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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Information Disclosure Statement
This office acknowledges receipt of the following item(s) from the applicant:
Information Disclosure Statement(s) (IDS) filed on 21 March 2024. The references have been considered.
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) 1-11 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Bianchessi et al. (Bianchessi, Planning and scheduling algorithms for the COSMO-SkyMed constellation).
Referring to Claim 1, Bianchessi teaches a plurality of mobile sensor carrier platforms (COSMO SkyMed constellation; Section 1 page 535); and a resource allocation unit (Planning and Schedule; See the Title and Section 2 on page 536); wherein a first group of sensor carrier platforms from the plurality of mobile sensor carrier platforms contains a sensor arrangement having a sensor signal emitter; wherein a second group of sensor carrier platforms from the plurality of mobile sensor carrier platforms contains a sensor arrangement having a sensor signal receiver; wherein the observation system is configured to have the plurality of mobile sensor carrier platforms operated in at least one of three modes of operation at a predetermined instant; wherein each mobile sensor carrier platform is configured: to statically observe the region of interest in a first mode of operation (Fig. 4 and associated text); to dynamically move the region of interest in a second mode of operation, according to at least one object to be observed (See Spotlight mode and associated text); to emit sensor signals into the region of interest in a third mode of operation, and reflections of the sensor signals are able to be received by at least one receiver that is spatially separate from the plurality of mobile sensor carrier platforms (Bistatic mode and associated text); wherein the resource allocation unit is configured to assign at least one mobile sensor carrier platform to a task linked to one of the three modes of operation, on a basis of one or more criteria of: relative position between the mobile sensor carrier platform and the region of interest (Fig. 3 and associated text), direction of movement of the sensor carrier platform (page 538 “ascending or descending”), direction of movement of an object to be observed in the region of interest, number of sensor carrier platforms with line of sight to the region of interest, attitude of the sensor carrier platform, alignment of the sensor signal emitter and the sensor signal receiver, available resources of the sensor carrier platform for observation tasks, priority of the observation task; page 538 see sections “set-up and manoeuvres”, “imbalance of workload between different orbits” and “Priorities”.
Referring to Claim 2, Bianchessi teaches wherein the resource allocation unit is configured to ascertain a total number of sensor carrier platforms with a line of sight to the region of interest of the task; wherein the resource allocation unit is configured so as, given multiple tasks, to initially make an assignment according to availability and to assign a sensor carrier platform to a task that has a lowest number of sensor carrier platforms with line of sight to a relevant region of interest; page 538.
Referring to Claim 3, Bianchessi teaches wherein the resource allocation unit is configured to follow the assignment according to availability by making an assignment according to priority for the tasks, which involves initially assigning tasks with higher priority to sensor carrier platforms; page 538.
Referring to Claim 4, Bianchessi teaches wherein further tasks are assigned to sensor carrier platforms according to priority in descending order; page 538.
Referring to Claim 5, Bianchessi teaches wherein the resource allocation unit is configured to reassign a task to a mobile sensor carrier platform at regular or irregular intervals of time; See operational profiles and section 4: The algorithm.
Referring to Claim 6, Bianchessi teaches wherein the resource allocation unit is configured to reassign a task to a mobile sensor carrier platform when the resource allocation unit receives a further task; page 538.
Referring to Claim 7, Bianchessi teaches wherein the resource allocation unit is configured to produce a command for adapting the attitude of a sensor carrier platform and to transmit the command to the sensor carrier platform; page 538.
Referring to Claim 8, Bianchessi teaches wherein the resource allocation unit is configured to produce a command for adapting the alignment of the sensor signal emitter and/or the sensor signal receiver and to transmit the command to a sensor carrier platform; page 538.
Referring to Claim 9, Bianchessi teaches wherein the plurality of mobile sensor carrier platforms is a plurality of satellites in an Earth orbit; COSMO-SkyMed constellation.
Referring to Claim 10, Bianchessi teaches wherein the region of interest is observed in the first mode of operation and/or the second mode of operation by a first sensor carrier platform emitting a signal and the first sensor carrier platform and/or at least one other sensor carrier platform receiving the signals reflected by an observed object; See Fig. 4 and associated text.
Referring to Claim 11, Bianchessi teaches wherein a sensor carrier platform is configured to observe the region of interest in the first mode of operation and/or the second mode of operation on a basis of a timestamp of acquired data, with a result that the sensor signal emitter emits radar signals into an area in a region of interest whose observation data have an oldest timestamp in the region of interest; page 540 “Interferometry”.
Referring to 13, Bianchessi teaches wherein the resource allocation unit is arranged spatially separately from the plurality of mobile sensor carrier platforms; or wherein the resource allocation unit is structurally associated with a mobile sensor carrier platform; page 536.
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) 12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bianchessi in view of D’Errico et al. (D’Errico, The BISSAT Mission: a Bistatic SAR Operating in Formation with COSMO/SkyMed X-band Radar).
Referring to Claim 12, Bianchessi teaches wherein the region of interest is observed in the third mode of operation by a sensor carrier platform emitting a signal, but does not explicitly disclose nor limit and the receiver being arranged aboard an aircraft that is in air and receiving signals reflected by an observed object.
However, D’Errico teaches the receiver being arranged aboard an aircraft that is in air and receiving signals reflected by an observed object; See Introduction section.
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify Bianchessi with the Bistatic SAR aircraft as taught by D’Errico as the combination has predictably provided accurate estimations of sea state and wind speeds as well as remote sensing of rough surfaces.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. US PGPub 2010/0063733 and DE102004045273A1 both systems using COSMOS SkyMed in combination with Bistatic SAR and although not used for the current rejection they both teach relevant information to the state of the art.
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/WHITNEY MOORE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3646