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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 4 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Relative to claim 4, “target supply unit on which part handling is performed”, is broad. The specification describes a target supply unit 151 that is included with the power supply unit 11 (para. 0032). The specification states that the target supply unit corresponds to a target on which handling of an association part for performing a backup operation between the target supply unit of the power supply device is performed. However the language is unclear. What does Applicant mean by “on which part handling is performed”?
Relative to claim 7, “an association part involved in performing a mutual replacement operation”, is broad. What does Applicant mean by “association part”. The specification describes that association part 10 involved in performing mutual replacement operation (Para. 0042). The specification also states “the target supply unit may supply power, or the alternate supply unit may supply power by replacing the target supply unit (Para. 0043).
Appropriate clarification is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 8 (as understood by the Examiner) is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Nobuta et al (US PG. Pub. 2022/0073284). Relative to claim 1, Nobuta discloses:
A logistics handling system (200)((Fig. 1) comprising:
a traveling rail (2)(Fig. 2) provided on a set section (Fig. 2);
a traveling unit (3)(Fig. 2) traveling on the traveling rail (2); and
a power supply device (11)(Fig. 3) supplying external power to a demander (4)(Fig. 3) in a non-contact manner (Para. 0019),
a plurality of traveling units (3) having different operation manners are operated on the traveling rail (2)(Para. 0032, vehicles may be restricted in speed, or disconnected from power), and
any one of the plurality of traveling units (3) is operated depending on state conditions of the power supply device (Para. 0032, based on temperature detection value, the vehicle’s speed will be restricted, or power will be disconnected, abnormal temperature of resistor 5 signals a problem with power being supplied from the supply 11 to the vehicles 3. Para. 0031; 0032).
Relative to claim 8, the disclosure of Nobuta includes:
A logistics handling method comprising:
operating a logistics handling system (200);
performing part handling related to power supply (11) of the logistics handling system (200)(Para. 0019); and performing logistics handling even in the part handling state of the logistics handling system (Para. 0020),
the logistics handling system (200) includes:
a traveling unit (3) traveling on a traveling rail (2), and a power supply device (11) supplying external power to a demander (4) in a non-contact manner (Para. 0019),
a plurality of traveling units (3) having different operation manners are operated on the traveling rail (2)(Para 0032), and
any one of the plurality of traveling units (3) is operated depending on state conditions of the power supply device (0031-0032, see also Para. 0036).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 2 and 9 (as understood by the Examiner) is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nobuta et al (US PG. Pub. 2022/0073284). Relative to claims 2 and 9, Nobuta discloses all claim limitations mentioned above, including: a main traveling unit (3) traveling on the traveling rail based on the external power supply (Para. 0019).
Nobuta does not expressly disclose: a sub-traveling unit traveling on the traveling rail based on internal power; or the sub-traveling unit replaces the main traveling unit and operates independently on the traveling rail according to the state conditions of the power supply device.
Nobuta teaches: a sub-traveling unit (3) traveling on the traveling rail (2) based on internal power as a known, alternative means for supplying power to the power receiving unit 4 (Para. 0046, the vehicles may also receive power from an internal battery instead of power supply 11). Battery powered vehicles are known variants of vehicles receiving power from an external power source, such as a from a powered rail in a semiconductor processing facility. See MPEP §2144.03
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art on or before the time of the filing to provide the system of Nobuta with a sub-traveling unit traveling on the traveling rail based on internal power, and as a matter of design choice, since supplying power to vehicles with a battery is a well-known, alternative means for supplying power to the power receiving unit of a vehicle.
Claim(s) 3 and 10 (as understood by the Examiner) is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nobuta as applied to claim 2 or 9 above, and further in view of Nishikawa (US PG. Pub. No. 2016/0347551). Relative to claims 3 and 10, Nobuta, modified as above discloses all claim limitations mentioned above, including the sub-traveling unit replaces the main traveling unit (see explanation above).
Nobuta does not expressly disclose: the sub-traveling unit operates independently on the traveling rail according to the state conditions of the power supply device.
Nishikawa teaches: transport vehicles 10, which are externally powered vehicles, may stop or are no longer supplied power in the event of an abnormality with the power supply (Para. 0031). The remaining vehicles (10) that are operating normally are continued to operate (Para. 0033), for the purpose of providing an article handling facility comprising an article handling device for transporting an article that limits congestion in communication traffic between the article handling device and the managing device (Para. 0005).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art on or before the time of the filing to modify the system of Noguta, so that the externally powered operated transport vehicles may stop or are no longer supplied power in the event of an abnormality, as taught in Nishikawa, for the purpose of providing an article handling facility comprising an article handling device for transporting an article that limits congestion in communication traffic between the article handling device and the managing device.
Relative to claims 3 and 10, the disclosure of Nobuta in view of Nishikawa, modified as above does not expressly disclose the sub-traveling unit operates independently on the traveling rail according to the state conditions of the power supply device.
Nobuta in view of Nishikawa teaches the sub-traveling unit operates independently on the traveling rail according to the state conditions of the power supply device, as an obvious matter of design choice based on the user’s preference.
Nobuta, modified as above, discloses a plurality of vehicles 3, or travel units, with at least one being a vehicle 3 that is operating on an internal power source such as a battery (see modification of Nobuta above, Para. 0046). Nobuta already discloses vehicles 3 operating on an external power source 11 such that the system includes vehicles 3 that operate on the external power supply 11 as well as at least one vehicle that operates on a battery.
Therefore, if the system has vehicles that operate on an external power supply, and vehicles that operate on battery power, then in the event of a problem with the external power supply, such that the power from the external power source supplied to the vehicles (see vehicles 10 in Nishikawa) is abnormal then the vehicles affected by the power abnormality are cut off from power, and are stopped from traveling (Para. 0031; 0035).
In the event of a power disruption, vehicles running on the external power will be stopped, and vehicles operating on battery power will remain operating along the rails, thereby so that article handling tasks may continue without the externally powered vehicles.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Nobuta in view of Nishikawa to that the sub-traveling unit operates independently on the traveling rail according to the state conditions of the power supply device, as described above, if there is a disruption to the external power supply to the vehicles.
Claim(s) 4-7 (as understood by the Examiner) is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Nobuta in view of Nishikawa as applied to claim 3 above, and further in view of Ogawa (US PG. Pub. No. 2024/0199097). Relative to claims 4-7, Nobuta discloses all claim limitations mentioned above, including:
the power supply device includes a target power supply unit on which part handling is performed (see Nobuta, Ref. 11), and the traveling rail includes a corresponding rail corresponding to the target power supply unit (Nobuta, Ref. 2. Fig. 1-2);
when the main traveling unit does not exist on the management rail based on the sensing information, the part handling is performed for the target power supply unit (see Nobuta, Para. 0019, Nishikawa, Para. 0031);
the power supply device further includes an alternative power supply unit that operates separately from the target power supply unit (Nobuta, power can be supplied via external source 11 and alternative power supply, such as a battery such that the vehicle 3 does not rely on power from the power supply 11, Para. 0046),
the target power supply unit and the alternative power supply unit each include an association part involved in performing a mutual replacement operation (Nobuta, Para. 0046),
the sub-traveling unit is operated on the corresponding rail even when an operation of the target power supply unit is restricted due to the handling of the association part in the part handling (Nobuta in view of Nishikawa, modified as above, includes a battery operated vehicle operating even when the power supply from a target supply unit is restricted); and
in the traveling unit, the sub-traveling unit (battery operated vehicles) excluding the main traveling unit is traveled on the corresponding rail based on the sensing information (see modification of Noguta in view of Nishikawa above, battery operated vehicles will continue to operate when externally operated vehicles are stopped due to abnormal power conditions).
Nobuta in view of Nishikawa does not expressly disclose:
a sensing unit sensing the presence or absence of a traveling object on the traveling rail and generating sensing information.
Ogawa teaches: a sensing unit sensing the presence or absence of a traveling object on the traveling rail and generating sensing information (see sensors 34A, and 34B, Para. 0033, Fig. 2), for the purpose of providing a rail-guided vehicle system that can check operation of an obstacle detector provided to a carrier automatically (Para. 0002; 0013).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art on or before the time of the filing to modify the system of Nobuta in view of Nishikawa with the sensing unit sensing the presence or absence of an object as taught in Ogawa for the purpose of providing a rail-guided vehicle system that can check operation of an obstacle detector provided to a carrier automatically.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YOLANDA RENEE CUMBESS whose telephone number is (571)270-5527. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10-6.
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/YOLANDA R CUMBESS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3651
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