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 (IDS) submitted on 6 June 2024 is being considered by the examiner.
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.
The factual inquiries 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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-4, 6-12 and 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Okubo, et al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2023/0045430) in view of King, et al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0288132).
For claim 1, Okubo discloses a vehicle comprising: a battery pack; an electric machine; and a control system including one or more controllers (see Fig. 1), the control system configured to discharge power using the electric machine to increase operation loss of the electric machine based on a setting obtained from a current reference setting, drive input, and a desired surplus loss limit (see paras. 0020, 0019, input; 0021-0022, loss limit) in response to detecting an environmental condition (see para. 0016).
Okubo does not explicitly disclose a conservation condition. A teaching from King discloses operation of a vehicle based on a conservation condition (see paras. 0016, 0023-0024). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective date of filing to modify Okubo to include the teachings of King based on an expectation of success and the motivation to improve, as a vehicle passes or translates from one zone to another zone, a controller on the vehicle recognizes that the translation is occurring (or about to occur) and controls the vehicle to switch an operating mode of a vehicle from a first operating mode in the first zone to a second operating mode in the second zone (see para. 0022).
Regarding claim 2, Okubo further teaches wherein the drive input includes at least one of a normalized speed and a torque (see para. 0016).
Referring to claim 3, King further discloses wherein the environmental conservation condition is detected using at least one of an air quality index, a vehicle location, or a location of a restrictive area relative to a vehicle travel route (see paras. 0015-0016, 0021-0023).
Pertaining to claim 4, Okubo further discloses wherein the control system is configured to discharge power based on the setting in further response to an energy level of the battery pack satisfying an energy level condition, wherein energy level is a state of charge of the battery pack (see paras. 0016-0017).
With reference to claim 6, Okubo discloses the setting is obtained using a loss-current correlation that associates a current reference setting with the drive input and the desired surplus loss (see para. 0010, drive input; paras. 0011, 0013, surplus loss; paras. 0016-0017, current reference setting), and the loss-current correlation is configured to define the setting using a high surplus current reference (SCR) setting associated with a high surplus loss limit (see para. 0021).
Okubo does not explicitly disclose a low SCR setting with a low surplus loss limit. However, as Okubo teaches a high surplus reference and a high loss limit, incorporating a low SCR setting and low surplus loss limit would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art when motivated to establish a range of acceptable values to facilitate loss in the system. It would have been obvious at the effective date of filing to modify Okubo to include a low SCR setting with a low surplus limit and a range of values based on an expectation of success and the motivation to improve a controller, for a given operating point of the electric machine, may schedule a method of commutation for switches of the inverter during presence of a negative wheel torque request according to a charge rate corresponding to the negative wheel torque request, temperatures of the electric machine and/or inverter, and/or a battery state of charge (see abstract).
Continuing with the claim, Okubo does not explicitly disclose the last limitation. However, because it is obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to establish a range having a high and low SCR setting with associated loss limits (see para. 0021), it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective date of filing that loss limit would fall between the high and low loss limits based on the motivation to improve a controller, for a given operating point of the electric machine, may schedule a method of commutation for switches of the inverter during presence of a negative wheel torque request according to a charge rate corresponding to the negative wheel torque request, temperatures of the electric machine and/or inverter, and/or a battery state of charge (see abstract).
With regards to claim 7, Okubo does not explicitly disclose the claimed limitation. However, interpolation is a concept that is well known to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective date of filing. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to interpolate the high and low SCR setting based on the motivation to improve a controller, for a given operating point of the electric machine, may schedule a method of commutation for switches of the inverter during presence of a negative wheel torque request according to a charge rate corresponding to the negative wheel torque request, temperatures of the electric machine and/or inverter, and/or a battery state of charge (see abstract).
Pertaining to claim 8, Okubo further teaches a power electronic system including an inverter to control power to the electric machine in accordance with the setting (see para. 0012).
For claim 9, Okubo discloses a method for controlling a vehicle having an electric machine and a battery pack (see Fig. 1), comprising: charging the battery pack using the electric machine during a regenerative braking operation in response to detecting an environmental condition (see para. 0010); and discharging power using the electric machine (see paras. 0013-0017) based on a setting obtained from a current reference setting, a drive input, and a desired surplus loss limit (see paras. 0020, 0019, input; 0021-0022, loss limit) in response to detecting an environmental condition (see para. 0016) and an energy level of the battery pack satisfying an energy level condition (see para. 0016).
Okubo does not explicitly disclose a conservation condition. A teaching from King discloses operation of a vehicle based on a conservation condition (see paras. 0016, 0023-0024). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective date of filing to modify Okubo to include the teachings of King based on an expectation of success and the motivation to improve, as a vehicle passes or translates from one zone to another zone, a controller on the vehicle recognizes that the translation is occurring (or about to occur) and controls the vehicle to switch an operating mode of a vehicle from a first operating mode in the first zone to a second operating mode in the second zone (see para. 0022).
Regarding claim 10, Okubo further teaches wherein the drive input includes at least one of a normalized speed and a torque (see para. 0016).
Claim 11 defines substantially similar subject matter to that of claim 3. Therefore, claim 11 is rejected based on the citations and reasoning provided above for claim 3.
With reference to claim 12, Okubo further discloses wherein the energy level is a state of charge of the battery pack (see para. 0010).
Claim 14 defines substantially similar subject matter to that of claim 6. Therefore, claim 14 is rejected based on the citations and reasoning provided above for claim 6.
Claim 15 defines substantially similar subject matter to that of claim 7. Therefore, claim 15 is rejected based on the citations and reasoning provided above for claim 7.
Claim 16 defines substantially similar subject matter to that of claims 9, 4 and 6. Therefore, claim 16 is rejected based on the citations and reasoning provided above for claim claims 9, 4 and 6.
Claim 17 defines substantially similar subject matter to that of claim 2. Therefore, claim 17 is rejected based on the citations and reasoning provided above for claim 2.
Claim 18 defines substantially similar subject matter to that of claim 3. Therefore, claim 18 is rejected based on the citations and reasoning provided above for claim 3.
Claim 19 defines substantially similar subject matter to that of claim 6. Therefore, claim 19 is rejected based on the citations and reasoning provided above for claim 6.
Claim 20 defines substantially similar subject matter to that of claim 7. Therefore, claim 20 is rejected based on the citations and reasoning provided above for claim 7.
Claims 5 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Okubo, et al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2023/0045430) and King, et al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2008/0288132), as applied to claims 1 and 9 above, and further in view of Modak, et al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2023/0226922).
With reference to claim 5, Okubo does not explicitly disclose the claimed limitation. A teaching from Modak discloses wherein the desired surplus loss limit is defined based on a derate loss ratio and a temperature measurement (see para. 0092). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the effective date of filing to modify Okubo to include the teachings of Modak based on an expectation of success and the motivation to improve determining a fraction of total energy being supplied by the power inverter module(s) during braking that needs to be dissipated (e.g., as heat) to maintain consistent vehicle performance during braking. (see para. 0092).
Claim 13 defines substantially similar subject matter to that of claim 5. Therefore, claim 13 is rejected based on the citations and reasoning provided above for claim 5.
Conclusion
Examiner would like to point out that any reference to specific figures, columns and lines should not be considered limiting in any way, the entire cited reference, as well as any secondary teaching reference(s), are considered to provide relevant disclosure relating to the claimed invention. Applicant is herein considered to have implicit knowledge of all teachings of the prior art of record.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ADAM D TISSOT whose telephone number is (571)270-3439. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00-4:30.
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/ADAM D TISSOT/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3663