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 § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-3, 7-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McCabe (US 9547945 B2) and Kim (US 20190279493 A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 7, McCabe discloses a method for operating a materials handling vehicle comprising:
monitoring, by a controller, a first vehicle drive parameter corresponding to a first direction of travel of a materials handling vehicle during a first manual operation of the materials handling vehicle by an operator and a second vehicle drive parameter (McCabe, Cols. 3-5 Lines 15-13 "For systems using video cameras or dead reckoning guidance techniques, the industrial vehicle is taught each path by manually driving the vehicle while the GANS 13 "learns" the path ... various speed parameters, such as speed and acceleration of the vehicle and of the load carrier, also are monitored on the exemplary industrial vehicle 10"; acceleration and speed);
receiving, by the controller after the first manual operation of the materials handling vehicle, a request to implement a first semi-automated driving operation; and based on the first and second monitored vehicle drive parameters during the first manual operation, controlling, by the controller, implementation of the first semi-automated driving operation (McCabe, Cols. 11-12 Lines 17-4 "A
person can direct the operation of the industrial vehicle 10 from the asset management computer 104
by manipulating the keyboard 108 and the joystick 109 input devices. Initially the person enters a
command that causes the industrial vehicle to terminate the autonomous mode and commence the
remote control mode").
However, McCabe does not explicitly state concurrently monitoring, by the controller, the second vehicle drive parameter corresponding to a second direction different from the first direction of travel during the first manual operation by the operator.
On the other hand, Kim teaches concurrently monitoring, by the controller, a second vehicle drive parameter
corresponding to a second direction different from the first direction of travel during the first manual
operation by the operator (Kim, Page 3, Paragraphs 0059-0065, "The acceleration sensor 131 may measure an acceleration, and may include a triaxial accelerometer that measures accelerations of x-axial, y-axial, and z-axial directions ... The information related to the movement of the vehicle may be data stored in the memory 120, and include, for example, an instruction type, a device unique ID, a protocol version, a current time (year, month, day, hour, minute, second), a current position (latitude, longitude), a current velocity (speed, direction) of the vehicle, an acceleration sensor value, or a gyroscope value").
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at before the effective filing date of the current application to modify the invention of McCabe with acquiring triaxial acceleration data of Kim in order to calculate vehicle accelerations in all possible directions. By measuring the accelerations in the x, y, and z-axis, the acceleration of the vehicle is fully monitored and this data can be gathered. As stated in Kim, "The acceleration sensor 131 may measure an acceleration, and may include a triaxial accelerometer that measures accelerations of x-axial, y-axial, and z-axial directions ... The information related to the movement of the vehicle may be data stored in the memory 120, and include, for example, an instruction type, a device unique ID, a protocol version, a current time (year, month, day, hour, minute, second), a current position (latitude, longitude), a current velocity (speed, direction) of the vehicle, an acceleration sensor value, or a gyroscope value" (Kim, Page 3, Paragraph 0059-0065).
Regarding claims 2 and 8, McCabe discloses the first vehicle drive parameter comprises acceleration in the first direction (Cols. 3-5 Lines 15-13 "For systems using video cameras or dead reckoning guidance techniques, the industrial vehicle is taught each path by manually driving the vehicle while the GANS 13 "learns" the path ... various speed parameters, such as speed and acceleration of the vehicle and of the load carrier, also are monitored on the exemplary industrial vehicle 10"; acceleration and speed).
However, McCabe does not explicitly state the second vehicle drive parameter comprises acceleration in the second direction.
On the other hand, Kim teaches the second vehicle drive parameter comprises acceleration in the second direction (Page 3, Paragraphs 0059-0065, "The acceleration sensor 131 may measure an acceleration, and may include a triaxial accelerometer that measures accelerations of x-axial, y-axial, and z-axial directions ... The information related to the movement of the vehicle may be data stored in the memory 120, and include, for example, an instruction type, a device unique ID, a protocol version, a current time (year, month, day, hour, minute, second), a current position (latitude, longitude), a current velocity (speed, direction) of the vehicle, an acceleration sensor value, or a gyroscope value").
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at before the effective filing date of the current application to modify the invention of McCabe with acquiring triaxial acceleration data of Kim in order to calculate vehicle accelerations in all possible directions. By measuring the accelerations in the x, y, and z-axis, the acceleration of the vehicle is fully monitored and this data can be gathered. As stated in Kim, "The acceleration sensor 131 may measure an acceleration, and may include a triaxial accelerometer that measures accelerations of x-axial, y-axial, and z-axial directions ... The information related to the movement of the vehicle may be data stored in the memory 120, and include, for example, an instruction type, a device unique ID, a protocol version, a current time (year, month, day, hour, minute, second), a current position (latitude, longitude), a current velocity (speed, direction) of the vehicle, an acceleration sensor value, or a gyroscope value" (Kim, Page 3, Paragraph 0059-0065).
Regarding claims 3 and 9, McCabe does not explicitly state the first and second directions are orthogonal to each other.
On the other hand, KIM teaches the first and second directions are orthogonal to each other (Page 3, Paragraphs 0059-0065, "The acceleration sensor 131 may measure an acceleration, and may include a triaxial accelerometer that measures accelerations of x-axial, y-axial, and z-axial directions ... The information related to the movement of the vehicle may be data stored in the memory 120, and include, for example, an instruction type, a device unique ID, a protocol version, a current time (year, month, day, hour, minute, second), a current position (latitude, longitude), a current velocity (speed, direction) of the vehicle, an acceleration sensor value, or a gyroscope value").
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at before the effective filing date of the current application to modify the invention of McCabe with acquiring triaxial acceleration data of Kim in order to calculate vehicle accelerations in all possible directions. By measuring the accelerations in the x, y, and z-axis, the acceleration of the vehicle is fully monitored and this data can be gathered. As stated in Kim, "The acceleration sensor 131 may measure an acceleration, and may include a triaxial accelerometer that measures accelerations of x-axial, y-axial, and z-axial directions ... The information related to the movement of the vehicle may be data stored in the memory 120, and include, for example, an instruction type, a device unique ID, a protocol version, a current time (year, month, day, hour, minute, second), a current position (latitude, longitude), a current velocity (speed, direction) of the vehicle, an acceleration sensor value, or a gyroscope value" (Kim, Page 3, Paragraph 0059-0065).
Claims 6 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McCabe and KIM in further view of Akella (US 11126178 B2).
Regarding claims 6 and 12, McCabe does not explicitly state controlling implementation of the first semi- automated driving operation comprises limiting a maximum acceleration of the vehicle.
On the other hand, Akella teaches controlling implementation of the first semi- automated driving operation comprises limiting a maximum acceleration of the vehicle (Akella, Cols. 12-13, Lines 11-7, "In some examples, such constraints may include a range of acceptable inputs that would satisfy the requirements of the request. For example, such constraints may include a minimum and/or maximum time gap range, a minimum and/or maximum reference velocity, and/or a minimum and/or maximum acceleration that should be used to carry out the request. In one example, a request to attain an increased velocity may include a maximum acceleration for attaining the desired velocity").
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the current application to modify the invention of McCabe with a controlling implementation to limit the maximum acceleration of a vehicle during semi-automated driving of Akella in order to "avoid excessive acceleration" (Akel la, Col. 12, Lines 49-50).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-5, and 10-11 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
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/SHAHIRA BAAJOUR/Examiner, Art Unit 3666