DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
Amendments filed 12/23/2025 have been entered. Claims 1-4 and 6-10 are pending; claim 5 is canceled.
Applicant’s arguments, see page 6 of Remarks, filed 12/23/2025, with respect to claim rejections under 35 U.S.C. 101 have been fully considered and are persuasive. The 101 rejections of claims 1-3 and 9-10 have been withdrawn.
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the rejection of claim 1 under 35 U.S.C. 103 regarding the limitation “”control ... an operation of a robot ... advances the form to sorting processing one sheet at a time, wherein the sorting processing automatically distributes each sheet of forms to different sorting destinations according to a type of the forms ...” have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 9, and 10 are objected to because of the following informalities:
Claims 1, 9, and 10 last line: “sorting processing” should be changed to read “the sorting processing.”
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-4 and 6-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Murayama (JP 2017039567 A), in view of Yoshida et al. (JP2020131306A), and further in view of Avetisyan (RU 2745482 C1).
Regarding claim 1, Murayama teaches:
A form processing system (Fig. 1; [0024] “sheet-shaped raw material supply device 10”) comprising:
at least one memory configured to store instructions ([0024] “control portion”); and
at least one processor ([0024] “a control portion (not illustrated) that controls each of these portions and the like”) configured to execute the instructions to:
...
control ... an operation of a robot that lifts the placed form ([0035] “Here, a suction operation of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu by the first transport unit 400 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4. First, as shown in FIG. 2, the base portion 410 (the ball screw shaft 411) and the arm portion 420 (the first shaft 418) are appropriately driven to move the suction portion 430 above the sheet-shaped raw material Pu stacked on the stacking portion 300. Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the second shaft 425 is driven to lower the suction unit 430 to the uppermost position of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu. Then, the suction mechanism is driven to suck the upper surface of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu to the suction pad 432 by a negative pressure.”) and advances the form ([0035] “Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the second shaft 425 is driven to raise the suction portion 430 to a predetermined height. Thereafter, the motor 412 and the first shaft 418 connected to the ball screw shaft 411 are appropriately driven to move the suction portion 430 to a position corresponding to the supply portion 700 or the accommodation portion 800”) ... one sheet at a time ([0035] “Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the second shaft 425 is driven to lower the suction unit 430 to the uppermost position of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu. Then, the suction mechanism is driven to suck the upper surface of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu to the suction pad 432 by a negative pressure.” – As shown in Fig. 2 and disclosed in [0035], the robot 400 suctions the uppermost sheet, i.e. it suctions only one sheet at a time),
acquire an image of a form ([0042] “The detection unit 600 of the present embodiment detects the state of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu in a state in which at least a portion of the uppermost sheet-shaped raw material Pu is moved to a predetermined height by the first transport unit 400 or the second transport unit 500.”; [0091] “an image of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be captured by a CCD camera or the like, and the state of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be detected based on the captured image.) lifted by a robot (Fig. 2; [0030] “The first transport unit 400 includes a base portion 410, an arm portion 420 connected to the base portion 410, and a suction portion 430 connected to the arm portion 420.”; [0033] “The suction unit 430 the sheet-shaped raw material Pu stacked on the stacking unit 300.”; [0042]), the image being captured from a direction intersecting a lifting direction (Fig. 2 shows the detection unit 600 captures data on the X-axis or Y-axis, which intersects the lifting direction Z-axis; [0041] “In FIG. 1, the detection unit 600 (the light emitting unit 600a and the light receiving unit 600b) is disposed in the Y-axis direction, but may be disposed in the X-axis direction, or may be disposed in both the Y-axis direction and the X-axis direction (two directions).”); and
determine whether the lifted form is bundled (Fig. 5; [0043] “On the other hand, as illustrated in FIG. 5, in a case where the sheet-shaped raw material Pu located at the uppermost position of the loading portion 300 is a sheet-shaped raw material Pu in which a plurality of sheet-shaped raw materials Pu are bound by, for example, a staple M of a stapler, when the uppermost sheet-shaped raw material Pu is moved to a predetermined height by the first transport portion 400, the other sheet-shaped raw materials Pu (the second and subsequent sheet-shaped raw materials from the top) bound to the uppermost sheet-shaped raw material Pu (the first sheet-shaped raw material Pu from the top) are in a hanging state. In this case, since the hanging sheet-shaped material Pu is positioned between the light emitting portion 600a and the light receiving portion 600b and blocks light, the amount of light received by the light receiving portion 600b decreases, and a predetermined amount of received light cannot be obtained. In this case, the control unit determines that the sucked sheet-shaped raw material Pu is abnormal (not normal).”) based on the image ([0091] “an image of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be captured by a CCD camera or the like, and the state of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be detected based on the captured image.); and
in a case where it is determined that the form is bundled, control the robot in such a way to stop the operation of advancing the form to the sorting processing ([0053] “On the other hand, when it is determined that there is an abnormality in the adsorbed sheet-shaped raw materials Pu (step S13: YES), the process proceeds to step S15 and step S16. To be more specific, as shown in FIG. 9, the first conveying unit 400 is driven to convey the sheet-shaped material Pu determined to be abnormal to the accommodating unit 800a (step S15). Thereafter, the first transport unit 400 is moved to a predetermined standby position and is shifted to a standby state.”).
Murayama does not specifically teach recognize a placed form; control, based on a recognition result, an operation of the robot that lifts the placed form, wherein the sorting processing automatically distributes each sheet of forms to different sorting destination according to a type of forms.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Yoshida teaches:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:
recognize a placed form ([0041] “the control device 400 transmits an image capturing command signal to the image capturing device DC to cause the image capturing device DC to capture a front image of the sheet bundle storage box 200.”); and
control, based on a recognition result ([0042] “When the derivation unit 430 receives the front image data of the sheet bundle storage box 200, the derivation unit 430 collates the front image data with the image data Dt2 in the control table To0, and the image that most matches the image data. The thickness data Dt4 and the state index value data Dt5 corresponding to the data Dt2 are derived, and the data Dt4 and Dt5 are transmitted to the control unit 410. Then, the control unit 410 uses the data Dt4 and Dt5 to execute the control described below at various places on the robot hand 100 and the robot arm RA.”), an operation of the robot that lifts the placed form ([0045] “Further subsequently, the control device 400 controls the operation of the robot arm RA to move the robot hand 100 backward, and pull out the banknote bundle MT from the paper sheet bundle storage box 200. At this time, as shown in FIG. 9, the slide receiver 160 is moved forward as the robot hand 100 moves backward”) and advances the form to sorting processing ([0046] “ Further subsequently, the control device 400 controls the robot arm RA to insert the robot hand 100 from the tip side to the back side of the loading tray 320 of the banknote sorting machine 300, as shown in FIG. The pressing unit reciprocating mechanism 150 is operated to move the pressing unit 140 forward, and the movable finger reciprocating mechanism 130 is controlled to pull up the movable finger 110 upward to let go of the banknote bundle MT.”; [0047] “Then, while the pushing portion 140 is moving forward, the control device 400 controls the robot arm RA to pull up the robot hand 100 obliquely rearward while maintaining the inclination angle of the robot hand 100. Let By this operation, the conveyance of the banknote bundle MT to the loading tray 320 of the banknote sorting machine 300 is completed.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Murayama to recognize a placed form, and control, based on a recognition result, an operation of the robot that lifts the placed form and advances the form to sorting processing, as taught by Yoshida. Such modification allows the robot to acquire visual information of the placed form and to improve accuracy in extracting the placed form, thus reducing the risk of the form falling out of the robot hand, as suggested by Yoshida in [0011].
Yoshida does not specifically teach wherein the sorting processing automatically distributes each sheet of forms to different sorting destination according to a type of forms.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Avetisyan teaches:
a sorting processing automatically distributes each sheet of forms to different sorting destination (“sorting pockets”) according to a type of forms (page 2 third paragraph “in the CCM, the banknotes are counted and sorted into the appropriate sorting pockets.”; page 3, paragraph starting with “Counting and sorting machine (CCM) is a banknote sorting device ... The counting and sorting machine consists of one loading pocket, one or two reject pockets and four sorting pockets. Each model from the presented companies has the ability to increase the number of sorting pockets by four more and, thus, bring their total number to sixteen. These layouts are implemented to simultaneously perform a variety of sorting tasks, when all available banknotes must be sorted by face value, dilapidation, face / image orientation and authenticity.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Murayama, in view of Yoshida, to configure the sorting processing to automatically distribute each sheet of forms to different sorting destination according to a type of forms, as taught by Avetisyan, in order to sort each sheet of forms into the appropriate category.
Regarding claim 2,Murayama further teaches:
wherein determine whether the form is bundled by recognizing the from being hanged based on the image (Fig. 5; [0043] “On the other hand, as illustrated in FIG. 5, in a case where the sheet-shaped raw material Pu located at the uppermost position of the loading portion 300 is a sheet-shaped raw material Pu in which a plurality of sheet-shaped raw materials Pu are bound by, for example, a staple M of a stapler, when the uppermost sheet-shaped raw material Pu is moved to a predetermined height by the first transport portion 400, the other sheet-shaped raw materials Pu (the second and subsequent sheet-shaped raw materials from the top) bound to the uppermost sheet-shaped raw material Pu (the first sheet-shaped raw material Pu from the top) are in a hanging state. In this case, since the hanging sheet-shaped material Pu is positioned between the light emitting portion 600a and the light receiving portion 600b and blocks light, the amount of light received by the light receiving portion 600b decreases, and a predetermined amount of received light cannot be obtained. In this case, the control unit determines that the sucked sheet-shaped raw material Pu is abnormal (not normal).”).
Regarding claim 3, Murayama further teaches:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:
determine whether a form is bundled based on a plurality of images captured from a plurality of directions intersecting a lifting direction ([0041] “In FIG. 1, the detection unit 600 (the light emitting unit 600a and the light receiving unit 600b) is disposed in the Y-axis direction, but may be disposed in the X-axis direction, or may be disposed in both the Y-axis direction and the X-axis direction (two directions).”; [0091] “an image of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be captured by a CCD camera or the like, and the state of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be detected based on the captured image.” – The detection unit 600 in a form of a CCD camera can be disposed in the Y-axis and X-axis direction in view of para. [0041] and [0091]).
Regarding claim 4, Murayama further teaches:
wherein the robot sucks and lifts the form (Figs. 2-4; [0030] “The first transport unit 400 includes a base portion 410, an arm portion 420 connected to the base portion 410, and a suction portion 430 connected to the arm portion 420.”; [0033] “The suction unit 430 the sheet-shaped raw material Pu stacked on the stacking unit 300.”; [0042]).
Regarding claim 6, Murayama further teaches wherein the operation is an operation of placing the form on a conveyance device ([0042] “The sheet-shaped raw material Pu determined to have no abnormality is transported to the supply unit 700.”; [0044] “The supply unit 700 of the present embodiment includes a tray 701 in which a plurality of sheet-shaped raw materials Pu are stacked and stored, and a movement mechanism 702 that moves the tray 701 in the vertical direction.”).
Murayama does not specifically teach the conveyance device that conveys forms to a sorting mechanism.
However, Yoshida teaches wherein the operation is an operation of placing the form on a conveyance device that conveys forms to a sorting mechanism ([0046] “Further subsequently, the control device 400 controls the robot arm RA to insert the robot hand 100 from the tip side to the back side of the loading tray 320 of the banknote sorting machine 300, as shown in FIG. The pressing unit reciprocating mechanism 150 is operated to move the pressing unit 140 forward, and the movable finger reciprocating mechanism 130 is controlled to pull up the movable finger 110 upward to let go of the banknote bundle MT.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Murayama to place the form on a conveyance device that conveys forms to a sorting mechanism, as taught by Yoshida. Such modification allows the system to sort the forms into various categories.
Regarding claim 7, Murayama further teaches:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:
determine whether the form is bundled by recognizing whether a fastener is fastened to the form (Fig. 5; [0043] “On the other hand, as illustrated in FIG. 5, in a case where the sheet-shaped raw material Pu located at the uppermost position of the loading portion 300 is a sheet-shaped raw material Pu in which a plurality of sheet-shaped raw materials Pu are bound by, for example, a staple M of a stapler, when the uppermost sheet-shaped raw material Pu is moved to a predetermined height by the first transport portion 400, the other sheet-shaped raw materials Pu (the second and subsequent sheet-shaped raw materials from the top) bound to the uppermost sheet-shaped raw material Pu (the first sheet-shaped raw material Pu from the top) are in a hanging state. In this case, since the hanging sheet-shaped material Pu is positioned between the light emitting portion 600a and the light receiving portion 600b and blocks light, the amount of light received by the light receiving portion 600b decreases, and a predetermined amount of received light cannot be obtained. In this case, the control unit determines that the sucked sheet-shaped raw material Pu is abnormal (not normal).”) based on an image obtained by photographing the placed form ([0091] “an image of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be captured by a CCD camera or the like, and the state of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be detected based on the captured image.).
Regarding claim 8, Murayama further teaches:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:
control the robot in such a way to place a bundle of the forms in an error form storage ([0043] “The sheet-shaped raw material Pu (for example, the sheet-shaped raw material Pu in which a plurality of sheets are bound) determined to be abnormal is transported to and stored in the storage unit 800.”).
Regarding claim 9, Murayama teaches:
A form processing method comprising:
...
control ... an operation of a robot that lifts the placed form ([0035] “Here, a suction operation of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu by the first transport unit 400 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4. First, as shown in FIG. 2, the base portion 410 (the ball screw shaft 411) and the arm portion 420 (the first shaft 418) are appropriately driven to move the suction portion 430 above the sheet-shaped raw material Pu stacked on the stacking portion 300. Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the second shaft 425 is driven to lower the suction unit 430 to the uppermost position of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu. Then, the suction mechanism is driven to suck the upper surface of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu to the suction pad 432 by a negative pressure.”) and advances the form ([0035] “Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the second shaft 425 is driven to raise the suction portion 430 to a predetermined height. Thereafter, the motor 412 and the first shaft 418 connected to the ball screw shaft 411 are appropriately driven to move the suction portion 430 to a position corresponding to the supply portion 700 or the accommodation portion 800”) ... one sheet at a time ([0035] “Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the second shaft 425 is driven to lower the suction unit 430 to the uppermost position of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu. Then, the suction mechanism is driven to suck the upper surface of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu to the suction pad 432 by a negative pressure.” – As shown in Fig. 2 and disclosed in [0035], the robot 400 suctions the uppermost sheet, i.e. it suctions only one sheet at a time),
...
acquiring an image of a form ([0042] “The detection unit 600 of the present embodiment detects the state of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu in a state in which at least a portion of the uppermost sheet-shaped raw material Pu is moved to a predetermined height by the first transport unit 400 or the second transport unit 500.”; [0091] “an image of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be captured by a CCD camera or the like, and the state of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be detected based on the captured image.) lifted by a robot (Fig. 2; [0030] “The first transport unit 400 includes a base portion 410, an arm portion 420 connected to the base portion 410, and a suction portion 430 connected to the arm portion 420.”; [0033] “The suction unit 430 the sheet-shaped raw material Pu stacked on the stacking unit 300.”; [0042]), the image being captured from a direction intersecting a lifting direction (Fig. 2 shows the detection unit 600 captures data on the X-axis or Y-axis, which intersects the lifting direction Z-axis; [0041] “In FIG. 1, the detection unit 600 (the light emitting unit 600a and the light receiving unit 600b) is disposed in the Y-axis direction, but may be disposed in the X-axis direction, or may be disposed in both the Y-axis direction and the X-axis direction (two directions).”); and
determining whether the lifted form is bundled (Fig. 5; [0043] “On the other hand, as illustrated in FIG. 5, in a case where the sheet-shaped raw material Pu located at the uppermost position of the loading portion 300 is a sheet-shaped raw material Pu in which a plurality of sheet-shaped raw materials Pu are bound by, for example, a staple M of a stapler, when the uppermost sheet-shaped raw material Pu is moved to a predetermined height by the first transport portion 400, the other sheet-shaped raw materials Pu (the second and subsequent sheet-shaped raw materials from the top) bound to the uppermost sheet-shaped raw material Pu (the first sheet-shaped raw material Pu from the top) are in a hanging state. In this case, since the hanging sheet-shaped material Pu is positioned between the light emitting portion 600a and the light receiving portion 600b and blocks light, the amount of light received by the light receiving portion 600b decreases, and a predetermined amount of received light cannot be obtained. In this case, the control unit determines that the sucked sheet-shaped raw material Pu is abnormal (not normal).”) based on the image ([0091] “an image of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be captured by a CCD camera or the like, and the state of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be detected based on the captured image.),
in a case where it is determined that the form is bundled, control the robot in such a way to stop the operation of advancing the form to the sorting processing ([0053] “On the other hand, when it is determined that there is an abnormality in the adsorbed sheet-shaped raw materials Pu (step S13: YES), the process proceeds to step S15 and step S16. To be more specific, as shown in FIG. 9, the first conveying unit 400 is driven to convey the sheet-shaped material Pu determined to be abnormal to the accommodating unit 800a (step S15). Thereafter, the first transport unit 400 is moved to a predetermined standby position and is shifted to a standby state.”).
Murayama does not specifically teach recognize a placed form; control, based on a recognition result, an operation of the robot that lifts the placed form and advances the form to sorting processing, wherein the sorting processing automatically distributes each sheet of forms to different sorting destination according to a type of forms.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Yoshida teaches:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:
recognize a placed form ([0041] “the control device 400 transmits an image capturing command signal to the image capturing device DC to cause the image capturing device DC to capture a front image of the sheet bundle storage box 200.”); and
control, based on a recognition result ([0042] “When the derivation unit 430 receives the front image data of the sheet bundle storage box 200, the derivation unit 430 collates the front image data with the image data Dt2 in the control table To0, and the image that most matches the image data. The thickness data Dt4 and the state index value data Dt5 corresponding to the data Dt2 are derived, and the data Dt4 and Dt5 are transmitted to the control unit 410. Then, the control unit 410 uses the data Dt4 and Dt5 to execute the control described below at various places on the robot hand 100 and the robot arm RA.”), an operation of the robot that lifts the placed form ([0045] “Further subsequently, the control device 400 controls the operation of the robot arm RA to move the robot hand 100 backward, and pull out the banknote bundle MT from the paper sheet bundle storage box 200. At this time, as shown in FIG. 9, the slide receiver 160 is moved forward as the robot hand 100 moves backward”) and advances the form to sorting processing ([0046] “ Further subsequently, the control device 400 controls the robot arm RA to insert the robot hand 100 from the tip side to the back side of the loading tray 320 of the banknote sorting machine 300, as shown in FIG. The pressing unit reciprocating mechanism 150 is operated to move the pressing unit 140 forward, and the movable finger reciprocating mechanism 130 is controlled to pull up the movable finger 110 upward to let go of the banknote bundle MT.”; [0047] “Then, while the pushing portion 140 is moving forward, the control device 400 controls the robot arm RA to pull up the robot hand 100 obliquely rearward while maintaining the inclination angle of the robot hand 100. Let By this operation, the conveyance of the banknote bundle MT to the loading tray 320 of the banknote sorting machine 300 is completed.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Murayama to recognize a placed form, and control, based on a recognition result, an operation of the robot that lifts the placed form and advances the form to sorting processing, as taught by Yoshida. Such modification allows the robot to acquire visual information of the placed form and to improve accuracy in extracting the placed form, thus reducing the risk of the form falling out of the robot hand, as suggested by Yoshida in [0011].
Yoshida does not specifically teach wherein the sorting processing automatically distributes each sheet of forms to different sorting destination according to a type of forms.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Avetisyan teaches:
a sorting processing automatically distributes each sheet of forms to different sorting destination according to a type of forms (page 2 third paragraph “in the CCM, the banknotes are counted and sorted into the appropriate sorting pockets.”; page 3, paragraph starting with “Counting and sorting machine (CCM) is a banknote sorting device ... The counting and sorting machine consists of one loading pocket, one or two reject pockets and four sorting pockets. Each model from the presented companies has the ability to increase the number of sorting pockets by four more and, thus, bring their total number to sixteen. These layouts are implemented to simultaneously perform a variety of sorting tasks, when all available banknotes must be sorted by face value, dilapidation, face / image orientation and authenticity.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Murayama, in view of Yoshida, to configure the sorting processing to automatically distribute each sheet of forms to different sorting destination according to a type of forms, as taught by Avetisyan, in order to sort each sheet of forms into the appropriate category.
Regarding claim 10, Murayama teaches:
A non-transient recording medium that records a program for causing a computer (Fig. 1; [0024] “sheet-shaped raw material supply device 10”) to execute:
...
control ... an operation of a robot that lifts the placed form ([0035] “Here, a suction operation of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu by the first transport unit 400 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 4. First, as shown in FIG. 2, the base portion 410 (the ball screw shaft 411) and the arm portion 420 (the first shaft 418) are appropriately driven to move the suction portion 430 above the sheet-shaped raw material Pu stacked on the stacking portion 300. Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the second shaft 425 is driven to lower the suction unit 430 to the uppermost position of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu. Then, the suction mechanism is driven to suck the upper surface of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu to the suction pad 432 by a negative pressure.”) and advances the form ([0035] “Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the second shaft 425 is driven to raise the suction portion 430 to a predetermined height. Thereafter, the motor 412 and the first shaft 418 connected to the ball screw shaft 411 are appropriately driven to move the suction portion 430 to a position corresponding to the supply portion 700 or the accommodation portion 800”) ... one sheet at a time ([0035] “Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the second shaft 425 is driven to lower the suction unit 430 to the uppermost position of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu. Then, the suction mechanism is driven to suck the upper surface of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu to the suction pad 432 by a negative pressure.” – As shown in Fig. 2 and disclosed in [0035], the robot 400 suctions the uppermost sheet, i.e. it suctions only one sheet at a time),
...
acquiring an image of a form ([0042] “The detection unit 600 of the present embodiment detects the state of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu in a state in which at least a portion of the uppermost sheet-shaped raw material Pu is moved to a predetermined height by the first transport unit 400 or the second transport unit 500.”; [0091] “an image of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be captured by a CCD camera or the like, and the state of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be detected based on the captured image.) lifted by a robot (Fig. 2; [0030] “The first transport unit 400 includes a base portion 410, an arm portion 420 connected to the base portion 410, and a suction portion 430 connected to the arm portion 420.”; [0033] “The suction unit 430 the sheet-shaped raw material Pu stacked on the stacking unit 300.”; [0042]), the image being captured from a direction intersecting a lifting direction (Fig. 2 shows the detection unit 600 captures data on the X-axis or Y-axis, which intersects the lifting direction Z-axis; [0041] “In FIG. 1, the detection unit 600 (the light emitting unit 600a and the light receiving unit 600b) is disposed in the Y-axis direction, but may be disposed in the X-axis direction, or may be disposed in both the Y-axis direction and the X-axis direction (two directions).”); and
determining whether the lifted form is bundled (Fig. 5; [0043] “On the other hand, as illustrated in FIG. 5, in a case where the sheet-shaped raw material Pu located at the uppermost position of the loading portion 300 is a sheet-shaped raw material Pu in which a plurality of sheet-shaped raw materials Pu are bound by, for example, a staple M of a stapler, when the uppermost sheet-shaped raw material Pu is moved to a predetermined height by the first transport portion 400, the other sheet-shaped raw materials Pu (the second and subsequent sheet-shaped raw materials from the top) bound to the uppermost sheet-shaped raw material Pu (the first sheet-shaped raw material Pu from the top) are in a hanging state. In this case, since the hanging sheet-shaped material Pu is positioned between the light emitting portion 600a and the light receiving portion 600b and blocks light, the amount of light received by the light receiving portion 600b decreases, and a predetermined amount of received light cannot be obtained. In this case, the control unit determines that the sucked sheet-shaped raw material Pu is abnormal (not normal).”) based on the image ([0091] “an image of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be captured by a CCD camera or the like, and the state of the sheet-shaped raw material Pu may be detected based on the captured image.),
in a case where it is determined that the form is bundled, control the robot in such a way to stop the operation of advancing the form to the sorting processing ([0053] “On the other hand, when it is determined that there is an abnormality in the adsorbed sheet-shaped raw materials Pu (step S13: YES), the process proceeds to step S15 and step S16. To be more specific, as shown in FIG. 9, the first conveying unit 400 is driven to convey the sheet-shaped material Pu determined to be abnormal to the accommodating unit 800a (step S15). Thereafter, the first transport unit 400 is moved to a predetermined standby position and is shifted to a standby state.”).
Murayama does not specifically teach recognize a placed form; control, based on a recognition result, an operation of the robot that lifts the placed form and advances the form to sorting processing, wherein the sorting processing automatically distributes each sheet of forms to different sorting destination according to a type of forms.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Yoshida teaches:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the instructions to:
recognize a placed form ([0041] “the control device 400 transmits an image capturing command signal to the image capturing device DC to cause the image capturing device DC to capture a front image of the sheet bundle storage box 200.”); and
control, based on a recognition result ([0042] “When the derivation unit 430 receives the front image data of the sheet bundle storage box 200, the derivation unit 430 collates the front image data with the image data Dt2 in the control table To0, and the image that most matches the image data. The thickness data Dt4 and the state index value data Dt5 corresponding to the data Dt2 are derived, and the data Dt4 and Dt5 are transmitted to the control unit 410. Then, the control unit 410 uses the data Dt4 and Dt5 to execute the control described below at various places on the robot hand 100 and the robot arm RA.”), an operation of the robot that lifts the placed form ([0045] “Further subsequently, the control device 400 controls the operation of the robot arm RA to move the robot hand 100 backward, and pull out the banknote bundle MT from the paper sheet bundle storage box 200. At this time, as shown in FIG. 9, the slide receiver 160 is moved forward as the robot hand 100 moves backward”) and advances the form to sorting processing ([0046] “ Further subsequently, the control device 400 controls the robot arm RA to insert the robot hand 100 from the tip side to the back side of the loading tray 320 of the banknote sorting machine 300, as shown in FIG. The pressing unit reciprocating mechanism 150 is operated to move the pressing unit 140 forward, and the movable finger reciprocating mechanism 130 is controlled to pull up the movable finger 110 upward to let go of the banknote bundle MT.”; [0047] “Then, while the pushing portion 140 is moving forward, the control device 400 controls the robot arm RA to pull up the robot hand 100 obliquely rearward while maintaining the inclination angle of the robot hand 100. Let By this operation, the conveyance of the banknote bundle MT to the loading tray 320 of the banknote sorting machine 300 is completed.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Murayama to recognize a placed form, and control, based on a recognition result, an operation of the robot that lifts the placed form and advances the form to sorting processing, as taught by Yoshida. Such modification allows the robot to acquire visual information of the placed form and to improve accuracy in extracting the placed form, thus reducing the risk of the form falling out of the robot hand, as suggested by Yoshida in [0011].
Yoshida does not specifically teach wherein the sorting processing automatically distributes each sheet of forms to different sorting destination according to a type of forms.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Avetisyan teaches:
a sorting processing automatically distributes each sheet of forms to different sorting destination according to a type of forms (page 2 third paragraph “in the CCM, the banknotes are counted and sorted into the appropriate sorting pockets.”; page 3, paragraph starting with “Counting and sorting machine (CCM) is a banknote sorting device ... The counting and sorting machine consists of one loading pocket, one or two reject pockets and four sorting pockets. Each model from the presented companies has the ability to increase the number of sorting pockets by four more and, thus, bring their total number to sixteen. These layouts are implemented to simultaneously perform a variety of sorting tasks, when all available banknotes must be sorted by face value, dilapidation, face / image orientation and authenticity.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the teachings of Murayama, in view of Yoshida, to configure the sorting processing to automatically distribute each sheet of forms to different sorting destination according to a type of forms, as taught by Avetisyan, in order to sort each sheet of forms into the appropriate category.
Conclusion
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/NHI Q BUI/Examiner, Art Unit 3656