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 .
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) 1-4, 8, 14-16, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Goebel et al. (WO2013/163317 A1).
With respect to claim 1, Goebel et al. disclose a garden tool (lawn mower, Abstract), comprising: a chassis, which is installed with a universal wheel (20, 25) and at least two driving wheels (30, 35), one of the universal wheel and the driving wheel being located at a front portion of the chassis and the other at a rear portion of the chassis (Fig 2); a steering wheel (62), which is rotatably connected to the chassis; a first angle sensor (100), to which the steering wheel is connected through transmission via a deceleration transmission mechanism (Fig 5); and a control module (140), to which the first angle sensor is electrically connected [0037], and the control module being respectively electrically connected to driving elements of the two driving wheels [0037], wherein the control module is configured to: control the two driving wheels to rotate at equal speeds when a rotational angle of the first angle sensor is within a first preset interval (as shown in Table 4, when angles α and ω are each 0°, the speed of inside and outside wheels are the same), control the two driving wheels to rotate at different speeds in a same direction when the rotational angle of the first angle sensor is within a second preset interval (as shown in Table 4, when angles α and ω are both between 8-89°, the inside and outside wheels are both moving forward but at different speeds), and control the two driving wheels to rotate in reverse directions when the rotational angle of the first angle sensor is within a third preset interval (as shown in Table 4, when angle α and ω are between 90-108°, the inside and outside wheels move in opposite directions as shown by the negative speed value of the inside wheel), wherein, the second preset interval is distributed at two ends of the first preset interval, and the third preset interval is distributed at two ends of a union of the first preset interval and the second preset interval (shown in Table 4).
With respect to claim 2, wherein the deceleration transmission mechanism comprises: a first transmission shaft (upper steering shaft shown in Fig 5), which is fixedly connected to the steering wheel and rotatably connected to a steering wheel bracket provided on the garden tool (Fig 1); a second transmission shaft (lower steering shaft shown in Fig 5 that contains gear 60), which is rotatably connected to the chassis of the garden tool (Fig 5), wherein a first end of the second transmission shaft is connected to the first transmission shaft via a universal joint (upper end of lower steering shaft connected to upper steering shaft via a universal joint shown in Fig 5) in a synchronously rotating manner, and a second end of the second transmission shaft is provided with a first gear (60); a second gear (50), which is rotatably connected to the chassis of the garden tool and is meshed with the first gear (Fig 5), a diameter of the second gear being greater than that of the first gear (Fig 5); and a swing arm (80), a first end of the swing arm being connected to the first angle sensor (via 70 and 90), and a second end of the swing arm being connected to the second gear (Fig 5).
With respect to claim 3, wherein, the second preset interval includes a first sub interval (somewhere between 10° and 89.13659°) and a second sub interval (somewhere between -89.13659° and -10°), respectively (while the table only shows angles for a left turn, the angles would be the same negative value for a right turn; so the second preset interval would start on opposite ends of the first preset interval); when the rotational angle of the first angle sensor is within the first sub interval, the control module is configured to control a rotational speed of the driving wheel on a left side to be lower than that of the driving wheel on a right side (as shown in Table 4); and when the rotational angle of the first angle sensor is within the second sub interval, the control module is configured to control the rotational speed of the driving wheel on the right side to be lower than that of the driving wheel on the left side (Table 4 but for a right hand turn, or negative degree angles).
With respect to claim 4, wherein, the third preset interval includes a third sub interval (somewhere between 89.13659° and 108.8365°) and a fourth sub interval (somewhere -108.8365° and -89.13659°), the third sub interval and the fourth sub interval are provided at two ends of the union of the first preset interval and the second preset interval (while the table only shows angles for a left turn, the angles would be the same negative value for a right turn; so the second preset interval would start on opposite ends of the first preset interval), respectively; when the rotational angle of the first angle sensor is within the third sub interval, the control module is configured to control the driving wheel on the left side to rotate in an opposite direction (as shown in Table 4, inside wheel has negative speed); and when the rotational angle of the first angle sensor is within the fourth sub interval, the control module is configured to control the driving wheel on the right side to rotate in an opposite direction (Table 4 but for a right hand turn, or negative degree angles).
With respect to claim 8, wherein the garden tool further comprises a control device (110), the control device comprising: an accelerator pedal (111); and a second angle sensor (130), wherein the accelerator pedal is connected to the second angle sensor through transmission via a linkage mechanism (Fig 7; 113, 114, 115, 133), and the second angle sensor is electrically connected to the control module, and wherein the control module is configured to control a rotational speed of the driving wheel to increase when a rotational angle of the second angle sensor increases [0033].
With respect to claims 14, 16, and 20, the apparatus disclosed above meets the method limitations.
With respect to claim 15, the apparatus disclosed above meets the method limitations as well as when the left or right rotational angle of the steering wheel is larger than the second preset value, the left driving wheel and the right driving wheel rotate at equal speeds in reverse directions (at α = 108.8365).
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.
Claims 5-7 and 17-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Goebel et al.
With respect to claims 5-7 and 17-19, Goebel et al. disclose the claimed invention discussed above but do not specifically disclose wherein, the first preset interval is [-1°, +1°], the second preset interval is[-11°,-1°)∪(+1°,+11°], wherein the first sub interval is [-11°, -1°), and the second sub interval is (+1°, +11°], or wherein, the third preset interval is [-21°,-11°)∪(+11°,+21°], wherein the third sub interval is [-21°, -11°), and the fourth sub interval is (+11°, +21°]. Goebel et al. disclose various angles for the inside and outside wheels when making a left turn while the speed input is manually set at a half forward speed input. For a right hand turn, these values would be the same, but the left and right wheels would be reversed. It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the invention was filed to modify the invention of Goebel et al. to try operating the garden tool at the preset intervals discussed above, since it has been held that where the general conditions of a claim are disclosed in the prior art, discovering the optimum or workable ranges involves only routine skill in the art, and it appears different conditions such as various speeds, weights, or terrain would affect the speed/wheel direction values.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 9-13 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 DREW J BROWN whose telephone number is (571)272-1362. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday.
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DREW BROWN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3616
/DREW J BROWN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3617