, based on the position of the touch-up point and the position of the robot stored in measurement result storage section 12a and alignment result storage section 12b, respectively, tool center point position calculation section 11b calculates the position of tool center point 31 according to the following algorithm.”) …
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Ban and include the feature of achieving the desired location of a tool center point of the robotic arm, thereby provide precise and accurate location for performing operation (See at least Para [0008] “The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and has an object to provide a measurement method that can stably measure a position of a tool center point with respect to a tool attachment surface with high accuracy in a short time…”).
Niu teaches … generate an analytical solution of joint parameters of all possible
different configurations of the robot type (See at least Page 4 Para 1 “analytical solution module performs inverse kinematics calculation based on the DH parameter set of the standard form of the robot to be solved”, Page 7 Para 14 “The method of the present disclosure is equally applicable to other configurations of industrial robots.”)…
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Niu and include the feature of generating an analytical solution of joint parameters of all possible different configurations of the robot type, thereby provide versatility (See at least Page 1 Para 6 “When the robot configuration is consistent, due to different base coordinate systems, flange coordinate systems, and joint rotation direction positions of different robot manufacturers, the final DH model is inconsistent, which limits the versatility of the analytical solution.”).
Regarding Claim 2, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 1.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 1 wherein the as-
designed values are different than the as-manufactured values.
Najah teaches the method of claim 1 wherein the as-designed values are different than
the as-manufactured values (See at least Page 1 Para 4 “Industrial robots are designed and built to provide very high repeatability to perform predictive tasks. They usually have good repeatability, but they are poorly accurate, and accuracy is usually an order of magnitude worse than repeatability. The accuracy of the robot has not been developed to meet the maturity level of the production process. This is because each industrial robot is manufactured within a certain tolerance. There will be no two identical mechanical units. However, each robot controller uses the same control model with ideal parameters, which defaults to all mechanical units being identical. Therefore, there is always a certain error between the ideal position in the robot model and the actual position of the robot.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Najah and include the feature of as-designed values being different than the as-manufactured values, thereby using both values in the calculation which will provide less calculation amount, calculation accuracy which will lead to faster convergence, higher efficiency, has less burden for a robot controller with increase in the response speed, and better real-time performance (See at least Page 1 Para 5 “Robot calibration is a proven method that greatly improves the accuracy of robot positioning…”).
Regarding Claim 3, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 1.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 1, wherein the as-
manufactured values are described using Denavit-Hartenberg parameters.
Najah teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the as-manufactured values are
described using Denavit-Hartenberg parameters (See at least Page 1 Para 4 “Robot calibration is a proven method that greatly improves the accuracy of robot positioning. This process identifies real geometric parameters in the kinematic structure of the robot. These motion parameters describe the relative position and orientation of the robot links and joints. Research in the field of robot calibration reveals different calibration methods and algorithms. A large number of methods exist for the development of dynamic models of industrial robots. Denavit-Hartenberg developed a method based on homogeneous
transformation matrix [1].”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Najah and include the feature of the as-manufactured values being described using Denavit-Hartenberg parameters, thereby providing less calculation amount, calculation accuracy, faster convergence, higher efficiency, has less burden for a robot controller with increase in the response speed, and better real-time performance (See at least Page 1 Para 5 “Robot calibration is a proven method that greatly improves the accuracy of robot positioning…”).
Regarding Claim 6, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 1.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 1 further comprising:
performing a manufacturing operation using a tool at the tool center point of the robotic arm after moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution.
Najah teaches the method of claim 1 further comprising: performing a manufacturing
operation using a tool at the tool center point of the robotic arm after moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution (See at least Page 2 Para 3 “The main purpose of the present application is to provide an automatic calibration method and system for a robot and an end effector, and more particularly to provide a tool center point for automatically calibrating an industrial robot (robot) and its end effector ( Tool Center Point, TCP) method and system that uses a calibration system that identifies robot and TCP errors and compensates for identified errors to improve the accuracy of the
robot”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Zhou with the teachings of Najah and include the feature of a manufacturing operation using a tool at the tool center point of the robotic arm after moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution, thereby perform manufacturing operation precisely and accurately (See at least Page 1 Para 5 “Robot calibration is a proven method that greatly improves the accuracy of robot positioning…”).
Regarding claim 14, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 9.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 9 further comprising:
generating a kinematic model of the robotic arm using the as-manufactured values, wherein the numerical solver comprises an algorithm utilizing the kinematic model.
Quan teaches the method of claim 9 further comprising:
generating a kinematic model of the robotic arm using the as-manufactured values, wherein the numerical solver comprises an algorithm utilizing the kinematic model (See at least Page 2 Para 5 “A processing unit is used to determine the DH parameters of the rigid-flexible hybrid manipulator based on the physical configuration information of the rigid-flexible hybrid manipulator and a preset manipulator configuration mapping model, wherein the manipulator configuration mapping model is used to map the physical manipulator configuration of the rigid-flexible hybrid manipulator into a desired manipulator configuration suitable for inverse kinematics solution, and the manipulator configuration mapping model is generated based on the mapping of cross-orthogonal active joints into mutually orthogonal rotational joints and swinging joints in physical space; obtain the transformation matrix of each joint based on the DH parameter processing; perform inverse kinematics solution according to the transformation matrix and a given target posture, and generate a target angle value for each joint according to the solution result; adjust the corresponding joint angle based on each of the target angle values so that the end of the rigid-flexible hybrid manipulator moves to the target posture.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Quan and include the feature of generating a kinematic model of the robotic arm using the as-manufactured values, wherein the numerical solver comprises an algorithm utilizing the kinematic model, thereby using the values in the calculation which will provide less calculation amount, faster convergence, and higher efficiency, and has less burden for a robot controller with increase in the response speed, and better real-time performance (See at least Page 9 Para 9 “… Through such processing, the amount of calculation required later can be greatly reduced, which greatly reduces the requirements for electronic equipment, improves the real-time control, and reduces the hardware cost. This processing method allows the solution of inverse kinematics to be completed on many embedded devices, enriching the application scenarios of rigid-flexible hybrid manipulators.”).
Claim(s) 9, 10, and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US 20190111562 A1) (Hereinafter Zhou), in view of Najah (WO2018196232A1), Ban et al. (US 20140156072 A1) (Hereinafter Ban), and further in view of Niu et al. (CN116673966A) (Hereinafter Niu).
Regarding Claim 9, Zhou teaches a method of reducing calculation time for inverse kinematics for a robotic arm (See at least Para [0003] “In order to solve the problem above, the present disclosure provides a numerical method for obtaining the inverse kinematics of a six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist, which can quickly obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics, reduce the computation amount for the robot controller, and improve the real-time performance.”) comprising:
…
developing an analytical solver using the design values (See at least Para [0068] “The algorithm skillfully uses the analytical solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with a non-offset wrist as the approximate solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist to obtain the approximate pose; the error between the approximate pose and the expected pose is obtained and an equivalent axial angle is used to represent the pose rotation increment between the approximate pose and the expected pose of the terminal coordinate frame…the iterative point is continuously updated to approach the expected pose, so as to obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics meeting the actual accuracy requirement finally. The algorithm has less calculation amount, faster convergence, higher efficiency, less burden to a robot controller and this method provides better real-time performance and can improve the efficiency.”);
generating an analytical solution of joint parameters for the robot type to achieve a desired location … using the analytical solver (See at least Para [0028] “… obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics meeting the actual accuracy requirement finally. The algorithm has less calculation amount, faster convergence, and higher efficiency, and has less burden for a robot controller. This method can increase the response speed, and has better real-time performance.”, Para [0029] “… Therefore, the algorithm can also be used for obtaining numerical solutions of the inverse kinematics of other six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist.”);
…
providing the as-manufactured values and the analytical solution to a numerical solver
as input (See at least Para [0028] “The present disclosure has the beneficial effects that: the algorithm skillfully uses the analytical solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with a non-offset wrist as the approximate solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist to obtain the approximate pose; the error between the approximate pose and the expected pose is calculated and use an equivalent axial angle to represent the pose rotation increment between the approximate pose of the terminal coordinate frame and the expected pose. Use the jacobian matrix J to obtain the joint variable increment dθ′, so as to obtain the new iteration point. The iterative calculation continues after obtaining the forward kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist so that the iteration point is continuously updated and obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics meeting the actual accuracy requirement finally. The algorithm has less calculation amount, faster convergence, and higher efficiency, and has less burden for a robot controller. This method can increase the response speed, and has better real-time performance.”); and
generating a numerical solution comprising joint parameters for the robotic arm (See at least Para [0068] “The algorithm skillfully uses the analytical solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with a non-offset wrist as the approximate solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist to obtain the approximate pose; the error between the approximate pose and the expected pose is obtained and an equivalent axial angle is used to represent the pose rotation increment between the approximate pose and the expected pose of the terminal coordinate frame…the iterative point is continuously updated to approach the expected pose, so as to obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics meeting the actual accuracy requirement finally. The algorithm has less calculation amount, faster convergence, higher efficiency, less burden to a robot controller and this method provides better real-time performance and can improve the efficiency.”) …
moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution … in the desired location(See at least Para [0003] “In order to solve the problem above, the present disclosure provides a numerical method for obtaining the inverse kinematics of a six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist, which can quickly obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics, reduce the computation amount for the robot controller, and improve the real-time performance.”).
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out …
receiving design values for components of a robot type, wherein the design values comprise a number of designed lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic type, and the design values correspond to a design of the robotic type; …
… of a tool center point of the robot type …
determining as-manufactured values for the components of a robotic arm of the robot type, and that corresponds to a specific instance of the robot type, wherein the as-manufactured values comprise a number of manufactured lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic arm, and wherein the as-manufactured values correspond to manufacturing of the robotic arm, and wherein any differences between the as-manufactured values and the designed values are due to manufacturing tolerances; …
to achieve a desired location of a tool center point; and
… to place the tool center point of the robotic arm …
Najah teaches …
receiving design values for components of a robot type, wherein the design values comprise a number of designed lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic type, and the design values correspond to a design of the robotic type (See at least Page 1 Para 4 “Industrial robots are designed and built to provide very high repeatability to perform predictive tasks. They usually have good repeatability, but they are poorly accurate, and accuracy is usually an order of magnitude worse than repeatability. The accuracy of the robot has not been developed to meet the maturity level of the production process. This is because each industrial robot is manufactured within a certain tolerance. There will be no two identical mechanical units. However, each robot controller uses the same control model with ideal parameters, which defaults to all mechanical units being identical. Therefore, there is always a certain error between the ideal position in the robot model and the actual position of the robot.”; …
determining as-manufactured values for the components of a robotic arm of the robot type, and that corresponds to a specific instance of the robot type, wherein the as-manufactured values comprise a number of manufactured lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic arm, and wherein the as-manufactured values correspond to manufacturing of the robotic arm, and wherein any differences between the as-manufactured values and the designed values are due to manufacturing tolerances (See at least Page 1 Para 4 “Industrial robots are designed and built to provide very high repeatability to perform predictive tasks. They usually have good repeatability, but they are poorly accurate, and accuracy is usually an order of magnitude worse than repeatability. The accuracy of the robot has not been developed to meet the maturity level of the production process. This is because each industrial robot is manufactured within a certain tolerance. There will be no two identical mechanical units. However, each robot controller uses the same control model with ideal parameters, which defaults to all mechanical units being identical. Therefore, there is always a certain error between the ideal position in the robot model and the actual position of the robot.”); …
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Ohara and include the feature of receiving design values for components of a robot type, wherein the design values comprise a number of designed lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic arm, and the design values correspond to a design of the robotic arm, and determining as-manufactured values for the components of a robotic arm of the robot type, wherein the as-manufactured values comprise a number of manufactured lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic arm, and wherein the as-manufactured values correspond to manufacturing of the robotic arm, and wherein any differences between the as-manufactured values and the designed values are due to manufacturing tolerances, thereby incorporating the generated as-designed kinematic model and as-manufactured kinematic model in the calculation which will provide less calculation amount, and increased calculation accuracy (See at least Page 1 Para 5 “Robot calibration is a proven method that greatly improves the accuracy of robot positioning…”).
Ban teaches
… of a tool center point of the robot type (See at least Para [0009] “In order to achieve the object described above, according to a first aspect, a measurement apparatus for determining a position of a tool center point of a tool, which is attached to a tool attachment surface of an arm tip portion of a robot..”, Para [0051] “In step T5, based on the position of the touch-up point and the position of the robot stored in measurement result storage section 12a and alignment result storage section 12b, respectively, tool center point position calculation section 11b calculates the position of tool center point 31 according to the following algorithm.”)…
to achieve a desired location of a tool center point (See at least Para [0009] “In order to achieve the object described above, according to a first aspect, a measurement apparatus for determining a position of a tool center point of a tool, which is attached to a tool attachment surface of an arm tip portion of a robot..”, Para [0051] “In step T5, based on the position of the touch-up point and the position of the robot stored in measurement result storage section 12a and alignment result storage section 12b, respectively, tool center point position calculation section 11b calculates the position of tool center point 31 according to the following algorithm.”)…
… to place the tool center point of the robotic arm (See at least Para [0009] “In order to achieve the object described above, according to a first aspect, a measurement apparatus for determining a position of a tool center point of a tool, which is attached to a tool attachment surface of an arm tip portion of a robot..”, Para [0051] “In step T5, based on the position of the touch-up point and the position of the robot stored in measurement result storage section 12a and alignment result storage section 12b, respectively, tool center point position calculation section 11b calculates the position of tool center point 31 according to the following algorithm.”)…
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Ban and include the feature of achieving the desired location of a tool center point of the robotic arm, thereby provide precise and accurate location for performing operation (See at least Para [0008] “The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and has an object to provide a measurement method that can stably measure a position of a tool center point with respect to a tool attachment surface with high accuracy in a short time…”).
Niu teaches … generating an analytical solution of joint parameters of all possible
different configurations (See at least Page 4 Para 1 “analytical solution module performs inverse kinematics calculation based on the DH parameter set of the standard form of the robot to be solved”, Page 7 Para 14 “The method of the present disclosure is equally applicable to other configurations of industrial robots.”)…
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Niu and include the feature of generating an analytical solution of joint parameters of all possible different configurations of the robot type, thereby provide versatility (See at least Page 1 Para 6 “When the robot configuration is consistent, due to different base coordinate systems, flange coordinate systems, and joint rotation direction positions of different robot manufacturers, the final DH model is inconsistent, which limits the versatility of the analytical solution.”).
Regarding Claim 10, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 9.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 9 wherein the designed
values are different than the as-manufactured values.
Najah teaches the method of claim 9 wherein the designed values are different than the as-manufactured values (See at least Page 1 Para 4 “Industrial robots are designed and built to provide very high repeatability to perform predictive tasks. They usually have good repeatability, but they are poorly accurate, and accuracy is usually an order of magnitude worse than repeatability. The accuracy of the robot has not been developed to meet the maturity level of the production process. This is because each industrial robot is manufactured within a certain tolerance. There will be no two identical mechanical units. However, each robot controller uses the same control model with ideal parameters, which defaults to all mechanical units being identical. Therefore, there is always a certain error between the ideal position in the robot model and the actual position of the robot.” Page 1 Para 15 “Determine the DH parameters of the rigid-flexible hybrid manipulator based on the physical configuration information of the rigid-flexible hybrid manipulator and a preset manipulator configuration mapping model, wherein the manipulator configuration mapping model is used to map the physical manipulator configuration of the rigid-flexible hybrid manipulator into a desired manipulator configuration suitable for inverse kinematics solution, and the manipulator configuration mapping model is generated based on mapping cross orthogonal active joints into mutually orthogonal rotational joints and swinging joints in physical space;”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method teachings of Zhou with the teachings of Najah and include the feature of designed values being different than the as-manufactured values, thereby using both values in the calculation which will provide less calculation amount, calculation accuracy which will lead to faster convergence, higher efficiency, has less burden for a robot controller with increase in the response speed, and better real-time performance (See at least Page 1 Para 5 “Robot calibration is a proven method that greatly improves the accuracy of robot positioning…” Page 9 Para 9 “… Through such processing, the amount of calculation required later can be greatly reduced, which greatly reduces the requirements for electronic equipment, improves the real-time control, and reduces the hardware cost. This processing method allows the solution of inverse kinematics to be completed on many embedded devices, enriching the application scenarios of rigid-flexible hybrid manipulators.”).
Regarding Claim 11, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 10.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 10 further comprising:
performing a manufacturing operation using a tool at the tool center point of the robotic arm after moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution.
Najah teaches the method of claim 10 further comprising: performing a manufacturing
operation using a tool at the tool center point of the robotic arm after moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution (See at least Page 2 Para 3 “The main purpose of the present application is to provide an automatic calibration method and system for a robot and an end effector, and more particularly to provide a tool center point for automatically calibrating an industrial robot (robot) and its end effector ( Tool Center Point, TCP) method and system that uses a calibration system that identifies robot and TCP errors and compensates for identified errors to improve the accuracy of the
robot”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Zhou with the teachings of Najah and include the feature of a manufacturing operation using a tool at the tool center point of the robotic arm after moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution, thereby perform manufacturing operation precisely and accurately (See at least Page 1 Para 5 “Robot calibration is a proven method that greatly improves the accuracy of robot positioning…”).
Claim(s) 15, 16, 18, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US 20190111562 A1) (Hereinafter Zhou), in view of Najah (WO2018196232A1), and further in view of Ban et al. (US 20140156072 A1) (Hereinafter Ban).
Regarding Claim 15, Zhou teaches Zhou teaches a method of reducing calculation time for inverse kinematics for a robotic arm comprising:
generating an analytical solution of joint parameters for a robot type to achieve a desired location … using an analytical model formed using designed lengths of components of the robot type (See at least Para [0068] “The algorithm skillfully uses the analytical solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with a non-offset wrist as the approximate solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist to obtain the approximate pose; the error between the approximate pose and the expected pose is obtained and an equivalent axial angle is used to represent the pose rotation increment between the approximate pose and the expected pose of the terminal coordinate frame…the iterative point is continuously updated to approach the expected pose, so as to obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics meeting the actual accuracy requirement finally. The algorithm has less calculation amount, faster convergence, higher efficiency, less burden to a robot controller and this method provides better real-time performance and can improve the efficiency.”);
…
providing the as-manufactured values and the analytical solution to a numerical solver as input (See at least Para [0028] “The present disclosure has the beneficial effects that: the algorithm skillfully uses the analytical solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with a non-offset wrist as the approximate solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist to obtain the approximate pose; the error between the approximate pose and the expected pose is calculated and use an equivalent axial angle to represent the pose rotation increment between the approximate pose of the terminal coordinate frame and the expected pose. Use the jacobian matrix J to obtain the joint variable increment dθ′, so as to obtain the new iteration point. The iterative calculation continues after obtaining the forward kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist so that the iteration point is continuously updated and obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics meeting the actual accuracy requirement finally. The algorithm has less calculation amount, faster convergence, and higher efficiency, and has less burden for a robot controller. This method can increase the response speed, and has better real-time performance.”);
generating a numerical solution comprising joint parameters for the robotic arm to
achieve a desired location … using the numerical solver (See at least Para [0068] “The algorithm skillfully uses the analytical solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with a non-offset wrist as the approximate solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist to obtain the approximate pose; the error between the approximate pose and the expected pose is obtained and an equivalent axial angle is used to represent the pose rotation increment between the approximate pose and the expected pose of the terminal coordinate frame…the iterative point is continuously updated to approach the expected pose, so as to obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics meeting the actual accuracy requirement finally. The algorithm has less calculation amount, faster convergence, higher efficiency, less burden to a robot controller and this method provides better real-time performance and can improve the efficiency.”); and
moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution to place (See at least Para [0068] “…the iterative point is continuously updated to approach the expected pose, so as to obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics meeting the actual accuracy requirement finally. The algorithm has less calculation amount, faster convergence, higher efficiency, less burden to a robot controller and this method provides better real-time performance and can improve the efficiency.”) …
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out
… of a tool center point of the robot type …
determining as-manufactured values for the components of a robotic arm of the robot
type; wherein the as-manufactured values comprise a number of manufactured lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic arm, and wherein the as-manufactured values correspond to manufacturing of the robotic arm, and wherein any differences between the manufactured lengths and the designed lengths are due to manufacturing tolerances; …
of a tool center point …
the tool center point of the robotic arm in the desired location.
Najah teaches …
determining as-manufactured values for the components of a robotic arm of the
robot type; wherein the as-manufactured values comprise a number of manufactured lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic arm, and wherein the as-manufactured values correspond to manufacturing of the robotic arm, and wherein any differences between the manufactured lengths and the designed lengths are due to manufacturing tolerances (See at least Page 1 Para 4 “Industrial robots are designed and built to provide very high repeatability to perform predictive tasks. They usually have good repeatability, but they are poorly accurate, and accuracy is usually an order of magnitude worse than repeatability. The accuracy of the robot has not been developed to meet the maturity level of the production process. This is because each industrial robot is manufactured within a certain tolerance. There will be no two identical mechanical units. However, each robot controller uses the same control model with ideal parameters, which defaults to all mechanical units being identical. Therefore, there is always a certain error between the ideal position in the robot model and the actual position of the robot.”); …
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Ohara and include the feature of determining as-manufactured values for the components of a robotic arm of the robot type; wherein the as-manufactured values comprise a number of manufactured lengths of a number of arm segments of the robotic arm, and wherein the as-manufactured values correspond to manufacturing of the robotic arm, and wherein any differences between the manufactured lengths and the designed lengths are due to manufacturing tolerances, thereby incorporating the generated as-designed kinematic model and as-manufactured kinematic model in the calculation which will provide less calculation amount, and increased calculation accuracy (See at least Page 1 Para 5 “Robot calibration is a proven method that greatly improves the accuracy of robot positioning…”).
Ban teaches
… of a tool center point of the robot type (See at least Para [0009] “In order to achieve the object described above, according to a first aspect, a measurement apparatus for determining a position of a tool center point of a tool, which is attached to a tool attachment surface of an arm tip portion of a robot..”, Para [0051] “In step T5, based on the position of the touch-up point and the position of the robot stored in measurement result storage section 12a and alignment result storage section 12b, respectively, tool center point position calculation section 11b calculates the position of tool center point 31 according to the following algorithm.”) …
of a tool center point (See at least Para [0009] “In order to achieve the object described above, according to a first aspect, a measurement apparatus for determining a position of a tool center point of a tool, which is attached to a tool attachment surface of an arm tip portion of a robot..”, Para [0051] “In step T5, based on the position of the touch-up point and the position of the robot stored in measurement result storage section 12a and alignment result storage section 12b, respectively, tool center point position calculation section 11b calculates the position of tool center point 31 according to the following algorithm.”)…
the tool center point of the robotic arm in the desired location (See at least Para [0009] “In order to achieve the object described above, according to a first aspect, a measurement apparatus for determining a position of a tool center point of a tool, which is attached to a tool attachment surface of an arm tip portion of a robot..”, Para [0051] “In step T5, based on the position of the touch-up point and the position of the robot stored in measurement result storage section 12a and alignment result storage section 12b, respectively, tool center point position calculation section 11b calculates the position of tool center point 31 according to the following algorithm.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Ban and include the feature of achieving the desired location of a tool center point of the robotic arm, thereby provide precise and accurate location for performing operation (See at least Para [0008] “The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and has an object to provide a measurement method that can stably measure a position of a tool center point with respect to a tool attachment surface with high accuracy in a short time…”).
Regarding Claim 16, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 15.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 15 further comprising:
performing a manufacturing operation using a tool at the tool center point of the robotic arm after moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution.
Najah teaches the method of claim 15 further comprising: performing a manufacturing
operation using a tool at the tool center point of the robotic arm after moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution (See at least Page 2 Para 3 “The main purpose of the present application is to provide an automatic calibration method and system for a robot and an end effector, and more particularly to provide a tool center point for automatically calibrating an industrial robot (robot) and its end effector ( Tool Center Point, TCP) method and system that uses a calibration system that identifies robot and TCP errors and compensates for identified errors to improve the accuracy of the
robot”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Zhou with the teachings of Najah and include the feature of a manufacturing operation using a tool at the tool center point of the robotic arm after moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution, thereby perform manufacturing operation precisely and accurately (See at least Page 1 Para 5 “Robot calibration is a proven method that greatly improves the accuracy of robot positioning…”).
Regarding claim 18, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 15.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 15 further comprising:
generating an as-manufactured kinematic model of the robotic arm using the as-manufactured values, wherein the numerical solver comprises an algorithm utilizing the as-manufactured kinematic model.
Quan teaches the method of claim 15 further comprising:
generating an as-manufactured kinematic model of the robotic arm using the as-manufactured values, wherein the numerical solver comprises an algorithm utilizing the as-manufactured kinematic model (See at least Page 2 Para 5 “A processing unit is used to determine the DH parameters of the rigid-flexible hybrid manipulator based on the physical configuration information of the rigid-flexible hybrid manipulator and a preset manipulator configuration mapping model, wherein the manipulator configuration mapping model is used to map the physical manipulator configuration of the rigid-flexible hybrid manipulator into a desired manipulator configuration suitable for inverse kinematics solution, and the manipulator configuration mapping model is generated based on the mapping of cross-orthogonal active joints into mutually orthogonal rotational joints and swinging joints in physical space; obtain the transformation matrix of each joint based on the DH parameter processing; perform inverse kinematics solution according to the transformation matrix and a given target posture, and generate a target angle value for each joint according to the solution result; adjust the corresponding joint angle based on each of the target angle values so that the end of the rigid-flexible hybrid manipulator moves to the target posture.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Quan and include the feature of generating an as-manufactured kinematic model of the robotic arm using the as-manufactured values, wherein the numerical solver comprises an algorithm utilizing the as-manufactured kinematic model, thereby using the values in the calculation which will provide less calculation amount, faster convergence, and higher efficiency, and has less burden for a robot controller with increase in the response speed, and better real-time performance (See at least Page 9 Para 9 “… Through such processing, the amount of calculation required later can be greatly reduced, which greatly reduces the requirements for electronic equipment, improves the real-time control, and reduces the hardware cost. This processing method allows the solution of inverse kinematics to be completed on many embedded devices, enriching the application scenarios of rigid-flexible hybrid manipulators.”).
Regarding Claim 19, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 15. Zhou further teaches the method of claim 15 further comprising:
generating an analytical model based on design values for the components of the robot type, wherein generating the analytical solution comprises generating the analytical solution by an analytical solver utilizing the analytical mode (See at least Para [0068] “The algorithm skillfully uses the analytical solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with a non-offset wrist as the approximate solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist to obtain the approximate pose; the error between the approximate pose and the expected pose is obtained and an equivalent axial angle is used to represent the pose rotation increment between the approximate pose and the expected pose of the terminal coordinate frame…”, [0028] “The present disclosure has the beneficial effects that: the algorithm skillfully uses the analytical solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with a non-offset wrist as the approximate solution of the inverse kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist to obtain the approximate pose; the error between the approximate pose and the expected pose is calculated and use an equivalent axial angle to represent the pose rotation increment between the approximate pose of the terminal coordinate frame and the expected pose. Use the jacobian matrix J to obtain the joint variable increment dθ′, so as to obtain the new iteration point. The iterative calculation continues after obtaining the forward kinematics of the six-degree-of-freedom serial robot with an offset wrist so that the iteration point is continuously updated and obtain the numerical solution of the inverse kinematics meeting the actual accuracy requirement finally. The algorithm has less calculation amount, faster convergence, and higher efficiency, and has less burden for a robot controller. This method can increase the response speed, and has better real-time performance.”).
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US 20190111562 A1) (Hereinafter Zhou) in view of Najah (WO2018196232A1), Quan et al. (CN 118809574 A) (Hereinafter Quan), Ban et al. (US 20140156072 A1) (Hereinafter Ban), Niu et al. (CN116673966A) (Hereinafter Niu), and further in view of Lin et al. (US 20210187731 A1) (Hereinafter Lin).
Regarding claim 4, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 1.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 1 wherein the as-
manufactured values comprise angles of the robotic arm.
Lin teaches the method of claim 1 wherein the as-manufactured values comprise angles
of the robotic arm (See at least Para [0051] “S105: controlling the robotic arm based on the target joint angles of the M joints.”, Para [0052] “In this embodiment, for example, if the terminal device that executes the method is the robotic arm itself, the related instructions can be issued through a control circuit in the robotic arm to drive the corresponding joints to move according to the corresponding target joint angles …”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Lin and include the feature of the as-manufactured values comprising angles of the robotic arm, thereby using the values in the calculation which will provide less calculation amount, calculation accuracy, faster convergence, higher efficiency, has less burden for a robot controller with increase in the response speed, and better real-time performance (See at least Para [0084] “Through this embodiment, the form of the evaluation function (e.g., the involved variable) can be determined according to the specific application scenario such as the joint angle, so that the evaluation function can more accurately reflect the control state of the robotic arm corresponding to the to-be-evaluated included angle, and can be adapted to various application scenarios.”).
Claim(s) 12 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US 20190111562 A1) (Hereinafter Zhou) in view of Najah (WO2018196232A1), Ban et al. (US 20140156072 A1) (Hereinafter Ban), Niu et al. (CN116673966A) (Hereinafter Niu), and further in view of Lin et al. (US 20210187731 A1) (Hereinafter Lin).
Regarding Claim 12, Modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 9.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 9, wherein the as-manufactured values comprise angles of the robotic arm.
Lin teaches the method of claim 9, wherein the as-manufactured values comprise angles of the robotic arm (See at least Para [0051] “S105: controlling the robotic arm based on the target joint angles of the M joints.”, Para [0052] “In this embodiment, for example, if the terminal device that executes the method is the robotic arm itself, the related instructions can be issued through a control circuit in the robotic arm to drive the corresponding joints to move according to the corresponding target joint angles …”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Lin and include the feature of the as-manufactured values comprising angles of the robotic arm, thereby using the values in the calculation which will provide less calculation amount, faster convergence, and higher efficiency, and has less burden for a robot controller with increase in the response speed, and better real-time performance (See at least Para [0084] “Through this embodiment, the form of the evaluation function (e.g., the involved variable) can be determined according to the specific application scenario such as the joint angle, so that the evaluation function can more accurately reflect the control state of the robotic arm corresponding to the to-be-evaluated included angle, and can be adapted to various application scenarios.”).
Claim(s) 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US 20190111562 A1) (Hereinafter Zhou) in view of Najah (WO2018196232A1), Ban et al. (US 20140156072 A1) (Hereinafter Ban), and further in view of Lin et al. (US 20210187731 A1) (Hereinafter Lin)
Regarding Claim 17, Modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 15.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 15, wherein the as-manufactured values comprise angles of the robotic arm.
Lin teaches the method of claim 15, wherein the as-manufactured values comprise angles of the robotic arm (See at least Para [0051] “S105: controlling the robotic arm based on the target joint angles of the M joints.”, Para [0052] “In this embodiment, for example, if the terminal device that executes the method is the robotic arm itself, the related instructions can be issued through a control circuit in the robotic arm to drive the corresponding joints to move according to the corresponding target joint angles …”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Zhou with the teachings of Lin and include the feature of the as-manufactured values comprising angles of the robotic arm, thereby using the values in the calculation which will provide less calculation amount, faster convergence, and higher efficiency, and has less burden for a robot controller with increase in the response speed, and better real-time performance (See at least Para [0084] “Through this embodiment, the form of the evaluation function (e.g., the involved variable) can be determined according to the specific application scenario such as the joint angle, so that the evaluation function can more accurately reflect the control state of the robotic arm corresponding to the to-be-evaluated included angle, and can be adapted to various application scenarios.”).
Claim(s) 5 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US 20190111562 A1) (Hereinafter Zhou) in view of Najah (WO2018196232A1), Quan et al. (CN 118809574 A) (Hereinafter Quan), Ban et al. (US 20140156072 A1) (Hereinafter Ban), Niu et al. (CN116673966A) (Hereinafter Niu), and further in view of Drigalski et al. (F. von Drigalski, L. E. Hafi, P. M. U. Eljuri, G. A. G. Ricardez, J. Takamatsu and T. Ogasawara, "Vibration-Reducing End Effector for Automation of Drilling Tasks in Aircraft Manufacturing," in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 2316-2321, Oct. 2017) (Hereinafter Drigalski).
Regarding Claim 5, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 1.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 1 further comprising: performing a manufacturing operation after moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution.
Drigalski teaches the method of claim 1 further comprising: performing a manufacturing operation after moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution (See at least Page 2316 Col 2 Para 2 “Even though the present work is focused on drilling tasks in aircraft manufacturing, it can easily be extended to other domains”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Zhou with the teachings of Drigalski and include the feature of performing a manufacturing operation after moving the robotic arm according to the numerical solution, thereby perform manufacturing operation precisely and accurately (See at least Page 2317 Col 1 “II. RELATED WORK - Although their systems achieved the accuracy required for aircraft manufacturing, they required highly controlled production lines with the workpieces attached to jigs.”).
Regarding Claim 7, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 6. However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 6, wherein the manufacturing operations comprise manufacturing components for an aircraft.
Drigalski teaches the method of claim 6, wherein the manufacturing operations comprise manufacturing components for an aircraft (See at least Page 2316 Col 2 Para 2 “Even though the present work is focused on drilling tasks in aircraft manufacturing, it can easily be extended to other domains”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Zhou with the teachings of Drigalski and include the feature of manufacturing operations comprising manufacturing components for an aircraft, thereby, perform aircraft manufacturing operation precisely and accurately (See at least Page 2317 Col 1 “II. RELATED WORK - Although their systems achieved the accuracy required for aircraft manufacturing, they required highly controlled production lines with the workpieces attached to jigs.”).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US 20190111562 A1) (Hereinafter Zhou) in view of Najah (WO2018196232A1), Quan et al. (CN 118809574 A) (Hereinafter Quan), Ban et al. (US 20140156072 A1) (Hereinafter Ban), Niu et al. (CN116673966A) (Hereinafter Niu), and further in view of Albert et al. (WO2021245194A1) (Hereinafter Albert).
Regarding Claim 8, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 1.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 1, wherein determining
the numerical solution comprises: translating the target coordinate between a global coordinate system and joint coordinates.
Albert teaches the method of claim 1, wherein determining the numerical solution
comprises: translating the target coordinate between a global coordinate system and joint coordinates (See at least Para [0129] “…This is done by first converting the global coordinate into a local coordinate system through a reversible transformation in order to optimally use the value range of the selected fixed point representation.”, Para [0074] “When recording production data, the location reference can be established directly or indirectly: For example, in the case of thermal camera images of a component, the location of a measured value can be determined via the pixel coordinate. The location reference, i.e. the association of sensor data with location data, can thus be directly be manufactured.
More generally, this means that a machine already records and transmits its production data
together with location information. This is conceivable, for example, with industrial robots.
Process data that can each be assigned to the same location can be merged based on
recorded location data.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Zhou with the teachings of Albert and include the feature of translating the target coordinate between a global coordinate system and joint coordinates, thereby providing consistency in aligning a workpiece (See at least Para [0055] “In order to provide systematic analyses and improvements regarding the quality of components, an essential aspect of the technology described herein is to record, together with production data for a component, a location on the component and/or a time of processing or machining of a component at a respective location on the component.”, Para [0011] “It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide methods and means for systematically analyzing and improving the quality of components.”).
Claim(s) 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US 20190111562 A1) (Hereinafter Zhou) in view of Najah (WO2018196232A1), Ban et al. (US 20140156072 A1) (Hereinafter Ban), Niu et al. (CN116673966A) (Hereinafter Niu), and further in view of Albert et al. (WO2021245194A1) (Hereinafter Albert).
Regarding Claim 13, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 9.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 9, wherein determining
the numerical solution comprises translating the target coordinate between a global coordinate system and joint coordinates.
Albert teaches the method of claim 9, wherein determining the numerical solution
Comprises translating the target coordinate between a global coordinate system and joint coordinates (See at least Para [0129] “…This is done by first converting the global coordinate into a local coordinate system through a reversible transformation in order to optimally use the value range of the selected fixed point representation.”, Para [0074] “When recording production data, the location reference can be established directly or indirectly: For example, in the case of thermal camera images of a component, the location of a measured value can be determined via the pixel coordinate. The location reference, i.e. the association of sensor data with location data, can thus be directly be manufactured.
More generally, this means that a machine already records and transmits its production data
together with location information. This is conceivable, for example, with industrial robots.
Process data that can each be assigned to the same location can be merged based on
recorded location data.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Zhou with the teachings of Albert and include the feature of translating the target coordinate between a global coordinate system and joint coordinates, thereby providing consistency in aligning a workpiece (See at least Para [0055] “In order to provide systematic analyses and improvements regarding the quality of components, an essential aspect of the technology described herein is to record, together with production data for a component, a location on the component and/or a time of processing or machining of a component at a respective location on the component.”, Para [0011] “It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide methods and means for systematically analyzing and improving the quality of components.”).
Claim(s) 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhou et al. (US 20190111562 A1) (Hereinafter Zhou) in view of Najah (WO2018196232A1), Ban et al. (US 20140156072 A1) (Hereinafter Ban), and further in view of Albert et al. (WO2021245194A1) (Hereinafter Albert).
Regarding Claim 20, modified Zhou teaches all the elements of claim 15.
However, Zhou does not explicitly spell out the method of claim 15, wherein generating
the numerical solution comprises translating the target coordinate between a global coordinate system and joint coordinates.
Albert teaches the method of claim 15, wherein generating the numerical solution
comprises translating the target coordinate between a global coordinate system and joint coordinates (See at least Para [0129] “…This is done by first converting the global coordinate into a local coordinate system through a reversible transformation in order to optimally use the value range of the selected fixed point representation.”, Para [0074] “When recording production data, the location reference can be established directly or indirectly: For example, in the case of thermal camera images of a component, the location of a measured value can be determined via the pixel coordinate. The location reference, i.e. the association of sensor data with location data, can thus be directly be manufactured.
More generally, this means that a machine already records and transmits its production data
together with location information. This is conceivable, for example, with industrial robots.
Process data that can each be assigned to the same location can be merged based on
recorded location data.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the method of Zhou with the teachings of Albert and include the feature of generating the numerical solution comprises translating the target coordinate between a global coordinate system and joint coordinates, thereby providing consistency in aligning a workpiece (See at least Para [0055] “In order to provide systematic analyses and improvements regarding the quality of components, an essential aspect of the technology described herein is to record, together with production data for a component, a location on the component and/or a time of processing or machining of a component at a respective location on the component.”, Para [0011] “It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide methods and means for systematically analyzing and improving the quality of components.”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Soe Khudsen et al. (US 20160136805 A1) teaches kinematic models of first and second robots which are estimated based on base flange offset and tool center point offset between the first and second robots using the position pair data set. The working program conversion is performed based on estimated kinematic models.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SHAHEDA HOQUE whose telephone number is (571)270-5310. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 am- 5:00 pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ramon Mercado can be reached at 571-270-5744. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/SHAHEDA HOQUE/Examiner, Art Unit 3658
/Ramon A. Mercado/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3658