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 .
Status of the claims
This office action is made in response to applicant’s arguments filed on 12/19/2025 wherein, claims 1, 5, and 8 have been amended, no claims have been deleted, and no new claims have been added. Accordingly, claims 1-13 are now pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, filed on 12/19/2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claims 1-13 under 35 USC § 102/103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of the amendments.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 1-6, and 8-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over by Palanisamy (US-11157784-B2) in view of SANDFORD (US-20200341117-A1).
Regarding claims 1 and 8, Palanisamy discloses a method for navigating an autonomous vehicle in an open-pit site (abstract) comprising the steps of:
acquiring a plurality of observations (72) and odometry information, from a plurality of discrete poses while driving, using a plurality of sensors (31) installed on the autonomous vehicle (30), wherein an observation comprises surroundings information (col. 10, lines 11-14; col. 6, lines 15-18);
accessing a topological map (10) of the open-pit site and gathering topological information (74) stored therein, wherein the topological map comprises a plurality of intersections and a plurality of segments associated therewith, wherein a segment represents a path of a length to be traversed with lateral boundaries, wherein an intersection represents a junction of at least two segments, or a working area connected with at least a segment (col. 9, lines 18-26; coL 5, lines 65-67; col. 8, lines 37-41);
accessing an observational map (20) of the open-pit site and gathering past observations (76), wherein an observation comprises surroundings information associated with an intersection or a segment of the topological map (20) (col. 10, lines 25-28);
processing, using a processor unit (33), past observations, acquired observations and odometry information, applying a particle filtering technique and Gaussian processes for modelling observations acquired from discrete poses as a continuous variable to represent a spatial signature of environment and estimating the current pose and according to a current direction of movement, statistically predicting a next pose of the autonomous vehicle (Col. 3, Lines 7-25; col. 10, lines 11-14; col. 9, lines 35-37; Note: Palanisamy discloses combining sensor observations to generate a state representation that includes predetermined types of image representations such as semantic scene representations and depth and flow scene representations. Depth and flow representations correspond to continuous spatial quantities that characterize the surrounding environment);
commanding the autonomous vehicle (30) via actuators controlled by the processor unit (33), based on detecting whether the autonomous vehicle (30) is in a segment or in an intersection, and respectively command the autonomous vehicle (30) a moving-forward instruction to traverse the segment or a steering instruction to take a subsequent segment (col. 6, lines 11-15; col. 11, lines 5-14).
However, Palanisamy does not explicitly state estimating a pose without utilizing a GNSS and independent of satellite signals.
On the other hand, SANDFORD teaches estimating a pose without utilizing a GNSS and independent of satellite signals ([0012]; [0015]-[0016]; [0085]: “Specific problems demanding this system include navigating or landing on heavenly bodies without human aid, landing on Earth with or without human aid, rendezvous and proximity operations (inspection, berthing, docking) in space, driverless cars, trucks and military vehicles, aerial vehicles in GPS denied environments.”).
It would have been obvious for someone with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the current application to modify the teachings of the Palanisamy reference and estimate vehicle pose independently of satellite signals as taught by Sandford, with a reasonable expectation of success. This improves robustness by allowing the system to rely solely on onboard sensors when satellite signals are unavailable.
Regarding claims 2 and 9, Palanisamy discloses the observational map (20) of the open-pit site is updated with observations acquired during driving the autonomous vehicle. (col. 9, lines 18-22).
Regarding claims 3 and 10, Palanisamy discloses commanding the autonomous vehicle (30) in a segment further comprises a steering instruction for keeping the autonomous vehicle (30) within segment boundaries based on the estimated current pose on or the predicted next pose (col. 10,
lines 48-51; col. 10, line 64- col. 11, line 4).
Regarding claims 4 and 11, Palanisamy discloses applying Gaussian Processes, the processor unit (33) calculates mean and covariance of a plurality of past observations to estimate a probability distribution of acquired observations given current pose of the autonomous vehicle (30) (col. 9, lines 35-41, 59-61).
Regarding claim 5, Palanisamy discloses a current pose is calculated by applying the particle filtering technique and comparing acquired observations (72) while driving with samples of the probability distribution of past observations associated with a plurality of segments and intersections and estimating the current pose within the segment or intersection (col. 9, lines 56-59).
Regarding claim 6, Palanisamy discloses particles of the particle filtering technique represent vehicle's candidate poses and they are statistically associated to a segment B or a segment C, by computing the probability of being in segment B given the current estimation of the pose and the current observations, and the probability of being in segment C given the current estimation of the pose and the current observations (col. 10, lines 19-24).
Regarding claim 12, Palanisamy discloses the sensors are selectable among an odometer, a LIDAR, an altimeter, a magnetometer, a gyroscope (col. 4, lines 59-61).
Claims 7 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Palanisamy and SANDFORD in further view of LI (CN 109670673 A; Examiner relied on English translation attached in the previous OA).
Regarding claims 7 and 13, Palanisamy does not explicitly state the open-pit site is an open-pit mine.
On the other hand, LI teaches the open-pit site is an open-pit mine (Page 2, Lines 1-40).
It would have been obvious for someone with ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the current application to modify the teachings of the Palanisamy reference and include features from the LI reference with a reasonable expectation of success, since an open-pit mine is a particular characteristic of an open-pit site. Doing so allows the applicability of the Palanisamy reference in an open-pit mine setting.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/S.B./Examiner, Art Unit 3666
/SCOTT A BROWNE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3666