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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Status of the Claims
Claims 16-32 are pending and the subject of this NON-FINAL Office Action. This is the first action on the merits.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112- Indefiniteness
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(B) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 28 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
In claim 21, “the inertial sensor device” is confusing because it lacks antecedent basis. Claim 28 previously recites “an initial sensor device”; it is unclear if this is the referent.
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) A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(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; or
(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 16-32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by HENDRON (US20130297046), as evidenced by ZHDANOV (US 10026311), JOERGENSEN (US20150292179) and Lenda et al, Influence of Time Delays of Robotic Total Stations Witch High Sampling Frequency on Accuracy of Measurements to Moving Prisms, Archives of Civil Engineering, Vol. LXV, Issue 1, 1 March 2019.
As to claim 16, HENDRON teaches a printing system for forming a strand of building material for 3-D printing of a structural part, the printing system comprising:
a printing head 304 (end effector with concrete extruder nozzle; Fig. 5);
a parallel robot 400 (Stewart platform; Fig. 5); and
a coarse movement device 118 (boom arm; Figs. 1, 3 & 5),
wherein the printing head is configured for delivery of building material from the printing system and for shaping building material in order to form the strand of building material (Fig. 5),
wherein the parallel robot comprises at least three robot arm devices 408 for finely positioning the printing head in relation to the coarse movement device, with at least two robot arm devices closest to one another being offset from one another with an oblique angle of arc along a circumferential direction about a central axis of the parallel robot (“The cylinders or actuators 408 of the Stewart platform 400 precisely control the movement of the end effector to the desired position, speed, trajectory, etc”; para. 0048 and Figs. 4-5), and
wherein the coarse movement device is configured for a coarse movement of the parallel robot with the printing head (Fig. 5).
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As to claim 17, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 16, further comprising:
a conveying hose (Fig. 4),
wherein the conveying hose leads between the two closest robot arm devices offset from one another with the oblique angle of arc for guiding the building material, from the coarse movement device, to the printing head (Fig. 4).
As to claim 18, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 16,
wherein the parallel robot comprises exactly three robot arm devices, and/or wherein the oblique angle of arc is approximately 120° (Fig. 4 and para. 0031).
As to claim 19, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 16,
wherein the parallel robot comprises electrical, hydraulic, and/or pneumatic-free drive devices, said drive devices being designed for driving the at least three robot arm devices (para. 0031).
As to claim 20, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 16,
wherein the coarse movement device comprises a serial robot for coarse movement of the parallel robot (Figs. 1 & 3, para. 0032).
As to claim 21, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 20,
wherein the serial robot is a distribution boom for the coarse movement of the parallel robot at a boom tip of the distribution boom (id.).
As to claim 22, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 20,
wherein the serial robot comprises rotary joints 106, with axes of rotation of the rotary joints being parallel to one another (Fig. 1).
As to claim 23, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 16, further comprising:
an orientation device configured for orienting the coarse movement device in relation to a building environment of the printing system (para. 0031 and Fig. 5).
As to claim 24, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 16,
wherein the printing head and/or the parallel robot are/is free from an inclination degree of freedom (paras. 0032, 0037 & 0048).
As to claim 25, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 16, further comprising:
an interface for a position and/or orientation sensing device and/or the position and/or orientation sensing device, which is independent of the coarse movement device and/or external,
wherein the position and/or orientation sensing device is designed for sensing a position and/or orientation quantity which determines a position and/or an orientation of the printing head and/or parallel robot in relation to a building environment of the printing system; and
a controller,
wherein the controller is designed for controlling the parallel robot for finely positioning the printing head in relation to the coarse movement device based on the sensed position and/or orientation quantity (Fig. 5 and para. 0037).
As to claim 26, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 25,
wherein the position and/or orientation sensing device comprises a tachymeter 310 (AKA total station; Fig. 5).
As to claim 27, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 25,
wherein the position and/or orientation sensing device comprises a laser tachymeter (id.).
As to claim 28, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 25, further comprising:
an initial sensor device,
wherein the inertial sensor device 522 comprises at least one inertial sensor, the inertial sensor being arranged and designed on the printing head and/or parallel robot for sensing an inertia which determines a movement of the printing head and/or parallel robot in relation to the building environment of the printing system (accelerometer; paras. 0032-33, 0037, 0039 and Fig. 5),
wherein the controller is designed for controlling the parallel robot for finely positioning the printing head in relation to the coarse movement device by linking to one another the sensed position and/or orientation quantity, which was sensed at a low frequency and/or which arrives at the controller with a time offset, and the sensed inertia, which was sensed at a higher frequency and/or which arrives at the controller with a smaller or no time offset. As is known, an accelerometer or internal sensor has a sampling rate much higher than a tachymeter/total station. This is evidenced by ZHDANOV, JOERGENSEN and Lenda. These references state what is known by a skilled artisan: “IMUs or gyroscopes usually output their data at about 50-100 hz” (ZHDANOV), and “[t]he measurement rate of the IMU [inertial measuring unit] in particular can be between 50 and 500 Hz, whereas other means may have only a rate of 1 to 20 Hz” (JOERGENSEN, para. 0030); the “other means” of “modern total stations in the standard configuration perform measurements with variable frequency ranging from 7 to 10 Hz, although it is possible to reach even more than 20 Hz” (Lenda, pg. 36). Thus, when the prior art (e.g. HENDRON) teaches inertial measurement devices and tachymeter/total station, it inherently discloses the sensed position and/or orientation quantity (from the tachymeter/total station) was sensed at a low frequency and the sensed inertia (from inertial sensor) was sensed at a higher frequency.
As to claim 29, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 16, further comprising:
a truck-mounted building material pump comprising a chassis, wherein the chassis carries the printing head, the parallel robot, and the coarse movement device (truck or tractor of Fig. 5; and any use of a concrete nozzle/extruder requires a pump).
As to claim 30, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 16, further comprising:
a building material pump, wherein the building material pump is designed for conveying building material at least in part along the coarse movement device for the delivery of conveyed building material out of the printing system (any use of a concrete nozzle/extruder requires a pump; Fig. 5).
As to claim 31, HENDRON teaches the printing system as claimed in claim 16, wherein one or more of:
the printing head is designed for shaping the strand of building material with a grain size of at least 2 mm and/or at most 50 mm,
the parallel robot has a payload of at least 10 kg and/or at most 3000 kg,
the parallel robot has a positioning accuracy of at least 50 mm and/or at most 0.1 mm, in particular at most 1 mm,
the parallel robot has a range of at least 10 mm and/or at most 1000 mm,
the parallel robot has a maximum speed of at least 10 mm/s and/or at most 10 m/s,
the parallel robot has a maximum acceleration and/or deceleration of at least 0.1 m/s2 and/or at most 500 m/s2,
the coarse movement device has a payload of at least 50 kg and/or at most 5000 kg,
the coarse movement device has a positioning accuracy of at least 500 mm and/or at most 10 mm,
the coarse movement device has a range of at least 10 m and/or at most 100 m,
the coarse movement device has a maximum speed of at least 10 mm/s and/or at most 2 m/s, or
the coarse movement device has a maximum acceleration and/or deceleration of at least 1 m/s2 and/or at most 20 m/s2 (concrete extrusion with a grain size of at least 2 mm and/or at most 50 mm; Fig. 5).
As to claim 32, HENDRON teaches the method of forming a strand of building material for 3-D printing of a structural part comprising utilizing a printing system as claimed in claim 16 (Fig. 5).
Prior Art
The following prior art teaches use of tachymeters/total stations with inertial (e.g. accelerometer and/or gyrometer) sensors in 3D printing or concrete extrusion: US 20210156115; US 20190224846.
The following prior art teaches conventional multi-sensor time offsets, which are required in all multi-sensor contexts: Li et al, Time-Offset Estimation in Multisensor Tracking Systems, 22nd International Conference on Information Fusion, Ottawa, Canada - July 2-5, 2019.
The following prior art teaches concrete extrusion machines that use both boom and parallel robot: US 20170203468; US 20190224846 (includes delta robot); US 20190301131; US 20210370509 (includes delta robot); US 20200246967; US 11230032.
Conclusion
No claims are allowed.
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/YUNG-SHENG M TSUI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 1743