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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information Disclosure Statement filed on 09/18/2025, 01/16/2025 and 2/29/2024 has been considered. An initialed copy of form 1449 is enclosed herewith.
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 1- 16 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 pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Claims 1, 15 and 16 recite the limitation “degradation level.” The degradation level is considered in the claimed as vital variable parameter for the controller. However, it’s not clear what is the dimension of the parameter “degradation level;” what is the fundamental physical units (such as current([A]), voltage ([V]), or time \([sec]\)) that define the physical quantity of this parameter. The physical nature of the parameter “degradation level” is not identified. The limitation “degradation level” recited in claims 1- 16 renders the claims indefinite, because the claims includes elements and functions not actually disclosed (those encompassed by the “degradation level”), thereby rendering the claims confusing, vague, and indefinite.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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- 16, as best understood, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sano et al. (WO 2020217879 A1) in view of Unuma et al. (US 20190003928 A1).
Re. claims 1 and 15 - 16, Sano discloses a motor controller configured to control a motor that is driven by electric power supplied from a power source and converted by use of an electric-power converter device provided with an inverter. Figure 2, first embodiment and second embodiment does not teach degradation estimation circuitry and operation decision circuitry),
In the third embodiment (figs. 8- 9), the motor controller (20) comprising:
degradation estimation circuitry configured to calculate an estimated degradation level obtained by estimating a degradation level of a device on which the motor is mounted or a degradation level of the inverter (according to a phase electric current Iuvw(K) which converted to idq(k) among a three-phase alternating electric current shown in fig. 8 and Fig. 9, S14);
operation decision circuitry configured to compare the estimated degradation level and a reference degradation level, which is predetermined (the pattern determination unit 14B sets the current command value idqref (k), In step S17 in fig. 9, the reward calculation unit 10g calculates the current deviation between the current command value idqref (k) and the dq coordinate current value idq (k), and determines whether or not the current deviation is within the specified value) and
set an operation mode of the motor (operation set to proceeds the process of step S18), in a case in which the estimated degradation level is lower than the reference degradation level, to an normal operation (when “step S17: Yes;” it is determined that the current deviation is within the specified value), and
set the operation mode , in a case in which the estimated degradation level is higher than or equal to the reference degradation level (step S17: No; it is determined that the current deviation exceeds the specified value), to a low-noise pulse operation (in step S23, Update the value function to adjust to reduce switching loss while keeping it within the specified range. Then, the pattern generation function is updated based on the updated value function. “at least one of the driving sound of the rotating mechanical device is reduced” see third embodiment); and
control circuitry (circuit 1 in Fig. 8) configured to control the inverter (12) according to the operation mode (Fig. 9),
the low-noise pulse operation being designed to reduce switching loss to be less than does the normal operation (“Update the value function to adjust to reduce switching loss while keeping it within the specified range” see third embodiment),
Sano does not teach the degradation estimation circuitry being configured to acquire the estimated degradation level on the basis of a strength level of sideband waves that appear in a two-phase electric current among a three-phase alternating electric current that flows from the inverter through the motor.
Unuma figure 2 disclose degradation estimation circuitry (100) configured to acquire the estimated degradation level (“abnormality detection unit 14 configured to determine whether or not the rotary machine 23 and the driven machine 26 have an abnormality” ¶. [0040]) on the basis of a strength level of sideband waves that appear in a two-phase electric current among a three-phase alternating electric current that flows from the inverter through the motor (“a sideband detection unit 13 configured to set, in the frequency range, the driving current as a carrier wave and detect, as sidebands, portions of a spectrum appearing on both sides of carrier wave having been amplitude-modulated” ¶. [0040]).
Hence, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the invention of Sano with the teaching of Unuma by implementing the diagnostic technique of Unuma using the strength level of sideband waves of the phase current analyzed in frequency domain for making a diagnosis for an abnormality in motors (Unuma, background).
Re. claim 2, Sano discloses controlling the inverter (12) by changing a switching pattern (SWP(k)) that is one of a set of switching states each in response to a single cycle of a voltage command value through which an output voltage of the inverter is ordered (the notations (k-1) and (k) represent discrete-time signals for each control cycle), and the low-noise pulse operation is designed to adjust the switching pattern (see third embodiment in Sano).
Re. claim 3, Sano discloses the low-noise pulse operation based on synchronous PWM control in which a frequency of a carrier signal is set to be equal to an integral multiple of a frequency of an output voltage of the inverter (Fig. 10 shows the voltage command value vdqref (k) in the dq coordinate is used as the voltage command value synchronous pulse width modulation may be used to determine pattern generation function, wherein the pattern determination unit 614 determines the switching state of the power conversion unit 12 accordingly.)
Re. claim 4, Sano discloses av acquisition circuitry (17B) and model generation circuitry (14B).
Re. claim 5, Sano discloses learned model is stored (10B), the learned model being generated by use of learning data that includes the voltage command value in an arbitrary cycle and the switching pattern in a previous cycle immediately prior to the arbitrary cycle, the learned model being used to infer the switching pattern in the arbitrary cycle (the notations (k-1) and (k) represent discrete-time signals for each control cycle.)
Re. claim 6, Sano, figure 8 shows the notations (k-1) and (k) represent discrete-time signals for each control cycle.
Re. claim 7, Sano teaches in embodiment 3 “the power conversion device 1 of the third embodiment causes switching loss by reinforcement learning of the trained model that has been trained with teacher data in the first embodiment or the second embodiment. In addition, at least one of the driving sound of the rotating mechanical device 3 related to the modulation method, the mechanical vibration of the rotating mechanical device 3, the current harmonic of the rotating mechanical device 3, and the follow-up time of the current detected value to the current command value. The rotary mechanical device 3 can be driven so as to further reduce the size.”
Re. claims 8- 10, see reward calculation unit 10g in figure 8 of Sano and associate text in embodiment 3.
Re. claim 11, the combination of Sano and Unuma discloses degradation estimation circuitry (100) configured to acquire the estimated degradation level (“abnormality detection unit 14 configured to determine whether or not the rotary machine 23 and the driven machine 26 have an abnormality” ¶. [0040]) on the basis of a strength level of sideband waves that appear in a two-phase electric current among a three-phase alternating electric current that flows from the inverter through the motor (“a sideband detection unit 13 configured to set, in the frequency range, the driving current as a carrier wave and detect, as sidebands, portions of a spectrum appearing on both sides of carrier wave having been amplitude-modulated” ¶. [0040]).
Re. claims 12 and 13, the combination of Sano and Unuma discloses an abnormality detection unit 14 notifies the output unit 15 (Fig. 8 in Unuma) to display information such as data indicative of results of processes performed by units and/or circuits.
Re. claim 14, Sano discloses trained model and a learned model in this case is a command for selecting the trained model stored as a table associated with the numbers in the pattern generation function storage unit 311- 312, storage device 31 and unit 10d.
Conclusion
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/SAID BOUZIANE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2846