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 § 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 1-7 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kira et al. US publication no.: US 2021/0255598 A1.
Regarding claims 1 and 9, Kira et al. teach, A setting support apparatus that supports setting of a PLC system (see paragraph 17, where the Programmable logic controlled is utilized in an industrial machine setting) including a programmable logic controller that functions as a master in cyclic communication and a motor driving apparatus (motor control apparatus 30-1 – 30-n, figure 1) that functions as a slave in the cyclic communication (see paragraph 108, where the master/slave communication between the controller and the motor is depicted) and drives a motor (motors 40-1- 40-n, figure 1) based on motor control data transferred from the master by the cyclic communication, the setting support apparatus comprising: a configuration editing unit (controller 20, paragraphs 32-33 – it is explained that the first command is sent out to control motor control apparatus 30-1, which thereby controls the first motor control apparatus form the plurality of motors) that selects any motor driving apparatus from among a plurality of the motor driving apparatuses each of which is specified based on vendor specifying information and product specifying information, and sets the selected motor driving apparatus as the slave to the programmable logic controller functioning as the master; a storage unit (data storage 200, figure 3) that stores assignment information associated with the vendor specifying information and a plurality of pieces of the product specifying information, the assignment information including mapping information for mapping a data object, handled by the motor driving apparatus as a communication target of the cyclic communication, and a recommended value of a setting parameter for the motor driving apparatus (see paragraphs 53-61, where it is explained that the data storage stores plurality of factors pretraining to the motor control apparatus including setting parameters and a “specific” motor control apparatus values); and a configuration setting unit (operating control module 201 and transmission module 204, figure 3) that sets mapping of a data object transferred from the master by the cyclic communication based on the mapping information, included in the assignment information corresponding to a combination of the vendor specifying information and the product specifying information of the motor driving apparatus set for the programmable logic controller by the configuration editing unit (see paragraph 66, where the transmission module transmits to the motor control apparatus a command stored in the storage device), and sets the recommended value of the setting parameter included in the assignment information for the motor driving apparatus to be written to the motor driving apparatus by the master through message communication (as seen in paragraph 63 – the operation control module 201 sends the commands to the motor control apparatus based on the control program stored in the data storage).
Regarding claim 2, Kira et al. teach, the setting support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit is further configured to store the mapping information, the recommended value of the setting parameter (see paragraphs 53-61, where the storage unit stores various information regarding the motor control apparatus and it’s functions), and a motion function setting in association to correspond to the combination of the vendor specifying information and the product specifying information, and the motion function setting indicates which bit of the data object transferred by the cyclic communication to which control data for controlling a function provided in the motor driving apparatus is allocated.
Regarding claim 3, Kira et al. teach, The setting support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recommended value of the setting parameter includes a recommended value that enables a trial operation of the motor driving apparatus through the master (see paragraph 66, where the :command generated” corresponds to the recommend value for the specific motor).
Regarding claim 4, Kira et al. teach, The setting support apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the trial operation is any one of a JOG operation of operating the motor driving apparatus as many times as a number of times a rotation instruction button having been pressed or while the rotation instruction button is being pressed, a point operation of operating the motor driving apparatus to move a load to a plurality of points designated in advance (see paragraph 79, where the motor moves towards a direction based on the commands); and a return to origin operation of returning the load to an origin.
Regarding claim 5, Kira et al. teach, The setting support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the setting parameter includes at least any one of a value for enabling or disabling a limit switch or information indicating a type of a contact point related to position control or speed control (see paragraph 79 for speed control).
Regarding claim 6, Kira et al. teach, the setting support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a generation unit that reads an electronic file corresponding to the selected motor driving apparatus and generates the mapping information based on the electronic file (see paragraph 32-37, where the selection of motor control is disclosed).
Regarding claim 7, Kira et al. teach, the setting support apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the generation unit reads the electronic file corresponding to the selected motor driving apparatus, determines whether the selected motor driving apparatus is a motor driving apparatus that requires the recommended value of the setting parameter based on the electronic file, and reads the recommended value of the setting parameter from the assignment information and writes the recommended value of the setting parameter to the selected motor driving apparatus when the selected motor driving apparatus is the motor driving apparatus that requires the recommended value of the setting parameter (see paragraphs 32-37, where the data is transferred to specific motor control apparatus which is to be controlled).
Regarding claim 10, Kira et al. teach, A program for causing a processor (see paragraph 16) to execute the control method for a setting support apparatus according to claim 9.
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 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kira et al. US publication no.: US 2021/0255598 A1 in view of Taniguchi US publication no.: US 2021/00663989 A1.
Regarding claim 8, Kira et al. is silent on specifically teaching, the setting support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cyclic communication includes any one of ETHERCAT communication, ETHERNET/IP communication, PROFINET communication, and MODBUS communication.
However, Taniguchi is in the same field of art and teach: wherein the cyclic communication includes any one of ETHERCAT communication, ETHERNET/IP communication, PROFINET communication, and MODBUS communication (see paragraph 40, where the communication between the master/slave devices is with Ethercat).
In view of Taniguchi’s teachings, it would’ve been obvious to one with the ordinary skills in the art, before the effective filing date of the invention, with the apparatus as taught by Kira et al. to include; wherein the cyclic communication includes any one of ETHERCAT communication, ETHERNET/IP communication, PROFINET communication, and MODBUS communication, for the purpose of providing a variant communication method.
Conclusion
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/ZOHEB S IMTIAZ/Primary Examiner , Art Unit 2846