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 Objections
Claim 56 is objected to because of the following informalities: There are two claims with the number 56. For Examination purposes the Examiner will refer to these as 56a and 56b. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 66 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because claim 66 is directed to a computer readable medium which does not exclude signals. The Examiner suggests amending the claim to read a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium…
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 47-56, and 58-66 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 applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Lines 2-3 disclose controlling, based on a preset storage location of a target goods box, a robot to move to a preset location of the robot (emphasis added by Examiner). Here it is unclear how a robot moves to a preset location of itself. The robot if it exists is always present in the location where the robot is. It appears this is a grammatical error, thus the Examiner will assume that the limitation recites that the robot moves to a preset location of the target goods box.
Claims 47-56, and 58-61 (note 56a and 56b are included) are rejected due to their dependency on claim 47.
Claim 62 lines 4-5 are similarly analyzed and rejected to claim 47.
Claims 63-66 are rejected due to their dependency on claim 62.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 47, 61-62, and 64-66 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Ying et al. CN 112407729 (hereinafter “Ying”, cited in the IDS, English translation relied upon, a copy of which is provided).
Regarding claim 47, Ying discloses a goods box storage method (see page 3, first full paragraph, intelligent warehousing)
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, comprising: controlling, based on a preset storage location of a target goods box, a robot to move to a preset location of the robot (see third full paragraph of page 3 as understood in view of the 112 rejection above, moving to a target position according to an operation instruction of the target cargo)
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; detecting a target marker to which the target goods box belongs, the target marker being a structural feature of at least one of a target shelving unit to which the target goods box belongs, a goods box adjacent to the target goods box, and a goods box on a shelving unit opposite to the target shelving unit (see above cited paragraph, second state information [target marker] is acquired which are spatial characteristics of an adjacent object [a goods box adjacent to target goods box])
; determining a target storage location of the target goods box on the target shelving unit based on a location of the target marker (see above cited paragraph, storing the target goods according to the available space, thus the storage location is determined); and controlling, based on the target storage location, the robot to move from the preset location of the robot to store the target goods box on the target shelving unit (see above cited paragraph storing the target goods according to the available space).
Regarding claim 61, Ying discloses the target marker is a structural feature of the target shelving unit (see fourth paragraph on page 3, the available space comprises a storage available space for characterizing a size of space available at the dynamic cargo).
Claim 62 is similarly analyzed to claim 47.
Regarding claim 64, Ying discloses wherein the control unit is configured to control, based on a preset storage location of the target goods box, the robot body to move to a first horizontal location, and control the retrieval and storage mechanism to move to a first height location (see page 14 3rd full paragraph)
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Claim 65 is similarly analyzed to claim 64, as discussed Ying discloses control the retrieval and storage mechanism to move to the first height location after the robot body moves to the first horizontal location.
Claim 66 is similarly analyzed to claim 47.
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 48-50, and 63 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ying in view of Barreira Avegliano et al US 2017/0193430 (hereinafter “Barreira Avegliano”).
Regarding claim 48, as discussed above Ying discloses the limitations of claim 47.
Ying does not explicitly disclose detecting a code pattern on the target shelving unit to which the target goods box belongs, and determining the target storage location of the target goods box on the target shelving unit based on a location of the code pattern in a case that the code pattern is detected and a box placement task is canceled if the target marker does not match a preset box storage feature or the target marker is not detected.
Barreira Avegliano discloses identifying products to be restocked on shelves and using markers captured by image data to determine the size of vacant shelf area (see paragraph 0001)
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Specifically Barreira Avegliano discloses in paragraph 0005 of placing a marker bearing a pattern proximate a shelf containing objects, identify the marker with a camera and comparing the shelf image with another image to determine whether a preset feature is detected to determine whether to restock the shelves or not (see paragraph 0005).
Ying and Barreira Avegliano are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor of imaging shelves to determine storage items placement.
Before the effective filing date of the invention it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to combine Ying with the marker of Barreira Avegliano to detect a code pattern on the shelving and determine whether or not to place the box on the shelf based on the imaging. The motivation would be to improve the processing speed of filling the shelves utilizing the marker pattern.
Regarding claim 49, the target storage location of Barreira Avegliano is determined based on the location of the target marker (see paragraph 0005).
Regarding claim 50, Barreira Avegliano detecting space occupation information of the target shelving unit and transmitting the space occupation information of the target shelving unit to a server after the target goods box is placed on the target shelving unit (see paragraph 0005, designating the identified area and product as requiring restocking).
Claim 63 is similarly analyzed to claim 48.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 51-56, and 58-60 [note from the objection above 56a and 56b are included here, and there is no claim 57] are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims (note that the 112 rejection of claim 47 must also be overcome).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Please see the attached 892 notice of references cited.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JOHN B STREGE whose telephone number is (571)272-7457. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9-5 (PST).
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chan Park can be reached at (571)272-7409. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JOHN B STREGE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2669
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