Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Objections
Claim 18 is objected to because of the following informalities:
In claim 18, the examiner believes “a control apparatus control an actuator” is meant to read “a control apparatus controlling”.
Appropriate correction 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) 1-6, 9 and 15-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sumioka (U.S. Publication No. 2023/0033426). Sumioka teaches a control apparatus 10 configured to control an actuator 13 with a plurality of control signals, the control apparatus comprising: a memory storing instructions (inherent to CPUs PLDs as disclosed in ¶10); and a processor (CPU, ¶10) configured to execute the instructions to: perform linear control (through PID controller 109, see fig. 12) to output a first operation amount based on a state amount of the actuator detected by a detector 16, perform nonlinear control (through 103, fig. 12) to output a second operation amount based on the detected state amount, and output the plurality of control signals based on the first operation amount and the second operation amount (¶128, “control may be performed by adding the control amounts from both the PID controller 109 and the control amount output unit 103.” Also see fig 12).
Regarding claim 2, ¶¶5, 8 and 41 teach the state amount includes position information and speed information about the actuator. See also (14, 16) fig. 12.
Regarding claim 3, the first operation amount and the second operation amount are operation amounts different from each other (¶7, “a control amount output unit different from that of a conventional PID controller”), and wherein the plurality of control signals include a first control signal calculated based on the first operation amount (output of 109), and a second control signal calculated based on the second operation amount (output of 103).
Regarding claim 4, the actuator is a vibration actuator (11, fig. 12) configured to move a vibration body (131) and a contact body (132) in contact with the vibration body relative to each other, the vibration body being configured to excite vibration upon application of a first frequency signal and a second frequency signal having a phase difference. See ¶¶30-31 and fig. 13B.
Regarding claim 5, the first control signal is a signal relating to at least one of a phase difference, a frequency, and a duty ratio (¶122), and wherein the second control signal is a signal relating to at least another one of the phase difference, the frequency, and the duty ratio (¶44).
Regarding claim 6, ¶122 teaches a signal relating to the phase difference based on the first operation amount is calculated, and fig 17 teaches a signal relating to at least one of the frequency and the duty ratio (pulse width) based on the second operation amount is calculated.
Regarding claim 9, ¶122 teaches a signal relating to the frequency based on the first operation amount is calculated, and fig 17 teaches a signal relating to at least one of the phase difference and the duty ratio (pulse width) based on the second operation amount is calculated.
Regarding claim 15, the actuator is a piezoelectric element (¶¶2, 33, 62) which is a brushless DC motor.
Regarding claim 16, the processor estimates a state of control based on at least one of the first operation amount and the second operation amount, and control a gain of at least one of the linear control and the nonlinear control based on a result of the estimation. See fig. 12 where outputs of operation amounts are fed to AGC control 108.
Regarding claim 17, the second operation amount for each calculation period of the nonlinear control is limited to a predetermined amount. (¶8, “the second value is a value based on a ratio between the control amount output from the control amount output unit and a value output from the trained model in a case where the target speed and a predetermined value are input to the trained model.”; ¶23 “FIGS. 14A, 14B, and 14C illustrate results of performing feedback control of a vibration motor in a predetermined target position pattern according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.”)
Regarding claim 18, Sumioka teaches a control apparatus 17 control an actuator 11 with a plurality of control signals 103/109; and an optical member (302, fig. 3) driven by the actuator, wherein the control apparatus includes: (inherent to CPUs PLDs as disclosed in ¶10); and a processor (CPU, ¶10) configured to execute the instructions to: perform linear control (through PID controller 109, see fig. 12) to output a first operation amount based on a state amount of the actuator detected by a detector, 16, perform nonlinear control (through 103, fig. 12) to output a second operation amount based on the detected state amount, and output the plurality of control signals based on the first operation amount and the second operation amount (¶128, “control may be performed by adding the control amounts from both the PID controller 109 and the control amount output unit 103.” Also see fig 12).
Regarding claim 19, Sumioka teaches outputting a first operation amount (output of 109) based on a state amount of the actuator detected by a detector 14/16; outputting a second operation amount (output of 103) based on the detected state amount; and outputting the plurality of control signals based on the first operation amount and the second operation amount. The applicant is directed to review fig. 12.
Regarding claim 20, (¶103 teaches a CPU running the program and thus has a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a computer program that causes a computer to execute control.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7-8 and 10-14 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.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. JP11-515070) and Xian (CN107357166) teach machine learning and neural networks are a form of non linear control.
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/CHRISTOPHER E MAHONEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2852