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 .
This action is in response to the applicant’s communication filed on 12/6/2023
Claims 1-19 are pending
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 8 recites the limitation "the HVAC gateway device" in line 3. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-11, 14-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Noboa USPGPUB 2018/0224819 A1 (hereinafter Noboa) in view of Kuckuk et al. USPGPUB 2017/0314796 A1 (hereinafter Kuckuk), and further in view of Dinur US 8,437,276 B2 (hereinafter Dinur).
Regarding claim 1, Noboa teaches a method of commissioning physical HVAC devices of an HVAC system for an HVAC application (Par. [0002] “methods for automatic commissioning and configuration of controllers and devices in an HVAC control system” … “Using the configuration information received from the database, the master controller may configure and control the HVAC devices”), the method comprising:
communicatively connecting a plurality of physical HVAC devices to a communication bus via each physical HVAC device's bus communication interface, one of the plurality of physical HVAC devices being selected as master HVAC device (Par. [0005] “building management system includes a communications bus, slave devices connected to the communications bus, remote server including a slave device configuration database, and a master controller connected to the communications bus”; Par. [0095] “designated master device (e.g., chiller 502) queries the designated slave devices (e.g., chillers 504-508, field controllers 510-514));
identifying, by the master HVAC device, the physical HVAC devices connected to the communication bus by retrieving respective identification data of the physical HVAC devices (Par. [0095] “designated master device (e.g., chiller 502) queries the designated slave devices (e.g., chillers 504-508, field controllers 510-514) connected to the wireless network 544 for a device identification code”); and
determining, by the master HVAC device, device type(s) of the physical HVAC devices using the respective identification data (Claim 19, “connecting, by the designated master device, to a remote database comprising device configuration parameters; transmitting, by the designated master device, the device identification codes to the remote database; receiving, by the designated master device, device configuration parameters from the remote database corresponding to the device identification codes”; Par. [0015] “slave device configuration information includes at least one of cooling tower configuration parameters, chilled water pump configuration parameters, condenser water pump configuration parameters, air handling unit configuration parameters, rooftop air handling unit configuration parameters, and variable air volume unit configuration parameters”).
Noboa does not explicitly teach receiving, by the master HVAC device, an application model (application model is interpreted as a data structure defining virtual HVAC devices and their configuration) comprising a device list listing a plurality of virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application and, comprising data indicative of a device type of each virtual HVAC device.
However, Kuckuk teaches receiving, by the master HVAC device, an application model comprising a device list listing a plurality of virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application (Table 1, Par. [0002] “variable air volume (VAY) controller is, in general, a controller configured to control, monitor, and manage equipment of an HVAC system in or around a building or building area“; [0004] “controller is configured to store a plurality of predefined, selectable applications; receive a selection of one of the plurality of predefined, selectable-applications; and implement the selected application such that the building equipment is controlled according to the selected application” –Table 1 shows a list of possible selectable applications with a plurality of virtual HVAC devices. – Virtual HVAC device is interpreted to mean logical or software representations of physical HVAC devices).
Noboa, and Kuckuk are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor. They both relate to HVAC controllers.
Therefore, at the time of effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the above HVAC control system, as taught by Noboa, and incorporate allowing the selection of an HVAC application amongst a list of available HVAC applications, as taught by Kuckuk.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to improve user control and improved workflows as suggested by Kuckuk (Par. [0063]).
Noboa and Kuckuk do not explicitly teach generating, by the master HVAC device, a mapping (mapping interpreted as an association between physical device identifiers and virtual device identifiers) of the plurality of physical HVAC devices to the plurality of virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application using the respective determined device type(s) of the plurality of physical HVAC devices and the device type(s) of the virtual HVAC devices.
However, Dinur teaches generating, by the master HVAC device, a mapping of the plurality of physical HVAC devices to the plurality of virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application using the respective determined device type(s) of the plurality of physical HVAC devices and the device type(s) of the virtual HVAC devices (Fig. 9-11, Col. 24 “The main stage of designing the networks 1801 comprises the stages of: defining device type and physical location 1701; defining the binding links between devices 1702; defining the wired device mapping 1703, the stage is described in FIG. 9; defining the wireless device mapping 1704, the stage is described in FIG. 10; and defining an address translation sub-table for a wireless device 1705. This stage is described in FIG. 11.”; Col. 4, “address translation sub-table maps the wired communication link address of each connected wired device to its endpoint (addressable component in a wireless device) used by the wireless protocols”).
Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor. They all relate to controlling HVAC devices.
Therefore, at the time of effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the above HVAC control system, as taught by Noboa, and incorporate mapping physical HVAC devices to virtual HVAC devices, as taught by Dinur.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to improve allowing “each wireless device to locate and communicate with each attached wired device, providing an indirect communication link between the wireless and wired networks” as suggested by Dinur (Col. 4).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Noboa further teaches retrieving, by the master HVAC device, device profile(s) corresponding to the determined device type(s) and/or the identification data of the physical HVAC devices (Par. [0095] - [0097] “the master device may transmit the device identification codes received in step 704 from the slave devices to the remote server. The remote server may then use the device identification codes to search the contents of the remote server (e.g., configuration database 534) to retrieve configuration information (e.g., device parameters, device settings, device control files) corresponding to the device identification codes. At step 712, the master device (e.g., chiller 502) may receive the configuration information from the remote server (e.g., configuration database 534) via one or more networks (e.g., network 530 and/or wireless network 544).” – examiner interprets configuration information containing information such as device parameters, device settings, and device control files to be a device profile); and
enabling, by the master HVAC device using the respective device profile(s) and the mapping, data communication between the HVAC application and the plurality of physical HVAC devices (Par. [0035] “Using the configuration information received from the database, the master controller may configure and control the HVAC devices”).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Noboa further teaches wherein the HVAC application resides and/or is executed by the master HVAC device and/or a remote computer communicatively connected to the master HVAC device via a remote communication interface (Par. [0097] “master device (e.g., chiller 502) may receive the configuration information from the remote server (e.g., configuration database 534) via one or more networks (e.g., network 530 and/or wireless network 544).”) and wherein the HVAC application comprises computer readable instructions for generating control data for controlling the physical HVAC devices and/or for processing operational data received from the physical HVAC devices (Par. [0104] “master controller may be configured to retrieve configuration information for slave devices (see above description of process 700 with reference to FIG. 7) and to operate the slave devices once configuration information is received.).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Kuckuk further teaches receiving a selection of an HVAC application amongst a list of available HVAC applications (Par. [0004] “controller is configured to store a plurality of predefined, selectable applications; receive a selection of one of the plurality of predefined, selectable-applications”); and
retrieving, by the master HVAC device, an application model corresponding to the selected HVAC application (Par. [0004] “The controller is configured to … implement the selected application such that the building equipment is controlled according to the selected application”).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Kuckuk further teaches the list of available HVAC applications comprises HVAC applications stored locally in the master HVAC device (Par. [0004] “The controller is configured to store a plurality of predefined, selectable applications).”) and/or stored on a remote computer communicatively connected to the master HVAC device via a remote communication interface (Fig. 4, Par. [0041] “Interface 407 can facilitate communications between BMS controller 366 and external applications ( e.g., monitoring and reporting applications 422, enterprise control applications 426, remote systems and applications 444, applications residing on client devices 448, etc.) for allowing user control, monitoring, and adjustment to BMS controller 366 and/or subsystems 428”); and
the master HVAC device retrieves the application model corresponding to the selected HVAC application from a data storage of the master HVAC device (Par. [0004] “receive a selection of one of the plurality of predefined, selectable-applications; and implement the selected application such that the building equipment is controlled according to the selected application.”) and/or from a remote computer communicatively connected to the master HVAC device via a remote communication interface.
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Dinur further teaches wherein generating the mapping of physical HVAC device(s) to virtual HVAC device(s) comprises one or more of:
automatically mapping each singular physical HVAC device of a device type to a singular virtual HVAC device (Table 4, Col. 18, “For each wireless device (202) on the networks scheme, the wireless device mapping maps the wireless logical ID of the device to a unique radio ID (wireless communication link address) and startup attribute set (SAS).” … “using the master controller to start creating a device mapping from the wireless logical ID of each wireless device and its SAS 1002;”; Col. 19, “An illustration of a wireless devices mapping table is shown in Table 4.”);
Dinur does not explicitly teach providing a selection list of a plurality of physical HVAC devices having compatible device type(s) with the device type(s) of the virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application and receiving user input indicative of a selection of one or more physical HVAC devices from the selection list to be mapped.
However, Kuckuk teaches providing a selection list of a plurality of physical HVAC devices having compatible device type(s) with the device type(s) of the virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application and receiving user input indicative of a selection of one or more physical HVAC devices from the selection list to be mapped (Par. [0003] “processing circuit is configured to store a plurality of predefined, selectable-applications; receive a selection of one of the plurality of predefined, selectable-applications; and implement the selected application such that the building equipment is controlled according to the selected application; Par. [0005] “processing circuit is configured to store a super-application including a plurality of sub-applications and activate one or more of the sub-applications based on at least one of (i) receiving configuration settings from the external device and (ii) automatically detecting a type of the building equipment connected therewith”; Par. [0067] “The application module 510 may be configured to activate and/or deactivate certain portions of the super-application (e.g., sub-applications thereof, etc.) based on (i) the field configuration setting received from the programmer device 530 (i.e., based on a manual user input) and/or (ii) based on the detected building equipment (i.e., automatically).”).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Noboa further teaches wherein the device profile(s) comprise device-specific processing data corresponding to the physical HVAC devices identified by the identification data (Par. [0096] “configuration information (e.g., device parameters, device settings, device control files) corresponding to the device identification codes.”; Par. [0091] “Each chiller processing circuit 558-564 may contain a processor 566-572 and memory 574-580. Processors 566-572 can be implemented as general purpose processors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), a group of processing components, or other suitable electronic processing components”); and wherein enabling data communication between the HVAC application and the plurality of physical HVAC devices comprises (Par. [0064] “Interfaces 407, 409 can be or include wired or wireless communications interfaces (e.g., jacks, antennas, transmitters, receivers, transceivers, wire terminals, etc.) for conducting data communications with building subsystems 428 or other external systems or devices.”):
processing, by the master HVAC device, operational data received from the physical HVAC devices using the device-specific processing data and forwarding the thereby processed operational data to the HVAC application (Par. [0052] “Actuators 324-328 may communicate with an AHU controller 330 via a communications link 332. Actuators 324-328 … may provide feedback signals to AHU controller. Feedback signals may include, for example, an indication of a current actuator or damper position, an amount of torque or force exerted by the actuator, diagnostic information (e.g., results of diagnostic tests performed by actuators 324-328), status information, commissioning information, configuration settings, calibration data, and/or other types of information or data that can be collected, stored, or used by actuators 324-328.”
”); and/or
processing, by the master HVAC device, control data generated by the HVAC application using the device-specific processing data and forwarding the thereby processed control data to the respective physical HVAC devices (Par. [0005] “The master controller is further configured to … control the slave devices based on the slave device configuration information”; Par. [0052] “Actuators 324-328 may receive control signals from AHU controller 330”).
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Noboa further teaches wherein the device-specific processing data comprises calibration data specific to the physical HVAC devices identified by the identification data (Par. [0052] “Feedback signals may include, for example … configuration settings, calibration data, and/or other types of information or data that can be collected, stored, or used by actuators 324-328.”), wherein the processing by the HVAC gateway device (Par. [0064] “Interfaces 407, 409 can be or include wired or wireless communications interfaces ( e.g., jacks, antennas, transmitters, receivers, transceivers, wire terminals, etc.) for conducting data communications with building subsystems 428 or other external systems or devices.”) comprises:
applying the calibration data to operational data received from the physical HVAC devices (Par. [0052] “Feedback signals may include, for example, an indication of a current actuator or damper position, an amount of torque or force exerted by the actuator, diagnostic information (e.g., results of diagnostic tests performed by actuators 324-328), status information, commissioning information, configuration settings, calibration data, and/or other types of information or data that can be collected, stored, or used by actuators 324-328.”) and/or
applying the calibration data to control data generated by the HVAC application (Par. [0005] “control the slave devices based on the slave device configuration information”).
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Noboa further teaches wherein the device-specific processing data comprises conversion data including conversion parameters and/or conversion formulae, wherein the processing by the master HVAC device, comprises applying the conversion parameters and/or conversion formulae to operational data received from the physical HVAC devices (Par. [0052] “AHU controller 330 can be an economizer controller configured to use one or more control algorithms ( e.g., state-based algorithms, extremum seeking control (ESC) algorithms, proportional- integral (PI) control algorithms, proportional-integral- derivative (PID) control algorithms, model predictive control (MPC) algorithms, feedback control algorithms, etc.) to control actuators 324-328.”).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Kuckuk further teaches testing the HVAC application using the mapping of the plurality of physical HVAC devices to the plurality of virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application (Par. [0060] “programmability also requires (i) time to build the applications, (ii) time to customize the applications as needed, (iii) time to download the applications to the VAV field controllers from the complex tool on a job site, and (iv) time to test and verify any customizations made to the applications”).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Noboa further teaches wherein, the control data comprises actuator values, the method further comprising: actuating, by actuator(s) of the respective physical HVAC devices, of one or more mechanically connected actuated parts in accordance with actuator values of the control data as processed and forwarded by the master HVAC device (Par. [0052] “Actuators 324-328 may communicate with an AHU controller 330 via a communications link 332. Actuators 324-328 may receive control signals from AHU controller 330 and may provide feedback signals to AHU controller 330.”).
Regarding claim 14, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Noboa further teaches a master HVAC device (Par. [0095] “ master device (e.g., chiller 502)”) comprising:
a bus communication interface for communicatively connecting one or more further physical HVAC device(s) (Par. [0005] “includes a communications bus, slave devices connected to the communications bus, remote server including a slave device configuration database, and a master controller connected to the communications bus”);
a processor (Par. [0065] “Processor 406 can be implemented as a general purpose processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), a group of processing components, or other suitable electronic processing components.”);
wherein the processor is configured to control the master HVAC device to carry out the method according to claim 1 (Par. [0066] “memory 408 is communicably connected to processor 406 via processing circuit 404 and includes computer code for executing (e.g., by processing circuit 404 and/or processor 406) one or more processes described herein”).
Regarding claim 15, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Noboa further teaches one or more actuator(s) for actuating mechanically connected actuated part(s) and/or one or more sensor(s) (Par. [0052] “Actuators 324-328 may communicate with an AHU controller 330 via a communications link 332. Actuators 324-328 may receive control signals from AHU controller 330 and may provide feedback signals to AHU controller 330.”; Par. [0062] “HVAC subsystem 440 may include and number of chillers, heaters, handling units, economizers, field controllers, supervisory controllers, actuators, temperature sensors, and/or other devices for controlling the temperature, humidity, airflow, or other variable conditions within building 10”).
Regarding claim 16, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Noboa further teaches an HVAC system (Par. [0039] “HVAC system 100”) comprising:
the master HVAC device according to claim 14 (Par. [0095] “master device (e.g., chiller 502)”); and
one or more physical HVAC devices comprising one or more actuator(s) for actuating mechanically connected actuated part(s) and/or one or more sensor(s) (Par. [0062] “HVAC subsystem 440 may include … actuators, temperature sensors, and/or other devices for controlling the temperature, humidity, airflow, or other variable conditions within building 10”),
wherein the master HVAC device and the one or more physical HVAC devices are communicatively connected by a communication bus via respective bus communication interfaces (Par. [0005] “includes a communications bus, slave devices connected to the communications bus, remote server including a slave device configuration database, and a master controller connected to the communications bus”).
Regarding claim 17, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Noboa further teaches a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, which, when executed by a processor of a master HVAC device, cause the master HVAC device to carry out the method according to claim 1 (Par. [0066] “memory 408 is communicably connected to processor 406 via processing circuit 404 and includes computer code for executing (e.g., by processing circuit 404 and/or processor 406) one or more processes described herein”)).
Regarding claim 18, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Kuckuk further teaches instructions, which, when executed by the processor of the master HVAC device, cause generation of a user interface (Par. [0038] “Client device 368 can include one or more human machine interfaces or client interfaces (e.g., graphical user interfaces, reporting interfaces, text-based computer interfaces, client-facing web services, web servers that provide pages to web clients, etc.) for controlling, viewing, or otherwise interacting with HVAC system 100, its subsystems, and/or devices.”) comprising:
display elements for displaying a list of available HVAC applications (Table 1, Par. [0069] “An example of possible selectable-applications stored within the application module 510 is shown in Table 1.”; Par. [0072] “an application stored within the application module 510 may be selected (i) locally from a balancing tool, (ii) locally from a mobile access portal (MAP) (e.g., using a mobile device, etc.), (iii) locally using a user interface (e.g., dip switches, display, etc.) of VAY controller 500, and/or (iv) remotely (e.g., from a network automation engine (NAE) via a BACnet point, etc.).”);
user interaction elements for receiving a selection of a HVAC application amongst the list of available HVAC applications (Par. [0038] “Client device 368 can include one or more human machine interfaces or client interfaces (e.g., graphical user interfaces, reporting interfaces, text-based computer interfaces, client-facing web services, web servers that provide
pages to web clients, etc.) for controlling, viewing, or otherwise interacting with HVAC system 100, its subsystems, and/or devices.”);
Kuckuk does not explicitly teach display elements for displaying the device list listing a plurality of virtual HVAC devices of the selected HVAC application;
display elements for displaying a list of physical HVAC devices connected to the communication bus; and
display elements for displaying a visual representation of mapping of the plurality of physical HVAC devices to the plurality of virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application.
However, Dinur teaches display elements for displaying the device list listing a plurality of virtual HVAC devices of the selected HVAC application (Col. 4, “The wireless device mapping table may also contain an address translation sub-table … For each wireless device, the address translation sub-table maps the wired communication link address of each connected wired device to its endpoint (addressable component in a wireless device) used by the wireless protocols.”; Col 14, “The wireless device user interface 502 allows the user to perform operations such as to manually control the wired devices (201), set parameters for interaction with sensors, not shown in the present illustration, etc. The wireless device user interface 502 may be implemented by standard interface technologies (such as touch screen and push buttons).”);
display elements for displaying a list of physical HVAC devices connected to the communication bus (Col. 4, “For each wireless device, the address translation sub-table maps the wired communication link address of each connected wired device to its endpoint (addressable component in a wireless device) used by the wireless protocols”; Col 14, “The wireless device user interface 502 allows the user to perform operations such as to manually control the wired devices (201), set parameters for interaction with sensors, not shown in the present illustration, etc. The wireless device user interface 502 may be implemented by standard interface technologies (such as touch screen and push buttons)); and
display elements for displaying a visual representation of mapping of the plurality of physical HVAC devices to the plurality of virtual HVAC devices of the HVAC application (Col. 13, “CT user interface 402 allows the user to perform operations such as to browse through the networks scheme or device mapping tables”).
Regarding claim 19, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Dinur further teaches, wherein the user interface (Col. 14, “wireless device user interface 502 may be implemented by standard interface technologies (such as touch screen and push buttons).”) further comprises:
display elements for displaying a device type of virtual HVAC devices of the selected HVAC application (Col. 10 “The term "wireless logical ID" and the like substantially refer to an identifier that identifies each wireless device on the networks scheme by the wireless device location and the wireless device type … The term "wireless device mapping" and the like substantially refer to a table which maps the wireless logical ID of each wireless device to its radio ID, SAS and address translation sub-table entries.”); and
user interaction elements for altering one or more parameters of the device types of the virtual HVAC devices of the selected HVAC application (Col. 14, “The wireless device user interface 502 allows the user to perform operations such as to manually control the wired devices (201), set parameters for interaction with sensors, etc.”).
Claim(s) 12-13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Noboa USPGPUB 2018/0224819 A1 (hereinafter Noboa) in view of Kuckuk et al. USPGPUB 2017/0314796 A1 (hereinafter Kuckuk), and Dinur US 8,437,276 B2 (hereinafter Dinur), and further in view of Shrivastava et al. USPGPUB 2018/0088432 A1 (hereinafter Shrivastava).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Noboa, Kuckuk, and Dinur do not explicitly teach identifying, by the master HVAC device, a physical HVAC device to be replaced;
identifying, by the master HVAC device, a replacement physical HVAC device; and
updating, by the master HVAC device, the mapping of a virtual HVAC device from the physical HVAC device to be replaced with the replacement physical HVAC device.
However, Shrivastava teaches identifying, by the master HVAC device, a physical HVAC device to be replaced (Par. [0014] “master controller is configured to … determine, from the testing, that the first window is malfunctioning or misidentified.”);
identifying, by the master HVAC device, a replacement physical HVAC device (Par. [0180] “commissioning logic may notice the absence of a component on the network and the presence of a new component reporting from the same coordinates of the missing component.”); and
updating, by the master HVAC device, the mapping of a virtual HVAC device from the physical HVAC device to be replaced with the replacement physical HVAC device (Par. [0180] “Commissioning logic may conclude that a component has been replaced, and thus updates the network configuration file with the network ID of the new component.”).
Noboa, Kuckuk, Dinur, and Shrivastava are analogous art because they contain functional similarities. They all relate to Commissioning devices.
Therefore, at the time of effective filing date, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the above commissioning system, as taught by Noboa, and incorporate identifying replacement parts, as taught by Shrivastava.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to improve “quickly identify a problem with a device and only after identifying that a problem exists, spending the effort to determine exactly where the problem resides” as suggested by Shrivastava (Par. [0093]).
Regarding claim 13, the combination of Noboa, Kuckuk, Dinur, and Shrivastava teaches all the limitations of the base claims as outlined above.
Shrivastava further teaches retrieving operational data from the physical HVAC device to be replaced and transmitting the retrieved operational data to the replacement physical HVAC device; and/or
updating parameters of the device profile of the replacement physical HVAC device using parameters of the device profile of the physical HVAC device to be replaced (Par. [0177] “If, however, a change is made, for example, an IGU is replaced with one having a different window controller, then commissioning logic 901 is used once to determine the change and update the network configuration file 953 accordingly”).
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Dorneanu et al. [USPGPUB 2018/0225244 A1] teaches HVAC slave devices configured to detect that the old master controller device has stopped communicating over the communications bus and performing an algorithm to determine a new master controller device from the slave devices based on a device identifier associated with each of the slave devices.
Lian et al. [EP 3518505 A1] teaches a system comprising a primary unit and a plurality of secondary units each having a unique unit number. The primary unit is configured to communicate a command to each secondary unit with instructions to reply, receive a reply communication, and determine an address to assign to the replying secondary unit based at least in part on the received unique unit number.
Conclusion
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Mohammad Ali can be reached at (571) 272-4105. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/PETER XU/ Examiner, Art Unit 2119
/MOHAMMAD ALI/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2119