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, see pages 8-13, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1, 8 and 14 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In response to applicant's argument that Walenty does not recognize or mention the specific technical problem addressed by the invention, it has been held that a prior art reference must either be in the field of the inventor’s endeavor or, if not, then be reasonably pertinent to the particular problem with which the inventor was concerned, in order to be relied upon as a basis for rejection of the claimed invention. See In re Oetiker, 977 F.2d 1443, 24 USPQ2d 1443 (Fed. Cir. 1992).
In response to applicant's argument that the examiner's conclusion of obviousness is based upon improper hindsight reasoning, it must be recognized that any judgment on obviousness is in a sense necessarily a reconstruction based upon hindsight reasoning. But so long as it takes into account only knowledge which was within the level of ordinary skill at the time the claimed invention was made, and does not include knowledge gleaned only from the applicant's disclosure, such a reconstruction is proper. See In re McLaughlin, 443 F.2d 1392, 170 USPQ 209 (CCPA 1971).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1 and 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Walenty (US Patent Number 5,139,315) in view of Kidston (US Patent Number 5,273,349).
Regarding claim 1, Walenty discloses a brake system comprising:
an electro mechanical brake (16) provided with a motor (DC torque motor) and configured to brake a wheel (14) of a vehicle based on a driving control of the motor (Col. 2, lines 25-42); and
a first controller (18) configured to control the electro mechanical brake to provide current for reverse driving torque to the motor, at a time at which the motor starts being driven in a brake release direction according to a signal for operating an anti-lock brake system of the vehicle (Col. 5, line 66-Col. 6, line 16; Col. 6, lines 47-62).
Walenty discloses providing a specific current value for reverse driving torque to the motor at the time at which the motor starts being driven in the brake release direction, but does not explicitly disclose the current value being based on a torque value of the motor at that timing.
Kidston discloses an antilock brake system with motor current control (Title) for a DC torque motor (40), wherein a first controller (18) provides current for reverse driving torque to the motor (Col. 4, lines 19-45).
Kidston teaches that the motor current is directly proportional to the motor torque after a minimum time duration from when the motor switches direction until the motor establishes a steady state speed (Col. 13, lines 28-51)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to determine the specific current value provided by Walenty based on a torque value of the motor because, as taught by Kidston, the motor current is directly proportional to the motor torque at the time at which a DC torque motor starts being driven in the brake release direction.
Regarding claim 14, Walenty discloses a method for controlling a brake system comprising:
detecting a signal for operating an anti-lock brake system of a vehicle (Col. 3, line 66-Col. 4, line 11); and
controlling an electro mechanical brake (16) to provide current for reverse driving torque to a motor (DC torque motor), at a time at which the motor starts being driven in a brake release direction according to the signal for operating an anti-lock brake system (Col. 5, line 66-Col. 6, line 16; Col. 6, lines 47-62).
Walenty discloses providing a specific current value for reverse driving torque to the motor at the time at which the motor starts being driven in the brake release direction, but does not explicitly disclose the current value being based on a torque value of the motor at that timing.
Kidston discloses an antilock brake system with motor current control (Title) for a DC torque motor (40), wherein a first controller (18) provides current for reverse driving torque to the motor (Col. 4, lines 19-45).
Kidston teaches that the motor current is directly proportional to the motor torque after a minimum time duration from when the motor switches direction until the motor establishes a steady state speed (Col. 13, lines 28-51)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to determine the specific current value provided by Walenty based on a torque value of the motor because, as taught by Kidston, the motor current is directly proportional to the motor torque at the time at which a DC torque motor starts being driven in the brake release direction.
Claim(s) 2 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Walenty (US Patent Number 5,139,315) in view of Kidston (US Patent Number 5,273,349) and further in view of Lee (US Patent Application Publication 2017/0321773).
Regarding claims 2 and 15, Walenty, as modified by Kidston, discloses the system of claim 1 and the method of claim 14 as discussed above but does not disclose a memory storing a plurality of preset reference torque values at the time at which the motor starts being driven in the brake release direction and current values for target reverse driving torque respectively corresponding to the plurality of preset reference torque values, wherein the first controller is configured to identify a reference torque value corresponding to the torque value of the motor at the time at which the motor starts being driven in the brake release direction from among the plurality of preset reference torque values, and determine a current value for target reverse driving torque corresponding to the identified reference torque value as a current value of the current for reverse driving torque.
Lee discloses a brake control device for a vehicle comprising a memory storing a plurality of preset reference torque values at a time at which a motor (70) starts being driven in a brake release direction and current values for target reverse driving torque respectively corresponding to the plurality of preset reference torque values, wherein a first controller (90) is configured to identify a reference torque value corresponding to the torque value of the motor at the time at which the motor starts being driven in the brake release direction from among the plurality of present reference torque values, and determine a current value for target reverse driving torque corresponding to the identified reference torque value as a current value of the current for reverse driving torque [0020-0021, 0038].
Lee teaches that the motor electric current is related to the motor rotational torque by a mathematical constant and suggests that determining the constant to thereby select a target torque from a plurality of torque values as function of the current allows for controlling an electromechanical brake actuated by the motor at the time of breakdown of a force sensor used for controlling the torque output of the motor [0013-0017, 0021].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to determine the target reverse driving torque value disclosed by Walenty using the algorithm for determining the correlation between the motor current and motor torque disclosed by Lee because the parameters are related by a simple constant and determining the relationship allows for controlling the brake in the event of breakdown of a force sensor used for controlling motor output.
Claim(s) 3 and 16 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Walenty (US Patent Number 5,139,315) in view of Kidston (US Patent Number 5,273,349) and further in view of Yamamoto (US Patent Application Publication 2004/0104618).
Regarding claims 3 and 16, Walenty, as modified by Kidston, discloses the system of claim 1 and the method of claim 14 as discussed above but does not disclose wherein the first controller is configured to stop providing the current for reverse driving torque to the motor, according to a speed of the motor reaching a preset target speed while the current for reverse driving torque is provided to the motor.
Yamamoto discloses a first controller (20) configured to stop providing current for reverse driving torque to a motor (11), according to a speed of the motor reaching a preset target speed while the current for reverse driving torque is provided to the motor [0136, as shown in Figure 4].
Yamamoto teaches that ABS control generally involves rapidly reducing braking torque followed by rapidly increasing torque and suggests that stopping current supply to the motor of an electromechanical brake after a gentle reduction in braking torque before reversing the motor direction prevents undershooting of the desired braking torque [0136].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to stop providing torque during reverse driving of the motor disclosed by Walenty after the motor has reached a preset speed to reduce the motor inertia in the reverse direction and thereby prevent undershooting of the desired braking torque as taught by Yamamoto.
Regarding claim 8, Walenty discloses a brake system comprising:
an electro mechanical brake (16) provided with a motor (DC torque motor) and configured to brake a wheel (14) of a vehicle based on a driving control of the motor (Col. 2, lines 25-42); and
a first controller (18) configured to control the electro mechanical brake to provide current for reverse driving torque to the motor from a time at which the motor starts being driven in a brake release direction, based on conversion of an operation mode of the vehicle into an anti-lock brake system operation mode (Col. 3, line 66-Col. 4, line 11; Col. 5, line 66-Col. 6, line 16; Col. 6, lines 47-62).
Walenty does not explicitly disclose control of the motor current until a speed of the motor reaches a present target speed.
Yamamoto discloses a first controller (20) configured to stop providing current for reverse driving torque to a motor (11), according to a speed of the motor reaching a preset target speed while the current for reverse driving torque is provided to the motor [0136, as shown in Figure 4].
Yamamoto teaches that ABS control generally involves rapidly reducing braking torque followed by rapidly increasing torque and suggests that stopping current supply to the motor of an electromechanical brake after a gentle reduction in braking torque before reversing the motor direction prevents undershooting of the desired braking torque [0136].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to stop providing torque during reverse driving of the motor disclosed by Walenty after the motor has reached a preset speed to reduce the motor inertia in the reverse direction and thereby prevent undershooting of the desired braking torque as taught by Yamamoto.
Claim(s) 4-7 and 17-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Walenty (US Patent Number 5,139,315) in view of Kidston (US Patent Number 5,273,349) and further in view of Takahashi (US Patent Application Publication 2018/0154875).
Regarding claims 4-7 and 17-20, Walenty, as modified by Kidston, discloses the system of claim 1 and the method of claim 14 as discussed above wherein Walenty further discloses the first controller is configured to generate a signal for operating the anti-lock brake system based on occurrence of wheel slip of the vehicle (Col. 5, line 64-Col. 6, line 16), wherein the first controller is configured to identify occurrence of wheel slip of the vehicle based on an output signal from a wheel speed sensor (28) of the vehicle, while a force is applied to a brake pedal (12) of the vehicle (Col. 2, lines 43-63; Col. 5, line 64-Col. 6, line 16), wherein the first controller is configured to identify that a force is applied to the brake pedal, according to reception of an output signal from a pedal sensor (20, 26) configured to detect a displacement of the brake pedal (Col. 2, line 43-Col. 3, line 3), and the first controller is configured to provide current for driving torque to the motor by provision of a pressure force of the electro mechanical brake according to an output signal from the pedal sensor, while no wheel slip of the vehicle occurs (Col. 2, lines 35-42).
Walenty does not disclose a second controller, the second controller configured to control the first controller by providing the first controller with the pressure force of the electro mechanical brake.
Takahashi discloses a first controller (232) and a second controller (230), the second controller configured to control the first controller by providing the first controller with the pressure force of an electro mechanical brake (34, 100) according to an output signal from a pedal sensor (212 or 236), while no wheel slip of a vehicle occurs [0012, 0075, 0098, 0101, 0115, 0132-0134].
Takahashi teaches that control of the vehicle braking system is the similar if the first controller and the second controller are embodied as separate controllers or in a single controller [0100, 0151].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system disclosed by Walenty to redistribute the tasks performed by the first controller to a second controller and to control a second controller based on the pressure force of the electro mechanical brake provided to the first controller because as suggested by Takahashi the control of the vehicle braking system can be carried out using separate controllers or a single controller that carries out the functions of more than one controller.
Claim(s) 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Walenty (US Patent Number 5,139,315) in view of Yamamoto (US Patent Application Publication 2004/0104618).
Regarding claim 8, Walenty discloses a brake system comprising:
an electro mechanical brake (16) provided with a motor (DC torque motor) and configured to brake a wheel (14) of a vehicle based on a driving control of the motor (Col. 2, lines 25-42); and
a first controller (18) configured to control the electro mechanical brake to provide current for reverse driving torque to the motor from a time at which the motor starts being driven in a brake release direction, based on conversion of an operation mode of the vehicle into an anti-lock brake system operation mode (Col. 3, line 66-Col. 4, line 11; Col. 5, line 66-Col. 6, line 16; Col. 6, lines 47-62).
Walenty does not explicitly disclose control of the motor current until a speed of the motor reaches a present target speed.
Yamamoto discloses a first controller (20) configured to stop providing current for reverse driving torque to a motor (11), according to a speed of the motor reaching a preset target speed while the current for reverse driving torque is provided to the motor [0136, as shown in Figure 4].
Yamamoto teaches that ABS control generally involves rapidly reducing braking torque followed by rapidly increasing torque and suggests that stopping current supply to the motor of an electromechanical brake after a gentle reduction in braking torque before reversing the motor direction prevents undershooting of the desired braking torque [0136].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to stop providing torque during reverse driving of the motor disclosed by Walenty after the motor has reached a preset speed to reduce the motor inertia in the reverse direction and thereby prevent undershooting of the desired braking torque as taught by Yamamoto.
Claim(s) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Walenty (US Patent Number 5,139,315) in view of Yamamoto (US Patent Application Publication 2004/0104618) and further in view of Lee (US Patent Application Publication 2017/0321773).
Regarding claim 9, Walenty, as modified by Yamamoto, discloses the system of claim 8 as discussed above but does not disclose a memory storing a plurality of preset reference torque values at the time at which the motor starts being driven in the brake release direction and current values for target reverse driving torque respectively corresponding to the plurality of preset reference torque values, wherein the first controller is configured to identify a reference torque value corresponding to the torque value of the motor at the time at which the motor starts being driven in the brake release direction from among the plurality of preset reference torque values, and determine a current value for target reverse driving torque corresponding to the identified reference torque value as a current value of the current for reverse driving torque.
Lee discloses a brake control device for a vehicle comprising a memory storing a plurality of preset reference torque values at a time at which a motor (70) starts being driven in a brake release direction and current values for target reverse driving torque respectively corresponding to the plurality of preset reference torque values, wherein a first controller (90) is configured to identify a reference torque value corresponding to the torque value of the motor at the time at which the motor starts being driven in the brake release direction from among the plurality of present reference torque values, and determine a current value for target reverse driving torque corresponding to the identified reference torque value as a current value of the current for reverse driving torque [0020-0021, 0038].
Lee teaches that the motor electric current is related to the motor rotational torque by a mathematical constant and suggests that determining the constant to thereby select a target torque from a plurality of torque values as function of the current allows for controlling an electromechanical brake actuated by the motor at the time of breakdown of a force sensor used for controlling the torque output of the motor [0013-0017, 0021].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to determine the target reverse driving torque value disclosed by Walenty using the algorithm for determining the correlation between the motor current and motor torque disclosed by Lee because the parameters are related by a simple constant and determining the relationship allows for controlling the brake in the event of breakdown of a force sensor used for controlling motor output.
Claim(s) 10-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Walenty (US Patent Number 5,139,315) in view of Yamamoto (US Patent Application Publication 2004/0104618) and further in view of Takahashi (US Patent Application Publication 2018/0154875).
Regarding claims 10-13, Walenty, as modified by Yamamoto, discloses the system of claim 8 as discussed above wherein Walenty further discloses the first controller is configured to generate a signal for operating the anti-lock brake system based on occurrence of wheel slip of the vehicle (Col. 5, line 64-Col. 6, line 16), wherein the first controller is configured to identify occurrence of wheel slip of the vehicle based on an output signal from a wheel speed sensor (28) of the vehicle, while a force is applied to a brake pedal (12) of the vehicle (Col. 2, lines 43-63; Col. 5, line 64-Col. 6, line 16), wherein the first controller is configured to identify that a force is applied to the brake pedal, according to reception of an output signal from a pedal sensor (20, 26) configured to detect a displacement of the brake pedal (Col. 2, line 43-Col. 3, line 3), and the first controller is configured to provide current for driving torque to the motor by provision of a pressure force of the electro mechanical brake according to an output signal from the pedal sensor, while no wheel slip of the vehicle occurs (Col. 2, lines 35-42).
Walenty does not disclose a second controller, the second controller configured to control the first controller by providing the first controller with the pressure force of the electro mechanical brake.
Takahashi discloses a first controller (232) and a second controller (230), the second controller configured to control the first controller by providing the first controller with the pressure force of an electro mechanical brake (34, 100) according to an output signal from a pedal sensor (212 or 236), while no wheel slip of a vehicle occurs [0012, 0075, 0098, 0101, 0115, 0132-0134].
Takahashi teaches that control of the vehicle braking system is the similar if the first controller and the second controller are embodied as separate controllers or in a single controller [0100, 0151].
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system disclosed by Walenty to redistribute the tasks performed by the first controller to a second controller and to control a second controller based on the pressure force of the electro mechanical brake provided to the first controller because as suggested by Takahashi the control of the vehicle braking system can be carried out using separate controllers or a single controller that carries out the functions of more than one controller.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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Lindsay M. Low can be reached on (571) 272-1196. The fax phone number for the organization where
this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOSHUA CAMPBELL/
Examiner, Art Unit 3747
/LOGAN M KRAFT/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3747