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 .
Status of Claims
This action is in reply to the Application Number 18/586,242 filed on 02/23/2024.
Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been examined.
This action is made NON-FINAL.
The examiner would like to note that this application is now being handled by examiner Jeffrey Chalhoub.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on February 23rd, 2024, October 21st, 2024, and November 7th, 2025 are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to as failing to comply with 37 CFR 1.84(p)(5) because they include the following reference character(s) not mentioned in the description:
“110”.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d), or amendment to the specification to add the reference character(s) in the description in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(b) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Objections
Claims 15 and 20 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claim 15 appears to be independent and should therefore include all limitations of claim 1 rather than simply referring to claim 1.
Claim 20 appears to be independent and should therefore include all limitations of claim 1 rather than simply referring to claim 1.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 11-14 and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without reciting significantly more. The claims are being rejected according to the 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance (Federal Register, Vol. 84, No. 5, p. 50-57 (January 7, 2019).
Step One: Does the Claim Fall Within a Statutory Category?
Yes. Claim 11 is directed towards a setting method (process). Dependent claims 12-14 are also directed towards a setting method (process). Claim 16 is directed towards a setting apparatus (machine). Dependent claims 17-19 are also directed towards a setting apparatus (machine).
Step Two A, Prong One: Is a Judicial Exception Recited?
Yes. Taking into account claim 12 as one example, the claim recites displaying a map of a target area and a first adding control on a display interface in response to an ineffective area setting instruction for the target area; wherein the first adding control is used to add an ineffective area to the map of the target area and displaying at least one added ineffective area on the map of the target area in response to a trigger event for the first adding control, to enable a lawn mower to, when walking to any ineffective area, pass within the ineffective area. These limitations, as drafted, are simple processes that, under their broadest reasonable interpretation, cover performance of the limitations in the mind. That is, nothing in the claim elements precludes the steps from practically being performed in the mind. For example, the claim encompasses an individual analyzing a path and its environmental surroundings on a display, reporting the path’s characteristics and environmental surroundings including obstacles and/or other entities to a driver of a vehicle traversing the path, and providing driving instructions to the vehicle to traverse the path in order to avoid any potential collision with the obstacles/entities. Thus, the claim recites a mental process.
Step Two A, Prong Two: Is the Abstract Idea Integrated into a Practical Application?
No. Claim 11 recites one additional element – a display interface. The display interface is recited at a high-level of generality (i.e., as a means to transmit and receive data) such that it amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic display interface. Accordingly, the additional element does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea.
Claim 16 recites three additional elements – a processor, a memory, and a display interface. All three elements are recited at a high-level of generality (i.e., as means to transmit and receive data) such that they amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic processor, memory, and display interface. Accordingly, the additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because they do not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea.
This type of abstract idea recited in claims 11-14 and 16-19 is a mental process.
Step Two B: Does the Claim Provide an Inventive Concept
No. Regarding claim 11, the claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of using a display interface amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic display interface. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a display interface cannot provide an inventive concept.
Regarding claim 16, the claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements of using a processor, a memory, and a display interface amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic processor, memory, and display interface. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a processor, a memory, and a display interface cannot provide an inventive concept.
Dependent Claims
The dependent claims are merely further defining the abstract idea by providing field of use limitations on transmitting and receiving data and are not adding anything to the abstract idea set forth in the independent claims such that the invention will amount to significantly more than the abstract idea.
Claims 12-14 and 17-19 are merely field of use limitations which simply further limit the abstract idea set forth in claims 11 and 16, respectively. These claims do not contain further limitations that make them subject matter eligible.
For example, dependent claim 12 merely recites the well understood, routine and conventional computing functions of data transmission and gathering. These claims do not contain further limitations that make them subject matter eligible.
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.
Claims 1-5, 10, 15, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brown (US Pat No. 11,582,903) in view of Wu (CN 115840447 A).
Regarding Claim 1:
Brown teaches:
A mowing control method, wherein the method is applied to a lawn mower, and the lawn mower comprises a first sensor, where the first sensor is a non-contact sensor, and the non-contact sensor is used to distinguish between a grass area and a non-grass area; and the method comprises: controlling the lawn mower to avoid, based on information sensed by the first sensor, the non-grass area to walk;, (See (Brown: Col. 1-2 – lines 13-11))
receiving first position information of an ineffective area;, (See (Brown: Col. 2-3 – lines 51-8, Col. 3 – lines 34-42, and Col. 7 – lines 12-38))
wherein the ineffective area is used to indicate that the lawn mower no longer avoids the non-grass area to walk based on the information sensed by the first sensor;, (See (Brown: Col. 8 – lines 7-65))
Brown does not teach but Wu teaches:
when it is determined according to the first position information that the lawn mower walks to the ineffective area, controlling the lawn mower to pass within the ineffective area., (“Control the lawn mower to perform an automatic mowing task in a first target area in a preset automatic mode. In the embodiment of the present invention, the lawn mower has two working modes, one is an automatic mode, and the other is a manual mode; wherein the automatic mode is used to automatically mow the grass in the first target area, and the lawn mower in the automatic mode The walking path is a "bow" reciprocating walk, and in the automatic mode, the lawn mower can walk along the signal line and record the coordinate position information to determine the working area of the lawn mower, so that the cutting path of the working area can be planned in advance ; and the The boundary signal line is a closed-loop area. The above-mentioned first target area is an area that needs to be mowed. After the first target area is determined, path planning may be performed on the first target area to obtain the walking path of the mower in the first target area. The above path planning may be in the shape of a "bow". The above-mentioned lawnmower can be a multi-wheel (such as 4 driving wheels) walkable lawnmower, and the lower part of the lawnmower has a rotating blade to cut the stem or leaf of the grass. When the above-mentioned lawn mower is in manual mode, it can be driven by the handle or controlled by the handle; when the above-mentioned lawn mower is in automatic mode, it can walk along the walking path set independently, and cut the grass on the walking path . The above lawn mower is provided with an inertial measurement unit, and when the lawn mower is in automatic mode, the inertial measurement unit measures information such as the angular velocity, angle, and acceleration of the lawn mower. By measuring the yaw angle to control the walking driving wheel of the lawn mower, the walking trajectory during the walking process relies on the heading angle information provided by the inertial measurement unit and the distance information provided by the odometer to calculate the coordinates, so that the walking trajectory is consistent with the set walking path. Matching, the automatic mowing mode reciprocates according to the "bow" shape of the walking path, and judges the trajectory it has traveled through the recorded coordinates, limits the working range through the signal line, and avoids the traveled trajectory within the limited working range. Look for untraveled areas, eventually achieving full coverage.” (Wu: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown with these above aforementioned teachings from Wu in order to create a smart mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wu’s mower control method in order to control a lawn mower to pass/walk within a target area. Combining Brown and Wu would thus provide “a lawn mower control method, which can clear the area that needs to be mowed in the automatic mode.” (Wu: Description)
Regarding Claim 2:
Brown in view of Wu, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 1. Brown further teaches:
The method according to claim 1, wherein the controlling the lawn mower to pass within the ineffective area comprises:, (See (Brown: Col. 1 – lines 48-67, Col. 5 – lines 12-29, and Col. 8 – lines 51-65))
Brown does not teach but Wu teaches:
[…] determining a target path within the ineffective area, and controlling the lawn mower to pass along the target path and perform mowing., (“controlling the lawn mower to perform an automatic mowing task in the first target area in a preset automatic mode” (Wu: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown with these above aforementioned teachings from Wu in order to create a smart mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wu’s mower control method in order to control a lawn mower to pass/walk within a target area. Combining Brown and Wu would thus provide “a lawn mower control method, which can clear the area that needs to be mowed in the automatic mode.” (Wu: Description)
Regarding Claim 3:
Brown in view of Wu, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 2. Brown does not teach but Wu teaches:
The method according to claim 2, wherein the determining the target path within the ineffective area comprises: determining the target path according to at least one of a path that has been walked along, a walking direction of the lawn mower, a path that has not been walked along., (“Control the lawn mower to perform an automatic mowing task in a first target area in a preset automatic mode. In the embodiment of the present invention, the lawn mower has two working modes, one is an automatic mode, and the other is a manual mode; wherein the automatic mode is used to automatically mow the grass in the first target area, and the lawn mower in the automatic mode The walking path is a "bow" reciprocating walk, and in the automatic mode, the lawn mower can walk along the signal line and record the coordinate position information to determine the working area of the lawn mower, so that the cutting path of the working area can be planned in advance ; and the The boundary signal line is a closed-loop area. The above-mentioned first target area is an area that needs to be mowed. After the first target area is determined, path planning may be performed on the first target area to obtain the walking path of the mower in the first target area. The above path planning may be in the shape of a "bow". The above-mentioned lawnmower can be a multi-wheel (such as 4 driving wheels) walkable lawnmower, and the lower part of the lawnmower has a rotating blade to cut the stem or leaf of the grass. When the above-mentioned lawn mower is in manual mode, it can be driven by the handle or controlled by the handle; when the above-mentioned lawn mower is in automatic mode, it can walk along the walking path set independently, and cut the grass on the walking path . The above lawn mower is provided with an inertial measurement unit, and when the lawn mower is in automatic mode, the inertial measurement unit measures information such as the angular velocity, angle, and acceleration of the lawn mower. By measuring the yaw angle to control the walking driving wheel of the lawn mower, the walking trajectory during the walking process relies on the heading angle information provided by the inertial measurement unit and the distance information provided by the odometer to calculate the coordinates, so that the walking trajectory is consistent with the set walking path. Matching, the automatic mowing mode reciprocates according to the "bow" shape of the walking path, and judges the trajectory it has traveled through the recorded coordinates, limits the working range through the signal line, and avoids the traveled trajectory within the limited working range. Look for untraveled areas, eventually achieving full coverage.” (Wu: Description) Wu further mentions “The automatic mode can walk back and forth in the shape of a "bow", and judge that it has walked by recording the walking coordinates The trajectories that have passed, the walking range is limited by the boundary signal line, the trajectories that have been traveled are avoided within the range, and the areas that have not been traveled are searched for, and finally full coverage is achieved.” (Wu: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown with these above aforementioned teachings from Wu in order to create a smart mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wu’s mower control method in order to control a lawn mower to pass/walk within a target area. Combining Brown and Wu would thus provide “a lawn mower control method, which can clear the area that needs to be mowed in the automatic mode.” (Wu: Description)
Regarding Claim 4:
Brown in view of Wu, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 1. Brown further teaches:
The method according to claim 1, wherein the lawn mower comprises a second sensor, and the second sensor is a contact sensor; the controlling the lawn mower to pass within the ineffective area comprises: when it is identified based on the second sensor that an obstacle that the lawn mower is not capable of passing through exists in the ineffective area, controlling the lawn mower to bypass the obstacle., (See (Brown: Col. 1 – lines 48-67, Col. 3 – lines 34-42, Col. 5 – lines 30-40, and Col. 8 – lines 51-65))
Regarding Claim 5:
Brown in view of Wu, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 2. Brown further teaches:
[…] the target path is parallel to a mowing path at a peripheral position of the ineffective area., (See (Brown: Col. 1-2 – lines 48-11 and Col. 8 – lines 7-65, FIG. 1-5))
Brown does not teach but Wu teaches:
The method according to claim 2, wherein the lawn mower is further configured to record a mowing path while performing mowing;, (“In the embodiment of the present invention, the lawn mower has two working modes, one is an automatic mode, and the other is a manual mode; wherein the automatic mode is used to automatically mow the grass in the first target area, and the lawn mower in the automatic mode The walking path is a "bow" reciprocating walk, and in the automatic mode, the lawn mower can walk along the signal line and record the coordinate position information to determine the working area of the lawn mower, so that the cutting path of the working area can be planned in advance ; and the The boundary signal line is a closed-loop area. The above-mentioned first target area is an area that needs to be mowed. After the first target area is determined, path planning may be performed on the first target area to obtain the walking path of the mower in the first target area. The above path planning may be in the shape of a "bow".” (Wu: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown with these above aforementioned teachings from Wu in order to create a smart mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wu’s mower control method in order to control a lawn mower to pass/walk within a target area. Combining Brown and Wu would thus provide “a lawn mower control method, which can clear the area that needs to be mowed in the automatic mode.” (Wu: Description)
Regarding Claim 10:
Brown in view of Wu, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 1. Brown further teaches:
The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises at least one of the following steps: when it is determined according to the first position information that the ineffective area is located in a mowed area,, (See (Brown: Col. 1-2 – lines 48-11 and Col. 8 – lines 7-65))
Brown does not teach but Wu teaches:
[…] controlling the lawn mower to walk to the ineffective area again and perform supplemental mowing; and when it is determined according to the first position information that the ineffective area is located in a current avoidance area, controlling the lawn mower to walk to an initial obstacle avoidance position of the ineffective area again and perform supplemental mowing., (“Preferably, the controlling the mower to perform the automatic mowing task in the first target area according to the boundary information of the boundary signal line according to the received preset frequency signal includes: Use the boundary signal line as the walking boundary of the lawn mower, and calculate the current coordinates of the machine through inertial navigation algorithms according to the heading angle information provided by the inertial measurement unit and the distance information provided by the odometer, and walk along the boundary signal line in combination with the previous stage Determine the coordinate range information of the to-be-worked area, and judge the covered work area and the to-be-covered work area. . Preferably, the boundary signal line is used as the walking boundary of the mower, and the current coordinates of the machine are calculated through an inertial navigation algorithm according to the heading angle information provided by the inertial measurement unit and the distance information provided by the odometer, combined with the previous period Walk along the boundary signal line to determine the coordinate range information of the area to be worked, and judge the covered work area and the work area to be covered, including: Using the boundary signal line as a limited walking range, controlling the lawn mower to work within the walking range” (Wu: Description) Wu further mentions “Control the lawn mower to perform an automatic mowing task in a first target area in a preset automatic mode. In the embodiment of the present invention, the lawn mower has two working modes, one is an automatic mode, and the other is a manual mode; wherein the automatic mode is used to automatically mow the grass in the first target area, and the lawn mower in the automatic mode The walking path is a "bow" reciprocating walk, and in the automatic mode, the lawn mower can walk along the signal line and record the coordinate position information to determine the working area of the lawn mower, so that the cutting path of the working area can be planned in advance ; and the The boundary signal line is a closed-loop area. The above-mentioned first target area is an area that needs to be mowed. After the first target area is determined, path planning may be performed on the first target area to obtain the walking path of the mower in the first target area. The above path planning may be in the shape of a "bow". The above-mentioned lawnmower can be a multi-wheel (such as 4 driving wheels) walkable lawnmower, and the lower part of the lawnmower has a rotating blade to cut the stem or leaf of the grass. When the above-mentioned lawn mower is in manual mode, it can be driven by the handle or controlled by the handle; when the above-mentioned lawn mower is in automatic mode, it can walk along the walking path set independently, and cut the grass on the walking path . The above lawn mower is provided with an inertial measurement unit, and when the lawn mower is in automatic mode, the inertial measurement unit measures information such as the angular velocity, angle, and acceleration of the lawn mower. By measuring the yaw angle to control the walking driving wheel of the lawn mower, the walking trajectory during the walking process relies on the heading angle information provided by the inertial measurement unit and the distance information provided by the odometer to calculate the coordinates, so that the walking trajectory is consistent with the set walking path. Matching, the automatic mowing mode reciprocates according to the "bow" shape of the walking path, and judges the trajectory it has traveled through the recorded coordinates, limits the working range through the signal line, and avoids the traveled trajectory within the limited working range. Look for untraveled areas, eventually achieving full coverage.” (Wu: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown with these above aforementioned teachings from Wu in order to create a smart mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wu’s mower control method in order to control a lawn mower to pass/walk within a target area. Combining Brown and Wu would thus provide “a lawn mower control method, which can clear the area that needs to be mowed in the automatic mode.” (Wu: Description)
Regarding Claim 15:
Brown in view of Wu, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 1. Brown further teaches:
a first sensor, wherein the first sensor is a non-contact sensor, and the non-contact sensor is used to distinguish between a grass area and a non-grass area; a control component, wherein the control component is connected to the walking component, the mowing component and the first sensor, respectively, and the control component is configured to perform the method according to claim 1., (See (Brown: Col. 1-2 – lines 48-11 and Col. 5-6 – lines 55-40))
Brown does not teach but Wu teaches:
A lawn mower, comprising: a walking component; a mowing component;, (“The above-mentioned lawnmower can be a multi-wheel (such as 4 driving wheels) walkable lawnmower, and the lower part of the lawnmower has a rotating blade to cut the stem or leaf of the grass. When the above-mentioned lawn mower is in manual mode, it can be driven by the handle or controlled by the handle; when the above-mentioned lawn mower is in automatic mode, it can walk along the walking path set independently, and cut the grass on the walking path . The above lawn mower is provided with an inertial measurement unit, and when the lawn mower is in automatic mode, the inertial measurement unit measures information such as the angular velocity, angle, and acceleration of the lawn mower. By measuring the yaw angle to control the walking driving wheel of the lawn mower, the walking trajectory during the walking process relies on the heading angle information provided by the inertial measurement unit and the distance information provided by the odometer to calculate the coordinates, so that the walking trajectory is consistent with the set walking path. Matching, the automatic mowing mode reciprocates according to the "bow" shape of the walking path, and judges the trajectory it has traveled through the recorded coordinates, limits the working range through the signal line, and avoids the traveled trajectory within the limited working range. Look for untraveled areas, eventually achieving full coverage.” (Wu: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown with these above aforementioned teachings from Wu in order to create a smart mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wu’s mower control method in order to control a lawn mower to pass/walk within a target area. Combining Brown and Wu would thus provide “a lawn mower control method, which can clear the area that needs to be mowed in the automatic mode.” (Wu: Description)
Regarding Claim 20:
Brown in view of Wu, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 1. Brown further teaches:
A computer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer-readable storage medium has computer execution instructions stored therein, and when the computer execution instructions are executed by a processor, the method according to claim 1 is implemented., (See (Brown: Col. 6-7 – lines 21-11))
Claims 8-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brown (US Pat No. 11,582,903) in view of Wu (CN 115840447 A) in further view of Wang (CN 115793631 A).
Regarding Claim 8:
Brown in view of Wu, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 1. Brown in view of Wu does not teach but Wang teaches:
The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: displaying a mowed area and a path blank area on a terminal device for selection by an operator during a mowing process; wherein the path blank area indicates an area not passed by the lawn mower., (“After determining the first location information of the self-mobile device, the first fixed-point marking area can be marked in the environmental map according to the first location information, that is, the first fixed-point marking area can be displayed in the environmental map according to the first location information. Fixed-point marker area. Wherein, the first fixed-point marked area specifically refers to an area marked by the user's mark on the environment map and needs to perform a fixed-point mowing task. Referring to FIG. 4, FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of the first fixed-point marking area provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 4, when the user moves from the mobile device to the location where fixed-point mowing is required through the remote control control, The user can click the "set point" control to send a first operation instruction to the electronic terminal, and the electronic terminal obtains the first location information from the mobile device in response to the first operation instruction, and displays the first location information in the environment map according to the first location information. Display the corresponding first fixed-point marker area (such as the point 1 area in FIG. 4 ). In a specific embodiment provided by the present application, there are usually some other marked areas in the environmental map, such as housing areas, mowing restricted areas, etc. In order to distinguish them from existing marked areas, the method further includes: Displaying a marked frame and a first marked point in the environment map according to the first location information, wherein the first marked point is located within the range of the marked frame. In order to better distinguish the difference between the first fixed-point marked area and other existing areas, the marked frame and the first marked point may be displayed in the environment map based on the first position information after the user issues the first operation instruction, Referring to Fig. 4, "point 1" in Fig. 4 can be understood as the first marking point, and the dotted lines around "point 1" can be understood as a marking frame. The position of the first marking point may use the first position information as a reference position, and the initial size of the marking frame may be a preset size, for example, 1 meter*1 meter. That is to say, the first target point is the first marking point at the center, and a marking frame of a preset size is surrounded around the first marking point. In practical applications, the area that needs fixed-point mowing may not only have the size of the preset size of the marking frame, for example, the area that needs fixed-point mowing is an area of 2 meters * 2 meters, while the preset size of the marking frame may only be 1 meter*1 meter, then it is also necessary to adjust the size of the marking frame, correspondingly, in another specific embodiment provided by the present application, the method further includes: In response to a user's adjustment instruction, the size of the marked frame is adjusted. Specifically, the user can select the marker frame, and send an adjustment command for the marker frame to the electronic terminal in the form of dragging, and adjust the size of the marker frame in the environmental map in response to the adjustment command, so as to meet the actual needs of the user. size. After adjusting the size of the marked frame, in another specific implementation manner provided by the present application, the method further includes: In response to a user's confirmation instruction, the size of the marked frame is determined in the environment map. In the actual reference, two options of confirm and cancel will be displayed on both sides of the mark box respectively. After the user adjusts the size of the mark box, select the confirm option and send a confirmation instruction to the electronic terminal. In response to the confirmation instruction, The size of the marked frame can be determined in the environment map; when the user selects the cancel command, the current marked frame is canceled and a new marked frame can be selected again.” (Wang: Description, FIG. 4) Wang further mentions “At this time, the user clicks the "set point" button, and at the same time, a marker frame with a size of 1m*1m and a marker point 1 located in the center of the marker frame are generated in the garden map. The user selects the marker box and adjusts the size of the marker box. When the size is adjusted to a suitable size, click the confirmation button on the marker box to determine the size of the marker box in the garden map, thereby determining the fixed-point marker area. Click the start mowing button on the page to control the mower to perform the mowing task in the fixed-point marked area. During the mowing process, the mowing progress information (such as the mowed area, mowing percentage) will be displayed on the mobile phone page synchronously. ), lawn mower information (such as remaining power, estimated support time), etc. Users can pay attention to mowing task information and lawn mower information in real time on their mobile phones.” (Wang: Description, FIG. 4))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown in view of Wu with these above aforementioned teachings from Wang in order to create a user-friendly mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wang’s work control method and device of a mower in order to display and adjust a selection box of a target area to enable a user to control a lawn mower within the target area. Combining Brown and Wang would thus provide “a working control method of a lawnmower.” (Wang: Description)
Regarding Claim 9:
Brown in view of Wu, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 8. Brown in view of Wu does not teach but Wang teaches:
The method according to claim 8, wherein the method further comprises: determining a boundary of the path blank area, and displaying the boundary of the path blank area on the terminal device for selection by the operator., (“After determining the first location information of the self-mobile device, the first fixed-point marking area can be marked in the environmental map according to the first location information, that is, the first fixed-point marking area can be displayed in the environmental map according to the first location information. Fixed-point marker area. Wherein, the first fixed-point marked area specifically refers to an area marked by the user's mark on the environment map and needs to perform a fixed-point mowing task. Referring to FIG. 4, FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of the first fixed-point marking area provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 4, when the user moves from the mobile device to the location where fixed-point mowing is required through the remote control control, The user can click the "set point" control to send a first operation instruction to the electronic terminal, and the electronic terminal obtains the first location information from the mobile device in response to the first operation instruction, and displays the first location information in the environment map according to the first location information. Display the corresponding first fixed-point marker area (such as the point 1 area in FIG. 4 ). In a specific embodiment provided by the present application, there are usually some other marked areas in the environmental map, such as housing areas, mowing restricted areas, etc. In order to distinguish them from existing marked areas, the method further includes: Displaying a marked frame and a first marked point in the environment map according to the first location information, wherein the first marked point is located within the range of the marked frame. In order to better distinguish the difference between the first fixed-point marked area and other existing areas, the marked frame and the first marked point may be displayed in the environment map based on the first position information after the user issues the first operation instruction, Referring to Fig. 4, "point 1" in Fig. 4 can be understood as the first marking point, and the dotted lines around "point 1" can be understood as a marking frame. The position of the first marking point may use the first position information as a reference position, and the initial size of the marking frame may be a preset size, for example, 1 meter*1 meter. That is to say, the first target point is the first marking point at the center, and a marking frame of a preset size is surrounded around the first marking point. In practical applications, the area that needs fixed-point mowing may not only have the size of the preset size of the marking frame, for example, the area that needs fixed-point mowing is an area of 2 meters * 2 meters, while the preset size of the marking frame may only be 1 meter*1 meter, then it is also necessary to adjust the size of the marking frame, correspondingly, in another specific embodiment provided by the present application, the method further includes: In response to a user's adjustment instruction, the size of the marked frame is adjusted. Specifically, the user can select the marker frame, and send an adjustment command for the marker frame to the electronic terminal in the form of dragging, and adjust the size of the marker frame in the environmental map in response to the adjustment command, so as to meet the actual needs of the user. size. After adjusting the size of the marked frame, in another specific implementation manner provided by the present application, the method further includes: In response to a user's confirmation instruction, the size of the marked frame is determined in the environment map. In the actual reference, two options of confirm and cancel will be displayed on both sides of the mark box respectively. After the user adjusts the size of the mark box, select the confirm option and send a confirmation instruction to the electronic terminal. In response to the confirmation instruction, The size of the marked frame can be determined in the environment map; when the user selects the cancel command, the current marked frame is canceled and a new marked frame can be selected again.” (Wang: Description, FIG. 4))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown in view of Wu with these above aforementioned teachings from Wang in order to create a user-friendly mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wang’s work control method and device of a mower in order to display and adjust a selection box of a target area to enable a user to control a lawn mower within the target area. Combining Brown and Wang would thus provide “a working control method of a lawnmower.” (Wang: Description)
Claims 11 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brown (US Pat No. 11,582,903) in view of Wu (CN 115840447 A) in further view of Hiramatsu (CN 114995427 A).
Regarding Claim 11:
Brown teaches:
A setting method, wherein the method is applied to a terminal device, and the method comprises:, (See (Brown: Col. 1-2 – lines 13-11 and Col. 6-7 – lines 21-11))
Brown does not teach but Wu teaches:
to enable a lawn mower to, when walking to any ineffective area, pass within the ineffective area., (“Control the lawn mower to perform an automatic mowing task in a first target area in a preset automatic mode. In the embodiment of the present invention, the lawn mower has two working modes, one is an automatic mode, and the other is a manual mode; wherein the automatic mode is used to automatically mow the grass in the first target area, and the lawn mower in the automatic mode The walking path is a "bow" reciprocating walk, and in the automatic mode, the lawn mower can walk along the signal line and record the coordinate position information to determine the working area of the lawn mower, so that the cutting path of the working area can be planned in advance ; and the The boundary signal line is a closed-loop area. The above-mentioned first target area is an area that needs to be mowed. After the first target area is determined, path planning may be performed on the first target area to obtain the walking path of the mower in the first target area. The above path planning may be in the shape of a "bow". The above-mentioned lawnmower can be a multi-wheel (such as 4 driving wheels) walkable lawnmower, and the lower part of the lawnmower has a rotating blade to cut the stem or leaf of the grass. When the above-mentioned lawn mower is in manual mode, it can be driven by the handle or controlled by the handle; when the above-mentioned lawn mower is in automatic mode, it can walk along the walking path set independently, and cut the grass on the walking path . The above lawn mower is provided with an inertial measurement unit, and when the lawn mower is in automatic mode, the inertial measurement unit measures information such as the angular velocity, angle, and acceleration of the lawn mower. By measuring the yaw angle to control the walking driving wheel of the lawn mower, the walking trajectory during the walking process relies on the heading angle information provided by the inertial measurement unit and the distance information provided by the odometer to calculate the coordinates, so that the walking trajectory is consistent with the set walking path. Matching, the automatic mowing mode reciprocates according to the "bow" shape of the walking path, and judges the trajectory it has traveled through the recorded coordinates, limits the working range through the signal line, and avoids the traveled trajectory within the limited working range. Look for untraveled areas, eventually achieving full coverage.” (Wu: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown with these above aforementioned teachings from Wu in order to create a smart mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wu’s mower control method in order to control a lawn mower to pass/walk within a target area. Combining Brown and Wu would thus provide “a lawn mower control method, which can clear the area that needs to be mowed in the automatic mode.” (Wu: Description)
Brown in view of Wu does not teach but Hiramatsu teaches:
displaying a map of a target area and a first adding control on a display interface in response to an ineffective area setting instruction for the target area; wherein the first adding control is used to add an ineffective area to the map of the target area; displaying at least one added ineffective area on the map of the target area in response to a trigger event for the first adding control,, (“In addition, for example, a map may be displayed on the display screen 37 of the wireless communication terminal 46, and the operator may designate a plurality of points on the map, thereby designating the position and shape of the following polygon as the position and shape of the field 90, That is, the polygon is specified by a so-called closed-circuit graph so that the lines connecting the specified points do not intersect with each other, and this polygon is specified by actually driving the tractor 1 in the field 90 as described above. The location and shape of the field 90 .” (Hiramatsu: Description) Hiramatsu further mentions “The obstacle outer circumference setting unit 34 sets: the outer circumference area of the obstacle arranged in the field where the tractor 1 autonomously travels. Specifically, when the user operates the "recording start" button of "the position of the outer periphery of the obstacle" on the field information input screen 182, the wireless communication terminal 46 switches to the obstacle outer periphery recording mode. In this obstacle outer circumference recording mode, when the tractor 1 is placed at the corner of the outer circumference area of the obstacle, the obstacle outer circumference setting unit 34 records the position information of the positioning antenna 6 at that time, and the obstacle outer circumference The setting unit 34 sets (obtains) the shape of the obstacle surrounded by a polygon (eg, a rectangle). This polygon can be calculated using, for example, a polygon specified by a so-called closed-circuit graph so that the line segments connecting the corners do not intersect. Thereby, the position and shape of the outer peripheral region of the obstacle can be set. In addition, the outer peripheral area of the obstacle set by the obstacle outer peripheral setting unit 34 is a hollow polygonal area surrounding the obstacle, and the distance between the inner edge and the outer edge is the same as that of the tractor 1 (working machine 3 ) The width of the vehicle is the same or slightly wider than that of Tractor 1 (Working Machine 3). The work area setting unit 35 sets the position of the work area (travel area), where the work area (travel area) refers to a field that is arranged in the field where the tractor 1 autonomously travels and performs agricultural work while autonomously driving area (driving area). Specifically, in the wireless communication terminal 46 of the present embodiment, the width of the headland and the width of the non-cultivated land can be set on another input screen (not shown) different from the field information input screen 182 . . In addition, the non-working area consisting of the headland and the non-cultivation field is determined based on the above-mentioned setting contents and the position and shape of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33, and the non-working area is excluded from the field area. The area other than the work area is determined as the work area. The start and end position setting unit 151 sets a start point, which is a point where the tractor 1 starts autonomous travel, and an end point, which is a point where autonomous travel ends. Specifically, when the user operates the "designation" button of "work start position and work end position" on the field information input screen 182, the field data set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 is superimposed on the map data and displayed on the plane display unit 88 . In this state, when the user selects an arbitrary point in the vicinity of the outline of the field, the start and end position setting unit 151 can set (record) the position information of the selected point as the start point and the end point. In addition, the function of the "reset" button is the same as the above-mentioned "reset" button. The work direction setting unit 36 sets the direction in which the tractor 1 travels while performing agricultural work in the work area (direction of the travel path). Specifically, when the user operates the "designation" button of "work direction" on the field information input screen 182, the shape of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 is displayed on the plane display while being superimposed on the map data. Section 88. In this state, for example, when the user selects two points from a plurality of points designated when specifying a field, the work direction setting unit 36 can set (record) the direction of a straight line connecting the two points as the work direction ( direction of travel). In addition, the points to be selected when specifying the working direction are not limited to two points, and may be a plurality of points of three or more points. Thereby, it is possible to specify a more accurate working direction along the contour of the field or the like. In addition, the function of the "reset" button is the same as the above-mentioned "reset" button. The autonomous travel route generation unit 147 in the present embodiment generates a travel route in which the tractor 1 autonomously travels in the field. Similar to the first embodiment, the travel route includes a straight or zigzag travel route and an arc-shaped turning route alternately. The autonomous driving route generation unit 147 acquires: the position of the outer periphery of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 , the position of the work area set by the work area setting unit 35 , and the start and end position setting unit 151 The position of the point and the end point, and the information on the work direction set by the work direction setting unit 36 are automatically generated based on the information. Basically, the travel route is generated in such a way that the straight or broken line travel path is included in the work area, and the turning road is included in the area (non-work area) other than the work area in the field. However, when there is an obstacle in the field, the autonomous travel route generation unit 147 generates a travel route so as to avoid the obstacle. Hereinafter, this will be explained in detail. The travel route created by the autonomous travel route generation unit 147 is stored in the storage unit 32 .” (Hiramatsu: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown in view of Wu with these above aforementioned teachings from Hiramatsu in order to create an effective mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Hiramatsu’s autonomous travel route generation system in order to display a map of a target area to enable a user to control a lawn mower within the target area. Combining Brown and Hiramatsu would thus provide “an autonomous travel route generation system capable of preventing a wide range of Parts that alternate between worked places and unworked places are generated.” (Hiramatsu: Description)
Regarding Claim 16:
Brown teaches:
A setting apparatus, wherein the apparatus is applied to a terminal device, and the apparatus comprises: at least one processor and a memory; wherein the memory has computer execution instructions stored therein; the at least one processor executes the computer execution instructions stored in the memory to enable the at least one processor to:, (See (Brown: Col. 1-2 – lines 13-11 and Col. 6-7 – lines 21-11))
Brown does not teach but Wu teaches:
to enable a lawn mower to, when walking to any ineffective area, pass within the ineffective area., (“Control the lawn mower to perform an automatic mowing task in a first target area in a preset automatic mode. In the embodiment of the present invention, the lawn mower has two working modes, one is an automatic mode, and the other is a manual mode; wherein the automatic mode is used to automatically mow the grass in the first target area, and the lawn mower in the automatic mode The walking path is a "bow" reciprocating walk, and in the automatic mode, the lawn mower can walk along the signal line and record the coordinate position information to determine the working area of the lawn mower, so that the cutting path of the working area can be planned in advance ; and the The boundary signal line is a closed-loop area. The above-mentioned first target area is an area that needs to be mowed. After the first target area is determined, path planning may be performed on the first target area to obtain the walking path of the mower in the first target area. The above path planning may be in the shape of a "bow". The above-mentioned lawnmower can be a multi-wheel (such as 4 driving wheels) walkable lawnmower, and the lower part of the lawnmower has a rotating blade to cut the stem or leaf of the grass. When the above-mentioned lawn mower is in manual mode, it can be driven by the handle or controlled by the handle; when the above-mentioned lawn mower is in automatic mode, it can walk along the walking path set independently, and cut the grass on the walking path . The above lawn mower is provided with an inertial measurement unit, and when the lawn mower is in automatic mode, the inertial measurement unit measures information such as the angular velocity, angle, and acceleration of the lawn mower. By measuring the yaw angle to control the walking driving wheel of the lawn mower, the walking trajectory during the walking process relies on the heading angle information provided by the inertial measurement unit and the distance information provided by the odometer to calculate the coordinates, so that the walking trajectory is consistent with the set walking path. Matching, the automatic mowing mode reciprocates according to the "bow" shape of the walking path, and judges the trajectory it has traveled through the recorded coordinates, limits the working range through the signal line, and avoids the traveled trajectory within the limited working range. Look for untraveled areas, eventually achieving full coverage.” (Wu: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown with these above aforementioned teachings from Wu in order to create a smart mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wu’s mower control method in order to control a lawn mower to pass/walk within a target area. Combining Brown and Wu would thus provide “a lawn mower control method, which can clear the area that needs to be mowed in the automatic mode.” (Wu: Description)
Brown in view of Wu does not teach but Hiramatsu teaches:
display a map of a target area and a first adding control on a display interface in response to an ineffective area setting instruction for the target area; wherein the first adding control is used to add an ineffective area to the map of the target area; display at least one added ineffective area on the map of the target area in response to a trigger event for the first adding control,, (“In addition, for example, a map may be displayed on the display screen 37 of the wireless communication terminal 46, and the operator may designate a plurality of points on the map, thereby designating the position and shape of the following polygon as the position and shape of the field 90, That is, the polygon is specified by a so-called closed-circuit graph so that the lines connecting the specified points do not intersect with each other, and this polygon is specified by actually driving the tractor 1 in the field 90 as described above. The location and shape of the field 90 .” (Hiramatsu: Description) Hiramatsu further mentions “The obstacle outer circumference setting unit 34 sets: the outer circumference area of the obstacle arranged in the field where the tractor 1 autonomously travels. Specifically, when the user operates the "recording start" button of "the position of the outer periphery of the obstacle" on the field information input screen 182, the wireless communication terminal 46 switches to the obstacle outer periphery recording mode. In this obstacle outer circumference recording mode, when the tractor 1 is placed at the corner of the outer circumference area of the obstacle, the obstacle outer circumference setting unit 34 records the position information of the positioning antenna 6 at that time, and the obstacle outer circumference The setting unit 34 sets (obtains) the shape of the obstacle surrounded by a polygon (eg, a rectangle). This polygon can be calculated using, for example, a polygon specified by a so-called closed-circuit graph so that the line segments connecting the corners do not intersect. Thereby, the position and shape of the outer peripheral region of the obstacle can be set. In addition, the outer peripheral area of the obstacle set by the obstacle outer peripheral setting unit 34 is a hollow polygonal area surrounding the obstacle, and the distance between the inner edge and the outer edge is the same as that of the tractor 1 (working machine 3 ) The width of the vehicle is the same or slightly wider than that of Tractor 1 (Working Machine 3). The work area setting unit 35 sets the position of the work area (travel area), where the work area (travel area) refers to a field that is arranged in the field where the tractor 1 autonomously travels and performs agricultural work while autonomously driving area (driving area). Specifically, in the wireless communication terminal 46 of the present embodiment, the width of the headland and the width of the non-cultivated land can be set on another input screen (not shown) different from the field information input screen 182 . . In addition, the non-working area consisting of the headland and the non-cultivation field is determined based on the above-mentioned setting contents and the position and shape of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33, and the non-working area is excluded from the field area. The area other than the work area is determined as the work area. The start and end position setting unit 151 sets a start point, which is a point where the tractor 1 starts autonomous travel, and an end point, which is a point where autonomous travel ends. Specifically, when the user operates the "designation" button of "work start position and work end position" on the field information input screen 182, the field data set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 is superimposed on the map data and displayed on the plane display unit 88 . In this state, when the user selects an arbitrary point in the vicinity of the outline of the field, the start and end position setting unit 151 can set (record) the position information of the selected point as the start point and the end point. In addition, the function of the "reset" button is the same as the above-mentioned "reset" button. The work direction setting unit 36 sets the direction in which the tractor 1 travels while performing agricultural work in the work area (direction of the travel path). Specifically, when the user operates the "designation" button of "work direction" on the field information input screen 182, the shape of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 is displayed on the plane display while being superimposed on the map data. Section 88. In this state, for example, when the user selects two points from a plurality of points designated when specifying a field, the work direction setting unit 36 can set (record) the direction of a straight line connecting the two points as the work direction ( direction of travel). In addition, the points to be selected when specifying the working direction are not limited to two points, and may be a plurality of points of three or more points. Thereby, it is possible to specify a more accurate working direction along the contour of the field or the like. In addition, the function of the "reset" button is the same as the above-mentioned "reset" button. The autonomous travel route generation unit 147 in the present embodiment generates a travel route in which the tractor 1 autonomously travels in the field. Similar to the first embodiment, the travel route includes a straight or zigzag travel route and an arc-shaped turning route alternately. The autonomous driving route generation unit 147 acquires: the position of the outer periphery of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 , the position of the work area set by the work area setting unit 35 , and the start and end position setting unit 151 The position of the point and the end point, and the information on the work direction set by the work direction setting unit 36 are automatically generated based on the information. Basically, the travel route is generated in such a way that the straight or broken line travel path is included in the work area, and the turning road is included in the area (non-work area) other than the work area in the field. However, when there is an obstacle in the field, the autonomous travel route generation unit 147 generates a travel route so as to avoid the obstacle. Hereinafter, this will be explained in detail. The travel route created by the autonomous travel route generation unit 147 is stored in the storage unit 32 .” (Hiramatsu: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown in view of Wu with these above aforementioned teachings from Hiramatsu in order to create an effective mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Hiramatsu’s autonomous travel route generation system in order to display a map of a target area to enable a user to control a lawn mower within the target area. Combining Brown and Hiramatsu would thus provide “an autonomous travel route generation system capable of preventing a wide range of Parts that alternate between worked places and unworked places are generated.” (Hiramatsu: Description)
Claims 12-14, 17, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Brown (US Pat No. 11,582,903) in view of Wu (CN 115840447 A) in further view of Hiramatsu (CN 114995427 A) in even further view of Wang (CN 115793631 A).
Regarding Claim 12:
Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 11. Brown in view of Wu does not teach but Hiramatsu teaches:
The method according to claim 11, wherein the displaying at least one added ineffective area on the map of the target area in response to the trigger event for the first adding control comprises:, (“In addition, for example, a map may be displayed on the display screen 37 of the wireless communication terminal 46, and the operator may designate a plurality of points on the map, thereby designating the position and shape of the following polygon as the position and shape of the field 90, That is, the polygon is specified by a so-called closed-circuit graph so that the lines connecting the specified points do not intersect with each other, and this polygon is specified by actually driving the tractor 1 in the field 90 as described above. The location and shape of the field 90 .” (Hiramatsu: Description) Hiramatsu further mentions “The obstacle outer circumference setting unit 34 sets: the outer circumference area of the obstacle arranged in the field where the tractor 1 autonomously travels. Specifically, when the user operates the "recording start" button of "the position of the outer periphery of the obstacle" on the field information input screen 182, the wireless communication terminal 46 switches to the obstacle outer periphery recording mode. In this obstacle outer circumference recording mode, when the tractor 1 is placed at the corner of the outer circumference area of the obstacle, the obstacle outer circumference setting unit 34 records the position information of the positioning antenna 6 at that time, and the obstacle outer circumference The setting unit 34 sets (obtains) the shape of the obstacle surrounded by a polygon (eg, a rectangle). This polygon can be calculated using, for example, a polygon specified by a so-called closed-circuit graph so that the line segments connecting the corners do not intersect. Thereby, the position and shape of the outer peripheral region of the obstacle can be set. In addition, the outer peripheral area of the obstacle set by the obstacle outer peripheral setting unit 34 is a hollow polygonal area surrounding the obstacle, and the distance between the inner edge and the outer edge is the same as that of the tractor 1 (working machine 3 ) The width of the vehicle is the same or slightly wider than that of Tractor 1 (Working Machine 3). The work area setting unit 35 sets the position of the work area (travel area), where the work area (travel area) refers to a field that is arranged in the field where the tractor 1 autonomously travels and performs agricultural work while autonomously driving area (driving area). Specifically, in the wireless communication terminal 46 of the present embodiment, the width of the headland and the width of the non-cultivated land can be set on another input screen (not shown) different from the field information input screen 182 . . In addition, the non-working area consisting of the headland and the non-cultivation field is determined based on the above-mentioned setting contents and the position and shape of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33, and the non-working area is excluded from the field area. The area other than the work area is determined as the work area. The start and end position setting unit 151 sets a start point, which is a point where the tractor 1 starts autonomous travel, and an end point, which is a point where autonomous travel ends. Specifically, when the user operates the "designation" button of "work start position and work end position" on the field information input screen 182, the field data set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 is superimposed on the map data and displayed on the plane display unit 88 . In this state, when the user selects an arbitrary point in the vicinity of the outline of the field, the start and end position setting unit 151 can set (record) the position information of the selected point as the start point and the end point. In addition, the function of the "reset" button is the same as the above-mentioned "reset" button. The work direction setting unit 36 sets the direction in which the tractor 1 travels while performing agricultural work in the work area (direction of the travel path). Specifically, when the user operates the "designation" button of "work direction" on the field information input screen 182, the shape of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 is displayed on the plane display while being superimposed on the map data. Section 88. In this state, for example, when the user selects two points from a plurality of points designated when specifying a field, the work direction setting unit 36 can set (record) the direction of a straight line connecting the two points as the work direction ( direction of travel). In addition, the points to be selected when specifying the working direction are not limited to two points, and may be a plurality of points of three or more points. Thereby, it is possible to specify a more accurate working direction along the contour of the field or the like. In addition, the function of the "reset" button is the same as the above-mentioned "reset" button. The autonomous travel route generation unit 147 in the present embodiment generates a travel route in which the tractor 1 autonomously travels in the field. Similar to the first embodiment, the travel route includes a straight or zigzag travel route and an arc-shaped turning route alternately. The autonomous driving route generation unit 147 acquires: the position of the outer periphery of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 , the position of the work area set by the work area setting unit 35 , and the start and end position setting unit 151 The position of the point and the end point, and the information on the work direction set by the work direction setting unit 36 are automatically generated based on the information. Basically, the travel route is generated in such a way that the straight or broken line travel path is included in the work area, and the turning road is included in the area (non-work area) other than the work area in the field. However, when there is an obstacle in the field, the autonomous travel route generation unit 147 generates a travel route so as to avoid the obstacle. Hereinafter, this will be explained in detail. The travel route created by the autonomous travel route generation unit 147 is stored in the storage unit 32 .” (Hiramatsu: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown in view of Wu with these above aforementioned teachings from Hiramatsu in order to create an effective mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Hiramatsu’s autonomous travel route generation system in order to display a map of a target area to enable a user to control a lawn mower within the target area. Combining Brown and Hiramatsu would thus provide “an autonomous travel route generation system capable of preventing a wide range of Parts that alternate between worked places and unworked places are generated.” (Hiramatsu: Description)
Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu does not teach but Wang teaches:
[…] displaying a selection box and a completion control on the map of the target area in response to the trigger event for the first adding control; wherein an operation control is displayed in periphery of the selection box; adjusting the selection box and displaying the adjusted selection box in response to a preset trigger event for the operation control; determining an area corresponding to the adjusted selection box to be the ineffective area in response to a trigger event for the completion control., (“In order to better distinguish the difference between the first fixed-point marked area and other existing areas, the marked frame and the first marked point may be displayed in the environment map based on the first position information after the user issues the first operation instruction, Referring to Fig. 4, "point 1" in Fig. 4 can be understood as the first marking point, and the dotted lines around "point 1" can be understood as a marking frame. The position of the first marking point may use the first position information as a reference position, and the initial size of the marking frame may be a preset size, for example, 1 meter*1 meter. That is to say, the first target point is the first marking point at the center, and a marking frame of a preset size is surrounded around the first marking point. In practical applications, the area that needs fixed-point mowing may not only have the size of the preset size of the marking frame, for example, the area that needs fixed-point mowing is an area of 2 meters * 2 meters, while the preset size of the marking frame may only be 1 meter*1 meter, then it is also necessary to adjust the size of the marking frame, correspondingly, in another specific embodiment provided by the present application, the method further includes: In response to a user's adjustment instruction, the size of the marked frame is adjusted. Specifically, the user can select the marker frame, and send an adjustment command for the marker frame to the electronic terminal in the form of dragging, and adjust the size of the marker frame in the environmental map in response to the adjustment command, so as to meet the actual needs of the user. size. After adjusting the size of the marked frame, in another specific implementation manner provided by the present application, the method further includes: In response to a user's confirmation instruction, the size of the marked frame is determined in the environment map. In the actual reference, two options of confirm and cancel will be displayed on both sides of the mark box respectively. After the user adjusts the size of the mark box, select the confirm option and send a confirmation instruction to the electronic terminal. In response to the confirmation instruction, The size of the marked frame can be determined in the environment map; when the user selects the cancel command, the current marked frame is canceled and a new marked frame can be selected again.” (Wang: Description, FIG. 4))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu with these above aforementioned teachings from Wang in order to create a user-friendly mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wang’s work control method and device of a mower in order to display and adjust a selection box of a target area to enable a user to control a lawn mower within the target area. Combining Brown and Wang would thus provide “a working control method of a lawnmower.” (Wang: Description)
Regarding Claim 13:
Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 12. Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu does not teach but Wang teaches:
The method according to claim 12, wherein the method further comprises: displaying area of the selection box on the map of the target area in response to the trigger event for the first adding control., (“Referring to FIG. 4, FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of the first fixed-point marking area provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 4, when the user moves from the mobile device to the location where fixed-point mowing is required through the remote control control, The user can click the "set point" control to send a first operation instruction to the electronic terminal, and the electronic terminal obtains the first location information from the mobile device in response to the first operation instruction, and displays the first location information in the environment map according to the first location information. Display the corresponding first fixed-point marker area (such as the point 1 area in FIG. 4 ). In a specific embodiment provided by the present application, there are usually some other marked areas in the environmental map, such as housing areas, mowing restricted areas, etc. In order to distinguish them from existing marked areas, the method further includes: Displaying a marked frame and a first marked point in the environment map according to the first location information, wherein the first marked point is located within the range of the marked frame. In order to better distinguish the difference between the first fixed-point marked area and other existing areas, the marked frame and the first marked point may be displayed in the environment map based on the first position information after the user issues the first operation instruction, Referring to Fig. 4, "point 1" in Fig. 4 can be understood as the first marking point, and the dotted lines around "point 1" can be understood as a marking frame. The position of the first marking point may use the first position information as a reference position, and the initial size of the marking frame may be a preset size, for example, 1 meter*1 meter. That is to say, the first target point is the first marking point at the center, and a marking frame of a preset size is surrounded around the first marking point. In practical applications, the area that needs fixed-point mowing may not only have the size of the preset size of the marking frame, for example, the area that needs fixed-point mowing is an area of 2 meters * 2 meters, while the preset size of the marking frame may only be 1 meter*1 meter, then it is also necessary to adjust the size of the marking frame, correspondingly, in another specific embodiment provided by the present application, the method further includes: In response to a user's adjustment instruction, the size of the marked frame is adjusted. Specifically, the user can select the marker frame, and send an adjustment command for the marker frame to the electronic terminal in the form of dragging, and adjust the size of the marker frame in the environmental map in response to the adjustment command, so as to meet the actual needs of the user. size. After adjusting the size of the marked frame, in another specific implementation manner provided by the present application, the method further includes: In response to a user's confirmation instruction, the size of the marked frame is determined in the environment map. In the actual reference, two options of confirm and cancel will be displayed on both sides of the mark box respectively. After the user adjusts the size of the mark box, select the confirm option and send a confirmation instruction to the electronic terminal. In response to the confirmation instruction, The size of the marked frame can be determined in the environment map; when the user selects the cancel command, the current marked frame is canceled and a new marked frame can be selected again.” (Wang: Description, FIG. 4))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu with these above aforementioned teachings from Wang in order to create a user-friendly mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wang’s work control method and device of a mower in order to display and adjust a selection box of a target area to enable a user to control a lawn mower within the target area. Combining Brown and Wang would thus provide “a working control method of a lawnmower.” (Wang: Description)
Regarding Claim 14:
Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 12. Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu does not teach but Wang teaches:
The method according to claim 12, wherein the adjusting the selection box in response to the preset trigger event for the operation control comprises at least one of the following steps: deleting the selection box in response to a click event for a deletion control; wherein the operation control comprises the deletion control; rotating the selection box according to a preset direction and angle in response to a click event for a rotation control; wherein the operation control further comprises the rotation control; moving the selection box in response to a drag event for a movement control; wherein the operation control further comprises the movement control; enlarging the selection box in response to an enlargement event for a size adjustment control; reducing the selection box in response to a reduction event for the size adjustment control; wherein the operation control further comprises the size adjustment control., (“In order to better distinguish the difference between the first fixed-point marked area and other existing areas, the marked frame and the first marked point may be displayed in the environment map based on the first position information after the user issues the first operation instruction, Referring to Fig. 4, "point 1" in Fig. 4 can be understood as the first marking point, and the dotted lines around "point 1" can be understood as a marking frame. The position of the first marking point may use the first position information as a reference position, and the initial size of the marking frame may be a preset size, for example, 1 meter*1 meter. That is to say, the first target point is the first marking point at the center, and a marking frame of a preset size is surrounded around the first marking point. In practical applications, the area that needs fixed-point mowing may not only have the size of the preset size of the marking frame, for example, the area that needs fixed-point mowing is an area of 2 meters * 2 meters, while the preset size of the marking frame may only be 1 meter*1 meter, then it is also necessary to adjust the size of the marking frame, correspondingly, in another specific embodiment provided by the present application, the method further includes: In response to a user's adjustment instruction, the size of the marked frame is adjusted. Specifically, the user can select the marker frame, and send an adjustment command for the marker frame to the electronic terminal in the form of dragging, and adjust the size of the marker frame in the environmental map in response to the adjustment command, so as to meet the actual needs of the user. size. After adjusting the size of the marked frame, in another specific implementation manner provided by the present application, the method further includes: In response to a user's confirmation instruction, the size of the marked frame is determined in the environment map. In the actual reference, two options of confirm and cancel will be displayed on both sides of the mark box respectively. After the user adjusts the size of the mark box, select the confirm option and send a confirmation instruction to the electronic terminal. In response to the confirmation instruction, The size of the marked frame can be determined in the environment map; when the user selects the cancel command, the current marked frame is canceled and a new marked frame can be selected again.” (Wang: Description, FIG. 4))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu with these above aforementioned teachings from Wang in order to create a user-friendly mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wang’s work control method and device of a mower in order to display and adjust a selection box of a target area to enable a user to control a lawn mower within the target area. Combining Brown and Wang would thus provide “a working control method of a lawnmower.” (Wang: Description)
Regarding Claim 17:
Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 16. Brown in view of Wu does not teach but Hiramatsu teaches:
[…] to be the ineffective area in response to a trigger event for the completion control., (“In addition, for example, a map may be displayed on the display screen 37 of the wireless communication terminal 46, and the operator may designate a plurality of points on the map, thereby designating the position and shape of the following polygon as the position and shape of the field 90, That is, the polygon is specified by a so-called closed-circuit graph so that the lines connecting the specified points do not intersect with each other, and this polygon is specified by actually driving the tractor 1 in the field 90 as described above. The location and shape of the field 90 .” (Hiramatsu: Description) Hiramatsu further mentions “The obstacle outer circumference setting unit 34 sets: the outer circumference area of the obstacle arranged in the field where the tractor 1 autonomously travels. Specifically, when the user operates the "recording start" button of "the position of the outer periphery of the obstacle" on the field information input screen 182, the wireless communication terminal 46 switches to the obstacle outer periphery recording mode. In this obstacle outer circumference recording mode, when the tractor 1 is placed at the corner of the outer circumference area of the obstacle, the obstacle outer circumference setting unit 34 records the position information of the positioning antenna 6 at that time, and the obstacle outer circumference The setting unit 34 sets (obtains) the shape of the obstacle surrounded by a polygon (eg, a rectangle). This polygon can be calculated using, for example, a polygon specified by a so-called closed-circuit graph so that the line segments connecting the corners do not intersect. Thereby, the position and shape of the outer peripheral region of the obstacle can be set. In addition, the outer peripheral area of the obstacle set by the obstacle outer peripheral setting unit 34 is a hollow polygonal area surrounding the obstacle, and the distance between the inner edge and the outer edge is the same as that of the tractor 1 (working machine 3 ) The width of the vehicle is the same or slightly wider than that of Tractor 1 (Working Machine 3). The work area setting unit 35 sets the position of the work area (travel area), where the work area (travel area) refers to a field that is arranged in the field where the tractor 1 autonomously travels and performs agricultural work while autonomously driving area (driving area). Specifically, in the wireless communication terminal 46 of the present embodiment, the width of the headland and the width of the non-cultivated land can be set on another input screen (not shown) different from the field information input screen 182 . . In addition, the non-working area consisting of the headland and the non-cultivation field is determined based on the above-mentioned setting contents and the position and shape of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33, and the non-working area is excluded from the field area. The area other than the work area is determined as the work area. The start and end position setting unit 151 sets a start point, which is a point where the tractor 1 starts autonomous travel, and an end point, which is a point where autonomous travel ends. Specifically, when the user operates the "designation" button of "work start position and work end position" on the field information input screen 182, the field data set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 is superimposed on the map data and displayed on the plane display unit 88 . In this state, when the user selects an arbitrary point in the vicinity of the outline of the field, the start and end position setting unit 151 can set (record) the position information of the selected point as the start point and the end point. In addition, the function of the "reset" button is the same as the above-mentioned "reset" button. The work direction setting unit 36 sets the direction in which the tractor 1 travels while performing agricultural work in the work area (direction of the travel path). Specifically, when the user operates the "designation" button of "work direction" on the field information input screen 182, the shape of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 is displayed on the plane display while being superimposed on the map data. Section 88. In this state, for example, when the user selects two points from a plurality of points designated when specifying a field, the work direction setting unit 36 can set (record) the direction of a straight line connecting the two points as the work direction ( direction of travel). In addition, the points to be selected when specifying the working direction are not limited to two points, and may be a plurality of points of three or more points. Thereby, it is possible to specify a more accurate working direction along the contour of the field or the like. In addition, the function of the "reset" button is the same as the above-mentioned "reset" button. The autonomous travel route generation unit 147 in the present embodiment generates a travel route in which the tractor 1 autonomously travels in the field. Similar to the first embodiment, the travel route includes a straight or zigzag travel route and an arc-shaped turning route alternately. The autonomous driving route generation unit 147 acquires: the position of the outer periphery of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 , the position of the work area set by the work area setting unit 35 , and the start and end position setting unit 151 The position of the point and the end point, and the information on the work direction set by the work direction setting unit 36 are automatically generated based on the information. Basically, the travel route is generated in such a way that the straight or broken line travel path is included in the work area, and the turning road is included in the area (non-work area) other than the work area in the field. However, when there is an obstacle in the field, the autonomous travel route generation unit 147 generates a travel route so as to avoid the obstacle. Hereinafter, this will be explained in detail. The travel route created by the autonomous travel route generation unit 147 is stored in the storage unit 32 .” (Hiramatsu: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown in view of Wu with these above aforementioned teachings from Hiramatsu in order to create an effective mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Hiramatsu’s autonomous travel route generation system in order to display a map of a target area to enable a user to control a lawn mower within the target area. Combining Brown and Hiramatsu would thus provide “an autonomous travel route generation system capable of preventing a wide range of Parts that alternate between worked places and unworked places are generated.” (Hiramatsu: Description)
Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu does not teach but Wang teaches:
The apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the processor is specifically configured to: display a selection box and a completion control on the map of the target area in response to the trigger event for the first adding control; wherein an operation control is displayed in periphery of the selection box; adjust the selection box and display the adjusted selection box in response to a preset trigger event for the operation control; determine an area corresponding to the adjusted selection box, (“In order to better distinguish the difference between the first fixed-point marked area and other existing areas, the marked frame and the first marked point may be displayed in the environment map based on the first position information after the user issues the first operation instruction, Referring to Fig. 4, "point 1" in Fig. 4 can be understood as the first marking point, and the dotted lines around "point 1" can be understood as a marking frame. The position of the first marking point may use the first position information as a reference position, and the initial size of the marking frame may be a preset size, for example, 1 meter*1 meter. That is to say, the first target point is the first marking point at the center, and a marking frame of a preset size is surrounded around the first marking point. In practical applications, the area that needs fixed-point mowing may not only have the size of the preset size of the marking frame, for example, the area that needs fixed-point mowing is an area of 2 meters * 2 meters, while the preset size of the marking frame may only be 1 meter*1 meter, then it is also necessary to adjust the size of the marking frame, correspondingly, in another specific embodiment provided by the present application, the method further includes: In response to a user's adjustment instruction, the size of the marked frame is adjusted. Specifically, the user can select the marker frame, and send an adjustment command for the marker frame to the electronic terminal in the form of dragging, and adjust the size of the marker frame in the environmental map in response to the adjustment command, so as to meet the actual needs of the user. size. After adjusting the size of the marked frame, in another specific implementation manner provided by the present application, the method further includes: In response to a user's confirmation instruction, the size of the marked frame is determined in the environment map. In the actual reference, two options of confirm and cancel will be displayed on both sides of the mark box respectively. After the user adjusts the size of the mark box, select the confirm option and send a confirmation instruction to the electronic terminal. In response to the confirmation instruction, The size of the marked frame can be determined in the environment map; when the user selects the cancel command, the current marked frame is canceled and a new marked frame can be selected again.” (Wang: Description, FIG. 4) Wang further mentions “FIG. 8 shows a structural block diagram of a computing device 800 provided according to an embodiment of the present application. Components of the computing device 800 include, but are not limited to, a memory 810 and a processor 820 . The processor 820 is connected to the memory 810 through the bus 830, and the database 850 is used for storing data.” (Wang: Description, FIG. 8))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu with these above aforementioned teachings from Wang in order to create a user-friendly mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wang’s work control method and device of a mower in order to display and adjust a selection box of a target area to enable a user to control a lawn mower within the target area. Combining Brown and Wang would thus provide “a working control method of a lawnmower.” (Wang: Description)
Regarding Claim 19:
Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu, as shown in the rejection above, discloses the limitations of claim 18. Brown in view of Wu does not teach but Hiramatsu teaches:
The apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the processor is further configured to: display a second adding control on the display interface in response to determining the area corresponding to the adjusted selection box to be the ineffective area;, (“In addition, for example, a map may be displayed on the display screen 37 of the wireless communication terminal 46, and the operator may designate a plurality of points on the map, thereby designating the position and shape of the following polygon as the position and shape of the field 90, That is, the polygon is specified by a so-called closed-circuit graph so that the lines connecting the specified points do not intersect with each other, and this polygon is specified by actually driving the tractor 1 in the field 90 as described above. The location and shape of the field 90 .” (Hiramatsu: Description) Hiramatsu further mentions “The obstacle outer circumference setting unit 34 sets: the outer circumference area of the obstacle arranged in the field where the tractor 1 autonomously travels. Specifically, when the user operates the "recording start" button of "the position of the outer periphery of the obstacle" on the field information input screen 182, the wireless communication terminal 46 switches to the obstacle outer periphery recording mode. In this obstacle outer circumference recording mode, when the tractor 1 is placed at the corner of the outer circumference area of the obstacle, the obstacle outer circumference setting unit 34 records the position information of the positioning antenna 6 at that time, and the obstacle outer circumference The setting unit 34 sets (obtains) the shape of the obstacle surrounded by a polygon (eg, a rectangle). This polygon can be calculated using, for example, a polygon specified by a so-called closed-circuit graph so that the line segments connecting the corners do not intersect. Thereby, the position and shape of the outer peripheral region of the obstacle can be set. In addition, the outer peripheral area of the obstacle set by the obstacle outer peripheral setting unit 34 is a hollow polygonal area surrounding the obstacle, and the distance between the inner edge and the outer edge is the same as that of the tractor 1 (working machine 3 ) The width of the vehicle is the same or slightly wider than that of Tractor 1 (Working Machine 3). The work area setting unit 35 sets the position of the work area (travel area), where the work area (travel area) refers to a field that is arranged in the field where the tractor 1 autonomously travels and performs agricultural work while autonomously driving area (driving area). Specifically, in the wireless communication terminal 46 of the present embodiment, the width of the headland and the width of the non-cultivated land can be set on another input screen (not shown) different from the field information input screen 182 . . In addition, the non-working area consisting of the headland and the non-cultivation field is determined based on the above-mentioned setting contents and the position and shape of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33, and the non-working area is excluded from the field area. The area other than the work area is determined as the work area. The start and end position setting unit 151 sets a start point, which is a point where the tractor 1 starts autonomous travel, and an end point, which is a point where autonomous travel ends. Specifically, when the user operates the "designation" button of "work start position and work end position" on the field information input screen 182, the field data set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 is superimposed on the map data and displayed on the plane display unit 88 . In this state, when the user selects an arbitrary point in the vicinity of the outline of the field, the start and end position setting unit 151 can set (record) the position information of the selected point as the start point and the end point. In addition, the function of the "reset" button is the same as the above-mentioned "reset" button. The work direction setting unit 36 sets the direction in which the tractor 1 travels while performing agricultural work in the work area (direction of the travel path). Specifically, when the user operates the "designation" button of "work direction" on the field information input screen 182, the shape of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 is displayed on the plane display while being superimposed on the map data. Section 88. In this state, for example, when the user selects two points from a plurality of points designated when specifying a field, the work direction setting unit 36 can set (record) the direction of a straight line connecting the two points as the work direction ( direction of travel). In addition, the points to be selected when specifying the working direction are not limited to two points, and may be a plurality of points of three or more points. Thereby, it is possible to specify a more accurate working direction along the contour of the field or the like. In addition, the function of the "reset" button is the same as the above-mentioned "reset" button. The autonomous travel route generation unit 147 in the present embodiment generates a travel route in which the tractor 1 autonomously travels in the field. Similar to the first embodiment, the travel route includes a straight or zigzag travel route and an arc-shaped turning route alternately. The autonomous driving route generation unit 147 acquires: the position of the outer periphery of the field set by the field outer periphery setting unit 33 , the position of the work area set by the work area setting unit 35 , and the start and end position setting unit 151 The position of the point and the end point, and the information on the work direction set by the work direction setting unit 36 are automatically generated based on the information. Basically, the travel route is generated in such a way that the straight or broken line travel path is included in the work area, and the turning road is included in the area (non-work area) other than the work area in the field. However, when there is an obstacle in the field, the autonomous travel route generation unit 147 generates a travel route so as to avoid the obstacle. Hereinafter, this will be explained in detail. The travel route created by the autonomous travel route generation unit 147 is stored in the storage unit 32 .” (Hiramatsu: Description))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown in view of Wu with these above aforementioned teachings from Hiramatsu in order to create an effective mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Hiramatsu’s autonomous travel route generation system in order to display a map of a target area to enable a user to control a lawn mower within the target area. Combining Brown and Hiramatsu would thus provide “an autonomous travel route generation system capable of preventing a wide range of Parts that alternate between worked places and unworked places are generated.” (Hiramatsu: Description)
Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu does not teach but Wang teaches:
[…] wherein the second adding control is used for user selection of an adding type; the adding type comprises at least one of an ineffective area, a restricted area, a channel, a map; display the adding type for user selection on the display interface in response to a trigger event for the second adding control., (“Referring to FIG. 4, FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of the first fixed-point marking area provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 4, when the user moves from the mobile device to the location where fixed-point mowing is required through the remote control control, The user can click the "set point" control to send a first operation instruction to the electronic terminal, and the electronic terminal obtains the first location information from the mobile device in response to the first operation instruction, and displays the first location information in the environment map according to the first location information. Display the corresponding first fixed-point marker area (such as the point 1 area in FIG. 4 ). In a specific embodiment provided by the present application, there are usually some other marked areas in the environmental map, such as housing areas, mowing restricted areas, etc. In order to distinguish them from existing marked areas, the method further includes: Displaying a marked frame and a first marked point in the environment map according to the first location information, wherein the first marked point is located within the range of the marked frame. In order to better distinguish the difference between the first fixed-point marked area and other existing areas, the marked frame and the first marked point may be displayed in the environment map based on the first position information after the user issues the first operation instruction, Referring to Fig. 4, "point 1" in Fig. 4 can be understood as the first marking point, and the dotted lines around "point 1" can be understood as a marking frame. The position of the first marking point may use the first position information as a reference position, and the initial size of the marking frame may be a preset size, for example, 1 meter*1 meter. That is to say, the first target point is the first marking point at the center, and a marking frame of a preset size is surrounded around the first marking point. In practical applications, the area that needs fixed-point mowing may not only have the size of the preset size of the marking frame, for example, the area that needs fixed-point mowing is an area of 2 meters * 2 meters, while the preset size of the marking frame may only be 1 meter*1 meter, then it is also necessary to adjust the size of the marking frame, correspondingly, in another specific embodiment provided by the present application, the method further includes: In response to a user's adjustment instruction, the size of the marked frame is adjusted. Specifically, the user can select the marker frame, and send an adjustment command for the marker frame to the electronic terminal in the form of dragging, and adjust the size of the marker frame in the environmental map in response to the adjustment command, so as to meet the actual needs of the user. size. After adjusting the size of the marked frame, in another specific implementation manner provided by the present application, the method further includes: In response to a user's confirmation instruction, the size of the marked frame is determined in the environment map. In the actual reference, two options of confirm and cancel will be displayed on both sides of the mark box respectively. After the user adjusts the size of the mark box, select the confirm option and send a confirmation instruction to the electronic terminal. In response to the confirmation instruction, The size of the marked frame can be determined in the environment map; when the user selects the cancel command, the current marked frame is canceled and a new marked frame can be selected again.” (Wang: Description, FIG. 4))
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Brown in view of Wu in further view of Hiramatsu with these above aforementioned teachings from Wang in order to create a user-friendly mowing control method, setting method and apparatus, and electronic device. At the time the invention was filed, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to incorporate Brown’s vision-based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices with Wang’s work control method and device of a mower in order to display and adjust a selection box of a target area to enable a user to control a lawn mower within the target area. Combining Brown and Wang would thus provide “a working control method of a lawnmower.” (Wang: Description)
Comment on the Closest Prior Art References
Claims 6-7 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.
Claims 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101, but would be allowable if the 35 U.S.C. 101 is overcome.
The allowable subject matter in claim 6 includes when a number of times that obstacle avoidance is performed within the ineffective area based on information of the second sensor exceeds a preset value, cancelling the ineffective area that has been set up.
The allowable subject matter in claim 7 includes when the number of times that obstacle avoidance is performed within the ineffective area based on the information of the second sensor exceeds the preset value, controlling the lawn mower to walk towards a preset boundary, and cancelling the ineffective area that has been set up; wherein the preset boundary is a boundary of the ineffective area that is the closest to the lawn mower among boundaries of the ineffective area; or, when the number of times that obstacle avoidance is performed within the ineffective area based on the information of the second sensor exceeds the preset value, controlling the lawn mower to return to an initial obstacle avoidance start point along a path that has been walked along, and cancelling the ineffective area that has been set up.
The allowable subject matter in claim 18 includes displaying a map saving control on the display interface in response to saving the ineffective area and synchronize a map in which the ineffective area is set up to the lawn mower in response to a trigger event for the map saving control.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jeffrey Chalhoub whose telephone number is (571) 272-9754. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8:30-5:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Ortiz can be reached on (571) 272-1206. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/J.R.C./Examiner, Art Unit 3663
/ANGELA Y ORTIZ/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3663
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