Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being taught by Oda et al (PGPUB 2022/0194737).
With respect to claim 1, Oda teaches an elevator system comprising one or more elevator lines, an image unit, and a control unit, wherein: each of the elevator lines (fig. 5) comprises at least one elevator car (750);
the image unit comprises a first imaging device (fig. 4, 400 right) installed inside the elevator car and a second imaging device (fig. 4, 400 left) provided to an elevator hall (760) on each floor of a building;
the control unit comprises a first controller (780) controlling and managing operation of an elevator and a second controller (380/180) controlling and managing operation of robots; and
each of the elevator lines is operated in any one of a non-robot exclusive mode, a robot exclusive mode, and a boarding-share mode (paragraphs 0069-87; human, dedicated, and general modes).
With respect to claim 2, Oda teaches wherein the image unit transmits, to the first controller, at least one of: the number of robots placed in a specific elevator car; the number of non-robots placed in the specific elevator car; the number of robots placed in all elevator cars on each elevator line; the number of non-robots placed in all elevator cars on each elevator line; the number of robots placed in all elevator cars in the building; and the number of non-robots placed in all elevator cars in the building, as calculated based on image information recognized by the first imaging device (paragraph 0069-70).
With respect to claim 3, Oda teaches wherein the image unit transmits, to the first controller, at least one of: the number of robots waiting in an elevator hall in front of a specific elevator line on a specific floor; the number of non-robots waiting in the elevator hall in front of the specific elevator line on the specific floor; the number of robots waiting in all elevator halls on the specific floor; the number of non-robots waiting in all elevator halls on the specific floor; the number of robots waiting in all elevator halls on each elevator line; the number of non-robots waiting in all elevator halls on each elevator line; the number of robots waiting in all elevator halls in the building; and the number of non-robots waiting in all elevator halls in the building, as calculated based on image information recognized by the second imaging device (paragraph 0054).
With respect to claim 4, Oda teaches wherein the second controller transmits, to the first controller, at least one of: the number of robots placed in a specific elevator car; the number of robots placed in all elevator cars on each elevator line; and the number of robots placed in all elevator cars in the building, as calculated based on location signals sent from the robots (paragraph 0054).
With respect to claim 5, Oda teaches wherein the second controller transmits, to the first controller, at least one of: the number of robots waiting in an elevator hall in front of a specific elevator line on a specific floor; the number of robots waiting in all elevator halls on the specific floor; the number of robots waiting in all elevator halls on each elevator line; and the number of robots waiting in all elevator halls in the building, as calculated based on location signals sent from the robots (paragraph 0042).
With respect to claim 6, Oda teaches wherein the first controller adjusts the number of serviceable robots for each floor of the building based on the number of robots or non-robots received from the image unit, when there is a difference between the number of robots or non-robots received from the image unit and the number of robots or non-robots received from the second controller (paragraph 0098-0108).
With respect to claim 7, Oda teaches wherein the first controller switches an operation mode of the elevator line according to the number of robots or non-robots received from the image unit, when there is a difference between the number of robots or non-robots received from the image unit and the number of robots or non-robots received from the second controller (paragraph 0067-102).
Claim Objections
Claims 8-11 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ERICK DAVID GLASS whose telephone number is (571)272-8395. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri_8-5pm.
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/ERICK D GLASS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2837
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