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
This Office action is in response to the amendment filed on 08/10/2026. Claims 1-6 are currently pending with claims 1, 2, 4, and 5 being amended.
Response to Amendments and Arguments
The amendments to claims 4 and 5 adequately address the rejections under 35 USC 112(b); the rejections are therefore withdrawn.
In light of the claim amendments and Applicant’s arguments, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1-6 under 35 USC 103(a), they have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of ??.
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) 1-3, 5 and 6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Toccassi US 2022/0204267 (previously cited) in view of Murakami, US 2022/0212866.
Claim 1, Toccassi discloses:
An article conveying system (See at least paras 0099, 0104-0107, and Figs. 1-3) comprising:
a conveying device capable of conveying an article (see at least Fig. 1, robotic handling device 70, gripping means 72, paras 0104-0107)
While Toccassi discloses a conveying device and a sensor system which “determines the package size in all three orthogonal directions (measuring these dimensions”, Toccassi does not explicitly disclose, “a distance measuring device for measuring a distance from a predetermined position to an object in a predetermined direction, said distance measuring device comprising a pair of spaced distance sensors attached to said conveying device with one distance sensor on an opposite side of said conveying device; and a management unit for managing presence or absence of the article based on information about the distance to the object measured by the distance measuring device located at the predetermined position.”
However, Murakami discloses the features which Toccassi lacks. Toccassi which is directed to the same filed of endeavor, object conveyance systems, discloses a conveyance device for conveying a product acquired from a storage shelf including a holding member 82 which holds a workpiece via a pallet where correction of the movement of the holding member involves, in part, optical distance sensors 86. See paragraphs 0010, 0034, 0038, 0039. Murakami also discloses, “Further, the optical distance sensor 86L is oriented and positioned so as to be capable of emitting light toward the stock areas S when the holding member 83 is in a position facing the stock areas S, whereby in the product confirmation mode, it can be determined whether or not a product is present in a stock area S.” As shown in Fig. 4, there are two distance sensors, 86L and 86R which are on opposite sides of a loading platform which is configured to hold the objects being conveyed.
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the time of the claimed invention to incorporate into the system of Toccassi distance sensors with the gripping means 72 of the robot handling device 70 which is used for the manipulating and transfer of packages. Toccassi already teaches the measurement of packages and shelving space. It would have been obvious to also use distance sensors on the gripping means 72 at least for the accurate control of positioning, picking, and placing of the packages into the defined spaces in the storage structure. Toccassi teaches the object of the invention is to optimize the use of space by fitting packages into spaces that are not “excessive” but sufficient based on the size of the package. Distance sensors integrated with the gripping means would further enhance the operation and prevent damage to packages and/or storage structures.
Claim 2, Toccassi discloses the conveying device is a grasping device capable of grasping the article (gripping means 72, see paragraph 0104).
Claim 3, Toccassi does not explicitly disclose but Murakami teaches wherein the management unit (controller 70 and processor 71, paras 0042, 0043) includes a storage unit and causes the storage unit to store information (memory 72, para 0044) showing that there is no article when the distance exceeds a threshold value. (“The memory 72 can store various programs used by the processor 71. The memory 72 may store other data.” 0044; and “product confirmation mode, it can be determined whether or not a product is present in a stock area S”, para 0040; para 0059 and Fig. 7). It would have been obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art before the time of the claimed invention to utilize distance sensors for the purpose of detecting the presence of an article to be picked and placed and if there is no article then the system needs to recognize that fact and move on to the next task. For a system to implement such actions requires processors and memory. For at least these reasons it would have been obvious to use the processor, memory and distance sensors to detect a no article state, store that data and move on to the next step or process.
Claim 5, Toccassi discloses, the article conveying system is an article conveying-in system for conveying in the article to a shelf including at least one of at least one column and at least one stage (see at least Abstract and para 0071), the storage unit stores information about dimensions of the article, and numerical value information based on the dimensions of the article is associated with information showing a first shelf position of the shelf and is stored in the storage unit in the management unit (See at least Abstract, paras 0029, 0032, 0051, 0082, 0083), further comprising: a control unit for moving the conveying device to the predetermined position corresponding to a second shelf position different from the first shelf position when the numerical value information stored in the storage unit satisfies a specific condition relative to second shelf position (see at least paras 0109, 0110, 0122).
Claim 6, Toccassi does not explicitly disclose but Murakami teaches wherein the management unit (controller 70 and processor 71, paras 0042, 0043) includes a storage unit and causes the storage unit to store information (memory 72, para 0044) showing that there is no article when the distance exceeds a threshold value. (“The memory 72 can store various programs used by the processor 71. The memory 72 may store other data.” 0044; and “product confirmation mode, it can be determined whether or not a product is present in a stock area S”, para 0040; para 0059 and Fig. 7). It would have been obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art before the time of the claimed invention to utilize distance sensors for the purpose of detecting the presence of an article to be picked and placed and if there is no article then the system needs to recognize that fact and move on to the next task. For a system to implement such actions requires processors and memory. For at least these reasons it would have been obvious to use the processor, memory and distance sensors to detect a no article state, store that data and move on to the next step or process.
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Toccassi in view of Murkami and Yoshinaga et al., JP 2001/072207 (previously cited).
Claim 4, Toccassi and Murkami together disclose “when information showing that there is no article is associated with information showing” see the rejections of claims 1, 3 and 6 above. However, Toccassi and Murkami together do not disclose “the article conveying system is an article conveying-out system for conveying out the article placed on a shelf including at least one of at least one column and at least one stage, further comprising: a control unit for moving the conveying device to a predetermined position corresponding to a second shelf position different from a first shelf position when information showing that there is no article is associated with information showing the first shelf position of the shelf unit and is stored in the storage unit in the management unit.” However, Yoshinaga discloses “the article conveying system is an article conveying-out system for conveying out the article placed on a shelf including at least one of at least one column and at least one stage,(see at least para 0014) further comprising: a control unit for moving the conveying device to a predetermined position corresponding to a second shelf position different from a first shelf position when information showing that there is no article is associated with information showing the first shelf position of the shelf unit and is stored in the storage unit in the management unit. (see at least para 0026). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Toccassi to incorporate the teachings of Yoshinaga and combine the conveying out steps into the article conveying system of Toccassi as modified by Murkami. The conveying-out steps of Yoshinaga et al. allows systematic unloading of shelves, enabling increased speed and efficiency.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have had the capability to combine the conveying-out steps of Yoshinaga et al. into the article conveying system of Toccassi and Takashi et al. and would have recognized that the combination would yield predictable results. Even in the combined context, the features of the article conveying system of Toccassi and Takashi et al. and the features of the conveying-out steps of Yoshinaga et al. would be expected to function as intended, with each element in the combined context performing the same function as it did separately.
A person of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to incorporate the teachings of Yoshinaga et al. because they are a known work in the same field of endeavor directed to the same technology (article sorting and storing), which would prompt its use based on design improvements that are predictable and recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The use of distance sensors in conveyance and article handling systems was common at the time of the claimed invention. Some examples of other systems and devices that use distance sensors for article handling and presence detection includes:
US 20240131715 A1, METHOD FOR DETERMINING A MINIMUM DISTANCE BETWEEN AN OBJECT AND AN APPARATUS SURFACE, SAFETY DEVICE FOR A HANDLING APPARATUS HAVING AN APPARATUS SURFACE, AND HANDLING APPARATUS;
US 20240010426 A1, LOAD-HANDLING DEVICE;
US 20230382660 A1, APPARATUS FOR MOUNTING COMPONENT AND METHOD FOR MOUNTING COMPONENT;
US 20230302632 A1, INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE, INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD, AND PROGRAM;
US 20230102104 A1, GRIP DEVICE AND ROBOT DEVICE COMPRISING SAME;
US 20220410329 A1, Method For Setting More Precisely A Position And/or Orientation Of A Device Head;
US 20220379488 A1, DEVICE FOR CORRECTING ROBOTIC ARM;
US 20220332526 A1, POSITION DETECTION APPARATUS AND METHOD OF DISTRIBUTION OBJECT, ROBOT, DISTRIBUTION APPARATUS, AND CONTROLLER;
US 20220305667 A1, SAFETY SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AN INTEGRATED MOBILE MANIPULATOR ROBOT; and
US 20220250842 A1, AUTOMATED CARRYING SYSTEM.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/JACOB S. SCOTT/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3655
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