DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 05/19/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 9-12, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 and 14 under 35 U.S.C. 103, as applicable to the rejection of claim 8 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of the current amendments to the claims.
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) in view of Lee (US Patent Application Publication 2017/0321773) and further in view of Jensen (US Patent Number 9,176,024).
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.
Walenty, as modified by Kidston, 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 correlation between reference torque values at a time at which a motor (70) starts being driven in a brake release direction, 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 the correlation, 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.
Lee does not disclose the memory storing a plurality of preset reference torque values and corresponding current values of the torque values corresponding to the plurality of preset reference torque values, the controller identifying a reference torque value from among the plurality of preset reference torque values.
Jensen discloses a controller that determines a torque value using a look-up table and teaches that a look-up table is one of a number of known means such as equations, models and trend data, or combinations thereof, to determine a control parameter such as torque (Col. 6, lines 9-13).
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 include a look-up table for determining a current torque value as disclosed by Jensen in the controller containing the correlation disclosed by Lee, so that the current torque values are mapped to reference torque values because it has been known to use a combination of an equation and a look-up table to determine a torque value using a controller. One skilled in the art could reliably determine the required current torque value by feeding a plurality of reference torque values stored in the controller memory to the correlation disclosed by Lee.
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.
Walenty, as modified by Kidston, 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 correlation between reference torque values at a time at which a motor (70) starts being driven in a brake release direction, 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 the correlation, 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.
Lee does not disclose the memory storing a plurality of preset reference torque values and corresponding current values of the torque values corresponding to the plurality of preset reference torque values, the controller identifying a reference torque value from among the plurality of preset reference torque values.
Jensen discloses a controller that determines a torque value using a look-up table and teaches that a look-up table is one of a number of known means such as equations, models and trend data, or combinations thereof, to determine a control parameter such as torque (Col. 6, lines 9-13).
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 include a look-up table for determining a current torque value as disclosed by Jensen in the controller containing the correlation disclosed by Lee, so that the current torque values are mapped to reference torque values because it has been known to use a combination of an equation and a look-up table to determine a torque value using a controller. One skilled in the art could reliably determine the required current torque value by feeding a plurality of reference torque values stored in the controller memory to the correlation disclosed by Lee.
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) in view of Lee (US Patent Application Publication 2017/0321773) in view of Jensen (US Patent Number 9,176,024) 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.
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) in view of Lee (US Patent Application Publication 2017/0321773) in view of Jensen (US Patent Number 9,176,024) and further in view of Takahashi (US Patent Application Publication 2018/0154875).
Regarding claims 4-7 and 17-20, Walenty, as modified by Kidston, Lee and Jensen, 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) in view of Lee (US Patent Application Publication 2017/0321773) and further in view of Jensen (US Patent Number 9,176,024).
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.
Walenty, as modified by Yamamoto, 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 correlation between reference torque values at a time at which a motor (70) starts being driven in a brake release direction, 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 the correlation, 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.
Lee does not disclose the memory storing a plurality of preset reference torque values and corresponding current values of the torque values corresponding to the plurality of preset reference torque values, the controller identifying a reference torque value from among the plurality of preset reference torque values.
Jensen discloses a controller that determines a torque value using a look-up table and teaches that a look-up table is one of a number of known means such as equations, models and trend data, or combinations thereof, to determine a control parameter such as torque (Col. 6, lines 9-13).
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 include a look-up table for determining a current torque value as disclosed by Jensen in the controller containing the correlation disclosed by Lee, so that the current torque values are mapped to reference torque values because it has been known to use a combination of an equation and a look-up table to determine a torque value using a controller. One skilled in the art could reliably determine the required current torque value by feeding a plurality of reference torque values stored in the controller memory to the correlation disclosed by Lee.
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
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/JOSHUA CAMPBELL/
Examiner, Art Unit 3747
/LOGAN M KRAFT/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3747
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