DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. 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 § 103
2. 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.
3. Claims 1 – 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Green (US Publication Number 2021/0250340) in view of Samii et al. (US Publication Number 2020/0117495, hereinafter “Samii”).
4. As per claims 1 and 11, Green teaches an electrical control system and method for a vehicle (figure 5, paragraph 10 vehicle control system), comprising: a plurality of zone controllers (zone controllers 1011/1021/1031/1041, figure 5) each associated with a corresponding region of the vehicle (each zone is associated with a zone of importance to the vehicle and characterized as domains, paragraph 15), and each having an identical hardware configuration (the zone controller have the same hardware, paragraph 23); a high-speed digital communications network interconnecting the plurality of zone controllers (ethernet connections 1100/1200/1300/1400, figure 5, between the zone controllers to form a high speed digital network, paragraph 23); and a plurality of I/O controllers (ECU’s a/b/c seen in each of the zones of figure 5, paragraph 23) each including at least one of: an input circuit configured to receive a digital or analog signal from a sensor device (ECU’s are used as an intermediary to handle sensor device input/output for the various vehicle needs seen in paragraph 15), or an output circuit configured to produce and transmit a digital or analog signal to an output device (paragraph 15 includes devices which receive the ECU output to allow for function of the vehicle such as powertrain functionality, wherein the signals include commands which is seen in the messages between the elements to handle the needed processing, paragraph 23), wherein each zone controller of the plurality of zone controllers interfaces with one or more I/O controllers of the plurality of I/O controllers via a communications bus independent of the high-speed digital communications network (the bus seen between the zone controllers and ECU’s internal to each domain figure 5, between for example 1011 and 1011a/b/c is independent of the network associated between the zone controllers 1100/1200/1300/1400).
Green does not appear to explicitly disclose the physical region of the vehicle wherein a plurality of zone controllers each associated with a corresponding physical region of the vehicle.
However, Samii discloses a plurality of zone controllers each associated with a corresponding physical region of the vehicle (zone controllers 340.1/340.2/340.3/340.4/340.5 are associated with a specific region of the vehicle front/rear/left/right, paragraph 50).
Green and Samii are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor zone controllers in vehicles.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having the teachings of Green and Samii before him or her, to modify the zone controllers of Green to include the regional distinction of Samii because it would allow for a simplistic mapping of Green’s zones.
One of ordinary skill would be motivated to make such modification in order to enhance the organization structure of a zone controller system (paragraph 3). Therefore, it would have been obvious to combine Samii with Green to obtain the invention as specified in the instant claims.
5. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 1 above, as per claim 2, Green teaches a system, wherein each zone controller of the plurality of zone controllers includes only digital communications interfaces (digital communication via the gateway, figure 4, paragraph 22).
6. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 1 above, as per claim 3, Green teaches a system, wherein the high-speed digital communications network includes an Ethernet network (Ethernet connection, paragraph 23).
7. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 1 above, as per claim 4, Green teaches a system, wherein the Ethernet network operates at a speed of at least 10 gigabits per second (Advance Driver Assistance Systems - ADAS utilizes 10GB/s network speed, paragraph 15).
8. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 1 above, as per claims 5 and 14, Samii teaches a system and method, wherein the plurality of zone controllers are configured to run a plurality of different software applications (software structures running for the zone controllers associated with the different functions of the zones, paragraph 34); and wherein each zone controller of the plurality of zone controllers is configured to host and execute any software application of the plurality of different software applications (each zone controller receives the software processing commands from the compute center and then executes the commands accordingly on the internal CPU associate with the particular sensor to which it is interfaced, as an example node 340.3 will receive braking analysis software then execute the commands a the CPU of 340.3 and then output the execution results to the brake actuator, paragraph 57, each zone controller has a CPU to execute software accordingly, paragraphs 54 – 58).
9. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 1 above, as per claims 6 and 15, Samii teaches a system and method, further comprising a resource manager configured to determine, based on available computing resources, which zone controller of the plurality of zone controllers to run a given software application of the plurality of different software applications (resource manager 311, figure 3, will assign based on the sensors associated with the computing resources in the particular zone, the software applications for the particular sensor).
10. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 1 above, as per claim 7, Green teaches a system, wherein the plurality of zone controllers include at least four zone controllers (four zone controllers 1011/1021/1031/1041, figure 5).
11. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 1 above, as per claim 8, Samii teaches a system, further comprising an application software stored on a given zone controller of the plurality of zone controllers (each zone controller receives software processing commands as the example in paragraph 57); and a resource manager configured to direct any of the zone controllers to download and run the application software from the given zone controller (resource manager through its processes 311, figure 3 will assign and distribute software associated with the sensors for the designated zone, paragraphs 48 and 49); and wherein each zone controller of the plurality of zone controllers is configured to download and run the application software in response to a direction from the resource manager (paragraphs 50 and 57, zone controllers with take the software commands, execute and then control the connected sensors accordingly).
12. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 1 above, as per claim 9, Samii teaches a system, wherein a single software development is used to develop application software for the electrical control system, and the application software is not specific to any zone controller of the plurality of zone controllers (the vehicle is associated with a single distributed software system, paragraph 34).
13. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 1 above, as per claim 10, Green teaches a system, further comprising a single Data Dictionary that defines all global signals (database D in 311, figure 5, paragraph 48).
14. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 11 above, as per claim 12, Green teaches a method, wherein the communications bus includes at least one of an Ethernet bus (1100/1200/1300/1400, figure 5) or a controller area network (CAN) bus (CAN bus used for CAN connection network 1050, figure 5, paragraphs 21 and 22).
15. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 11 above, as per claim 13, Green teaches a method, further comprising communicating, between two zone controllers of the plurality of zone controllers using a high-speed digital communications network interconnecting the plurality of zone controllers (Ethernet 1100/1200/1300/1400, figure 5).
16. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 1\ above, as per claim 16, Green teaches a system, wherein the communications bus includes at least one of a serializer/deserializer (SerDes) connection, and a controller area network (CAN) bus (CAN bus used for CAN connection network 1050, figure 5, paragraphs 21 and 22).
17. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 1\ above, as per claim 17, Green teaches a system, wherein the plurality of I/O controllers include at least one of: a powertrain controller (PT) configured to control and monitor functions of a powertrain (powertrain controller, paragraph 15), an electronic stability control program controller (ESP) configured to control application of brakes and/or a throttle (brakes/throttle, paragraph 10), and a battery management system controller (BMS) configured to monitor and control charging and discharging of a rechargeable battery (hybrid systems include battery management control, paragraph 15, additionally Samii has teachings of brake control, paragraph 38).
18. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 1 above, as per claim 18, Samii teaches a system, further comprising a plurality of remote sensing devices each connected to a corresponding zone controller of the plurality of zone controllers via a digital communications interface (C1…5, cameras, figure 3, paragraph 51).
19. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 1 above, as per claim 19, Samii teaches a system, wherein the plurality of remote sensing devices includes one or more cameras (C1…5, cameras, figure 3, paragraph 51).
20. Green modified by the teachings of Samii as seen in claim 1 above, as per claim 20, Samii teaches a system, wherein the plurality of remote sensing devices includes one or more RADAR sensors (R radar sensor, figure 3, paragraphs 51 and 54).
Conclusion
21. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Kim/Mudalige have teachings of electronic stability control/radar/cameras. Kwon/Widmer has teachings of battery management system control. Zinner/Fang has teachings of zone controllers in a vehicle with a plurality of sensors and I/O controllers.
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AH
/HENRY TSAI/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2184