DETAILED CORRESPONDENCE
This final office action is in response to the Amendments filed on 12 April 2026, regarding application number 18/745,890.
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 .
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 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.
Response to Amendment
Claims 1-20 remain pending in the application. Applicant’s amendments to the Claims have overcome each and every 35 U.S.C. 112(b) rejection previously set forth in the non-final office action mailed 20 October 2025. Therefore, the rejections have been withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Pages 8-10, filed 12 April 2026, with respect to the rejections of claims 1-5, 7-16 and 18-20 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejections have been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made further in view of newly cited references Pepe et al. (US 20240418512 A1) and Lee et al. (US 20180314775 A1).
Claim Objections
Claim 15 is objected to because of the following informality: Examiner recommends to amend "providing the view…" to state "provide the view…" to be grammatically correct.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Regarding Claims 1-20
A person skilled in the art at the time the application was filed would not have recognized that the inventor was in possession of the invention as claimed in view of the disclosure of the application as filed. Applicant has not pointed out where amended claims 1 and 15 are supported, nor does there appear to be a written description of the claim limitations in the application as filed. For example, Applicant has not pointed to a section of the Specification or Drawings indicating “persisting the scenario data representing a prior view of the on-orbit operations;”, as claimed in amended claims 1 and 15. Paragraph [0075] of the Specification states “The scenario manager 101 may be responsible for persisting data that is used in some scenarios … Any or all of this data may be persisted in the scenario manager 101.”. However, there is no description of persisting the scenario data representing a prior view of the on-orbit operations. Additionally, Applicant has not pointed to a section of the Specification or Drawings indicating “modifying a maneuver associated with the at least one object at a prior point in the simulated time;” nor “wherein the view comprises a current state of the at least one object and the maneuver modified at the prior point in the simulated time and comprises a quantitative difference between the current state and the maneuver modified.”. Accordingly, claims 1 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. See MPEP 2163.03 and 2163.04(II). Claims 2-14 and 16-20 are additionally rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement due to their dependency on claims 1 and 15.
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 1-2, 7-8, 13-15 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over NPL_Weber et al. - "End-to-End Simulation…" (Weber hereinafter), in view of NPL_Wolff et al. "A Modular Architecture..." (Wolff hereinafter), Pepe et al. (US 20240418512 A1 and Pepe hereinafter) and Lee et al. (US 20180314775 A1 and Lee hereinafter).
Regarding Claim 1
Weber teaches a method for viewing on-orbit operations (see Pg. 1, Para. 1, The aim of the On-Orbit-Servicing End-to-End Simulation project is to connect the different simulation facilities of these institutes and integrate them into a single end-to-end simulation of on-orbit servicing.), the method comprising:
requesting, the on-orbit operations (see Figure 8, all; Pg. 2, Para. 7, The End-to-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated; Pg. 4, Para. 1-3, As shown in fig. 1, The satellite console (SACO) is a Linux workstation that is used in multi-mission satellite operations. To communicate with a spacecraft, it uses the Spacecraft Operating System (SCOS) which itself runs on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi Server; The rendezvous console (RECO) is installed on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi server ... The console interacts with the on-board guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system of the satellite. In order to receive the telemetry and to send telecommands it shares its bandwidth with SACO and uses an external interface (EXIF) of SCOS [pilot vehicle interface]; Pg. 5, Para. 1, As shown in fig. 6, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite [object]; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.);
receiving, from a simulation engine executing on a virtual machine, scenario data describing a status of the on-orbit operations (see Pg. 2, Para. 7, The End-to-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated. Also a control room environment must be provided for the operators of the simulated scenario; Pg. 4, Para. 1, The satellite console (SACO) is a Linux workstation that is used in multi-mission satellite operations. To communicate with a spacecraft, it uses the Spacecraft Operating System (SCOS) which itself runs on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi Server; Pg. 5, Para. 1, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite. The forces acting between the two satellites during the operations are sent by EPOS and OOS-Sim to SASI at a frequency of 200 Hz; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.);
receiving object information about how the at least one object interacts with the on-orbit operations (see Pg. 2, Para. 7, The End-to-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated. Also a control room environment must be provided for the operators of the simulated scenario; Pg. 5, Para. 1, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser, while the OOS-Sim simulates the robotic interaction between the two satellites ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite [object information]. The forces acting between the two satellites during the operations are sent by EPOS and OOS-Sim to SASI at a frequency of 200 Hz; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.);
integrating the scenario data with the object information to obtain the on-orbit operations (see Pg. 2, Para. 7, The End-to-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated. Also a control room environment must be provided for the operators of the simulated scenario; Pg. 5, Para. 1, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser, while the OOS-Sim simulates the robotic interaction between the two satellites ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite [object information]. The forces acting between the two satellites during the operations are sent by EPOS and OOS-Sim to SASI at a frequency of 200 Hz; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.); and
providing, via the pilot vehicle interface, the view of the on-orbit operations (see Figure 8, all; Pg. 2, Para. 7, The Endto-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated; Pg. 4, Para. 1-3, As shown in fig. 1, The satellite console (SACO) is a Linux workstation that is used in multi-mission satellite operations. To communicate with a spacecraft, it uses the Spacecraft Operating System (SCOS) which itself runs on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi Server; The rendezvous console (RECO) is installed on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi server ... The console interacts with the on-board guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system of the satellite. In order to receive the telemetry and to send telecommands it shares its bandwidth with SACO and uses an external interface (EXIF) of SCOS [pilot vehicle interface]; Pg. 5, Para. 1, As shown in fig. 6, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.).
Although it may be inherent, Weber does not explicitly teach requesting, using a pilot vehicle interface, a view of the on-orbit operations, wherein the view comprises at least one object.
Weber is additionally silent regarding persisting the scenario data representing a prior view of the on-orbit operations; and
modifying a maneuver associated with the at least one object at a prior point in the simulated time;
wherein the view comprises a current state of the at least one object and the maneuver modified at the prior point in the simulated time and comprises a quantitative difference between the current state and the maneuver modified.
Wolff teaches a method for viewing on-orbit operations (see Abstract, all; Pg. 79, all; see the corresponding page numbers in the attached reference), the method comprising:
requesting, using a pilot vehicle interface, a view of the on-orbit operations, wherein the view comprises at least one object (see Abstract, This paper outlines the development of a real-time interactive application for the analysis, training and programming of on-orbit servicing tasks within a virtual reality environment. ; Pg. 74, Para. 3-5, A key element of the application is the real-time simulation of the kinematic and dynamic behavior of the satellite components when manipulated by the user … The haptic control component generates the necessary data for providing haptic feedback to the user via a haptic device ... In case the user grasps a virtual object, the complexity of resolving the chain of forces between the interacting objects (virtual scene, grasped object, HIP) can be reduced by attaching the grasped objects with a constant offset to the HIP and apply the resulting transformation based on the HIP's transformation.; Pg. 75, Para. 6, In the proposed simulation and training system, the user interacts through a VR display, and optionally the haptic device ... Additionally, the user's head is tracked. This is used to render the view in the correct perspective based on the user's current viewpoint.; Pg. 76, Para. 4, Finally, being an interactive simulation, any responses to actions made by the user within the virtual environment should be displayed with minimum delay.; Pg. 78, Para. 2-3, Additionally, the manager module provides an interface to the user to control the whole simulation system, such as starting, stopping and resetting the simulation, as well as to record simulation and training sessions for analysis and evaluation ... In order to provide a flexible and accessible platform, we need a mechanism for the user to be able to make changes to the scene, load other 3D models and adjust parameters easily, as well as to exchange data with other sites.);
receiving, from a simulation engine executing on a machine, scenario data describing a status of the on-orbit operations (see Figs. 6-7, all; Pg. 73, Para. 5, The goal of the proposed simulation environment is to train the procedure and correct sequence of actions within various on-orbit servicing tasks. In order to support the training of a wide range of possible servicing scenarios, the system must provide a set of basic tasks that often occur and can be combined to various servicing scenarios.; Pg. 76, Para. 8-9, Each module manages its own internal representation of the scene. A scene consists of a hierarchy of objects, also called nodes, each with a given state. Common state parameters include at minimum a unique identification string and a transformation matrix to describe the location of the object within the scene. Other information, such as mass, friction, or shading effects, that is specific to a particular module implementation is added to the internal node's state. ... All modules implement the same functional structure. Within each processing cycle, a module … first reads state updates received from other modules …; Pg. 77, Para. 9, The manager module hosts the central logic of the system. While the physics module handles the dynamics and kinematics of the individual parts in the simulation, the manager handles the semantics. This includes, for example, monitoring the on/off state of a switch, but also the management of dynamic constraints.... As the physics engine is expected to implement measures for increasing stability, such as through spring and dampers, the manager is responsible for the recognition and management of inter-part geometric constraints between colliding objects. It monitors the result of the physics engine for allowable rigid body motion and intervenes if geometric constraints or semantic states were detected.; Pg. 78, Para. 3, Besides of importing geometric models from CAD tools, the user needs to specify physics and haptics properties of the virtual objects, as well as their location within the scene and relationships to other objects. Ideally, all this information would go into one central description of the scene.;);
receiving object information about how the at least one object interacts with the on-orbit operations (see Pg. 74, Para. 3-5, A key element of the application is the real-time simulation of the kinematic and dynamic behavior of the satellite components when manipulated by the user ... For the moment, we only concentrate on the simulation of rigid bodies that make up most of the virtual satellite and robot components ... This includes the detection of collisions between the haptic interaction point (HIP) and any objects within the virtual scene, as well as the computation of the resulting force and torque affecting the HIP.; Pg. 76, Para. 9, Other information, such as mass, friction, or shading effects, that is specific to a particular module implementation is added to the internal node's state ... All modules implement the same functional structure. Within each processing cycle, a module …steps the simulation or processes object behavior …; Pg. 77, Para. 1-5, The algorithm utilizes two data structures, voxel map and point shell, to represent the solid parts of static objects by volume-based pixels (voxels) and the surface of moving objects by a net of contact points each with a normal pointing inwards, see Fig. 8, left image ... The haptic module receives the transformations of moving objects and updates the nodes in the internal representation, before starting the collision detection and force calculation in the simulation process ... For accelerated collision detection, simple objects are approximated through basic collision shapes, such as box, sphere, or cylinder, which allow for optimized collision detection.;);
integrating the scenario data with the object information to obtain the on-orbit operations (see Pg. 76, Para. 9, All modules implement the same functional structure. Within each processing cycle, a module first reads state updates received from other modules; interprets the messages and updates the internal scene representation; steps the simulation or processes object behavior; gathers any state changes and communicates these and any other necessary status messages to the other modules; Pg. 78, Para. 1, As the physics engine is expected to implement measures for increasing stability, such as through spring and dampers, the manager is responsible for the recognition and management of inter-part geometric constraints between colliding objects. It monitors the result of the physics engine for allowable rigid body motion and intervenes if geometric constraints or semantic states were detected.; Pg. 79, Para. 6, The architecture divides the physics simulation, visualization and haptic rendering into separate modules that run in parallel on dedicated machines. A central manager mediates the communication of state updates, while managing the global semantics of object behaviors. Preliminary results have shown that our system is able to provide an end-to-end latency across the modules of 28ms for sending updates from moving the haptic device to displaying the visual response.;); and
providing, via the pilot vehicle interface, the view of the on-orbit operations (see Figs. 2 and 9, all; Pg. 74, Para. 5, The haptic control component generates the necessary data for providing haptic feedback to the user via a haptic device ... In case the user grasps a virtual object, the complexity of resolving the chain of forces between the interacting objects (virtual scene, grasped object, HIP) can be reduced by attaching the grasped objects with a constant offset to the HIP and apply the resulting transformation based on the HIP's transformation.; Pg. 75, Para. 4, Besides, from training the correct sequence of sub-tasks, a goal of the simulation environment is to allow the user to get an awareness of the appearance and arrangement of parts and tools. Hence, the realistic and high-quality visualization of the satellite components and the environment are important factors for the success of a training simulation.; Pg. 75, Para. 6, Additionally, the user's head is tracked. This is used to render the view in the correct perspective based on the user's current viewpoint.; Pg. 77, Para. 8, It is currently implemented using the VR toolkit ViSTA [20], which offers support for a wide range of VR interfaces and scalable to multi -display technology. The scene is organized in a scenegraph (viaOpenSG) that is continuously synchronized with state updates from the physics module and rendered during the simulation process of the module.).
Pepe teaches a method for viewing on-orbit operations (see all Figs.; [0006]-[0007] and [0038]), the method comprising:
receiving scenario data describing a status of the on-orbit operations (see Fig. 2, all; [0006]-[0007 "The planned continuous trajectory may include an orbit of the space vehicle about a planet. The planned continuous trajectory may include a docking of the space vehicle with another space vehicle."] and [0038 "Embodiments may be used in a variety of contexts for a variety of purposes including, by way of non-limiting examples: precision satellite repositioning, precision satellite cluster operations, spacecraft rendezvous, proximity and docking operations (e.g., space station docking, on-orbit refueling), launch vehicle upper stage maneuvering, and other applications."]); and
persisting the scenario data representing a prior view of the on-orbit operations (see [0023], [0026]-[0027], [0031 "The trajectory 200 may be uploaded to a space vehicle, e.g., the space vehicle 200 as shown and described herein in reference to FIG. 1 . The trajectory 200 may be uploaded in the form of sets of polynomials, e.g., the coefficients thereof, where each set of polynomials represents one segment of the trajectory 200. These data may be stored in a persistent electronic memory, such as the memory 106 as shown and described herein in reference to FIG. 1. The trajectory 200 may be uploaded to the space vehicle prior to its embarking on a traversal of the trajectory, e.g., while the space vehicle is on the ground."] and [0034]).
Lee teaches a method for viewing on-orbit operations (see all Figs.; [0004]-[0009]), the method comprising:
modifying a maneuver associated with the at least one object at a prior point in the simulated time (see Fig. 3, steps S320-S330; [0006 "When a simulation is in a paused or terminated state, the updater may be configured to update the simulated value based on at least one of the operational data, telecommands, and flight dynamics information."]-[0007 "The updater may be configured to compare telecommands and simulated telecommands and update the simulated value using telecommands that are not simulated."], [0030 "The satellite 110 may receive a command signal (hereinafter also referred to as “telecommand”)..."] and [0058 "In operation 320, the simulation apparatus may determine whether telecommands transmitted to the satellite include a telecommand not executed in the simulator … When it is determined that the non-simulated telecommand is present in operation 330, operation 330 may be performed."]-[0059 "In operation 330, the simulation apparatus may execute the unexecuted telecommand. In operation 330, the simulation apparatus may execute a missing telecommand to prevent accumulation of errors in a simulation input and output variable. Through this, a more accurate simulation model state set can be obtained. When operation 330 is performed, the method 330 of determining whether to update a simulated value of the simulator may be performed again."]); and
providing, via the pilot vehicle interface, the view of the on-orbit operations (see [0050 "The simulation apparatus 200 may provide a user with actual current operational data measured by the satellite and the simulation model state set, simultaneously. The simulation apparatus 200 may extract a subset of the operational data and a subset of the simulation model state set and provide matching information to the user."]-[0051], [0070] and [0076]), wherein the view comprises a current state of the at least one object and the maneuver modified at the prior point in the simulated time and comprises a quantitative difference between the current state and the maneuver modified (see Fig. 3, steps S350-S360; [0005], [0050 "The simulation apparatus 200 may provide a user with actual current operational data measured by the satellite and the simulation model state set, simultaneously. The simulation apparatus 200 may extract a subset of the operational data and a subset of the simulation model state set and provide matching information to the user."]-[0052], [0059 "In operation 340, the simulation apparatus calculates a difference value between a stored simulated value and operational data."]-[0061 "In operation 350, the simulation apparatus may compare the difference calculated in operation 340 to a threshold and determine whether the difference is greater than or equal to the threshold. As described above, the simulation apparatus may obtain the difference value of 60 km in operation 340. When a threshold is set as a value corresponding to 10% of the received first operational data, the simulation apparatus may calculate the threshold to be 56 km. In this example, since the difference value of 60 km is greater than the threshold of 56 km, the simulation apparatus may perform operation 360 following operation 350."] and [0070] and [0076]).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the process of Weber to request a view of the on-orbit operations by using a pilot vehicle interface, as taught by Wolff, in order to provide a user with an interactive simulation of the on-orbit operations to facilitate analysis, training and programming of the on-orbit operations.
It additionally would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the process of Weber to further include a step of persisting the scenario data representing a prior view of the on-orbit operations, as taught by Pepe, in order to provide permanent storage of on-orbit trajectory data to prevent data loss during power failures or application restarts.
It additionally would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the process of Weber to further include a step of modifying a maneuver associated with the at least one object at a prior point in the simulated time and providing a view including a current state of the at least one object and the maneuver modified at the prior point in the simulated time including a quantitative difference between the current state and the maneuver modified, as taught by Lee, in order to periodically update a simulation of the at least one object to more accurately reflect the real world.
Regarding Claim 2
Modified Weber teaches the method of claim 1 (as discussed above in claim 1),
Weber further teaches wherein the at least one object is a ground station or a satellite (see Pg. 2, Para. 7, The Endto-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated; Pg. 5, Para. 1, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite.).
Wolff additionally teaches wherein the at least one object is a ground station or a satellite (see Figs. 2 and 9, all; Abstract, The main challenges put on the system are the real-time simulation of the realistic dynamic and kinematic behavior of satellite components and additionally integrate interaction through a bimanual haptic interface, as well as enable tele-operation of a robot.; Pg. 75, Para. 4, Besides, from training the correct sequence of sub-tasks, a goal of the simulation environment is to allow the user to get an awareness of the appearance and arrangement of parts and tools. Hence, the realistic and high-quality visualization of the satellite components and the environment are important factors for the success of a training simulation.;).
Regarding Claim 7
Modified Weber teaches the method of claim 1 (as discussed above in claim 1),
Weber further teaches wherein the view of the on-orbit operations is a view of simulated operations (see Pg. 2, Para. 7, The End-to-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver; Pg. 5, Para. 1, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser, while the OOS-Sim simulates the robotic interaction between the two satellites ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.”), and further comprising:
requesting a second view of the on-orbit operations, wherein the second view comprises real-time operations of the at least one object (see Pg. 2, Para. 7, The End-to-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver; Pg. 3, Para. 2, The aim of the communication setup is to implement the communication to the satellite in a single simulated space link supporting soft realtime deli very [ second view] while maintaining the possibility to carry out standard satellite operations with guaranteed delivery in parallel; Pg. 10, Para. 2, A simulation setup for a HIL-OOS Simulation has been implemented and the setup meets the delay requirements of the simulation scenario ... It has been shown that the communication parameters can be changed for other scenarios using the WAN-Simulator; Pg. 5, Para. 1, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser, while the OOSSim simulates the robotic interaction between the two satellites ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite. The forces acting between the two satellites during the operations are sent by EPOS and OOS-Sim to SASI at a frequency of 200 Hz; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.); and
providing the second view of the real-time operations (see Pg. 3, Para. 2, The aim of the communication setup is to implement the communication to the satellite in a single simulated space link supporting soft realtime delivery [ second view] while maintaining the possibility to carry out standard satellite operations with guaranteed delivery in parallel; Pg. 10, Para. 2, A simulation setup for a HIL-OOS Simulation has been implemented and the setup meets the delay requirements of the simulation scenario ... It has been shown that the communication parameters can be changed for other scenarios using the WAN-Simulator; Pg. 5, Para. 1, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser, while the OOS-Sim simulates the robotic interaction between the two satellites; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.).
Wolff additionally teaches wherein the view of the on-orbit operations is a view of simulated operations (see Figs. 2 and 9, all; Abstract, This paper outlines the development of a real-time interactive application for the analysis, training and programming of on-orbit servicing tasks within a virtual reality environment.; Pg. 74, Para. 5, The haptic control component generates the necessary data for providing haptic feedback to the user via a haptic device ... In case the user grasps a virtual object, the complexity of resolving the chain of forces between the interacting objects (virtual scene, grasped object, HIP) can be reduced by attaching the grasped objects with a constant offset to the HIP and apply the resulting transformation based on the HIP's transformation.; Pg. 75, Para. 4, Besides, from training the correct sequence of sub-tasks, a goal of the simulation environment is to allow the user to get an awareness of the appearance and arrangement of parts and tools. Hence, the realistic and high-quality visualization of the satellite components and the environment are important factors for the success of a training simulation.; Pg. 75, Para. 6, Additionally, the user's head is tracked. This is used to render the view in the correct perspective based on the user's current viewpoint.; Pg. 77, Para. 8, It is currently implemented using the VR toolkit ViSTA [20], which offers support for a wide range of VR interfaces and scalable to multi -display technology. The scene is organized in a scenegraph (viaOpenSG) that is continuously synchronized with state updates from the physics module and rendered during the simulation process of the module.), and further comprising:
requesting a second view of the on-orbit operations, wherein the second view comprises real-time operations of the at least one object; and providing the second view of the real-time operations (see Abstract, This paper outlines the development of a real-time interactive application for the analysis, training and programming of on-orbit servicing tasks within a virtual reality environment.; Pg. 73, Para. 5-12, especially, The goal of the proposed simulation environment is to train the procedure and correct sequence of actions within various on-orbit servicing tasks. In order to support the training of a wide range of possible servicing scenarios, the system must provide a set of basic tasks that often occur and can be combined to various servicing scenarios. We selected a number of tasks that would occur in most servicing scenarios based on common EVAs. These will be used as benchmark for the future evaluation of our system.; Pg. 79, Para. 3, Work is currently in progress for implementing the system architecture described above. So far, we have implemented the mechanisms of three scenarios: flick a switch, loosening and tightening screws, and removing a module using a bayonet handle. First tests in a desktop setting interacting with a Phantom Omni®haptic device have been conducted to evaluate the proposed system architecture, Fig. 9.).
Regarding Claim 8
Modified Weber teaches the method of claim 7 (as discussed above in claim 7),
Weber further teaches further comprising:
requesting an on-orbit maneuver of the at least one object (see Pg. 2, Para. 7, The End-to-End On-OrbitServicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated. Also a control room environment must be provided for the operators of the simulated scenario; Pg. 5, Para. 1, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser, while the OOS-Sim simulates the robotic interaction between the two satellites ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.); and
sending, via a scenario manager, a command to execute the on-orbit maneuver to the at least one object (see Pg. 2, Para. 7, The End-to-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated. Also a control room environment must be provided for the operators of the simulated scenario; Pg. 4, Para. 1-3, As shown in fig. 1, The satellite console (SACO) is a Linux workstation that is used in multi-mission satellite operations. To communicate with a spacecraft, it uses the Spacecraft Operating System (SCOS) which itself runs on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi Server; The rendezvous console (RECO) is installed on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi server. To read telemetry and to create telecommands it uses the same TM/TC C++ 11 library. The console interacts with the on-board guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system of the satellite. In order to receive the telemetry and to send telecommands it shares its bandwidth with SACO and uses an external interface (EXIF) of SCOS; Pg. 9, Para. 3, The communication chain is regularly being used to transfer the telemetry and telecommands of the consoles. Science data like the camera images of the GNC system and the robotic telepresence data is regularly being transferred with the setup; Pg. 5, Para. 1, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser, while the OOS-Sim simulates the robotic interaction between the two satellites ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite. The forces acting between the two satellites during the operations are sent by EPOS and OOS-Sim to SASI at a frequency of 200 Hz; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.).
Regarding Claim 13
Modified Weber teaches the method of claim 1 (as discussed above in claim 1),
Weber further teaches further comprising sending, by a scenario manager, a command to the at least one object that is on-orbit that causes the at least one object to execute a maneuver (see Pg. 2, Para. 7, The End-to-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated. Also a control room environment must be provided for the operators of the simulated scenario; Pg. 4, Para. 1-3, As shown in fig. 1, The satellite console (SACO) is a Linux workstation that is used in multi-mission satellite operations. To communicate with a spacecraft, it uses the Spacecraft Operating System (SCOS) which itself runs on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi Server; The rendezvous console (RECO) is installed on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi server. To read telemetry and to create telecommands it uses the same TM/TC C++ 11 library. The console interacts with the on-board guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system of the satellite. In order to receive the telemetry and to send telecommands it shares its bandwidth with SACO and uses an external interface (EXIF) of SCOS; Pg. 5, Para. 1, As shown in fig. 6, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser, while the OOSSim simulates the robotic interaction between the two satellites ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite. The forces acting between the two satellites during the operations are sent by EPOS and OOS-Sim to SASI at a frequency of 200 Hz; Pg. 9, Para. 3, The communication chain is regularly being used to transfer the telemetry and telecommands of the consoles. Science data like the camera images of the GNC system and the robotic telepresence data is regularly being transferred with the setup; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.).
Regarding Claim 14
Modified Weber teaches the method of claim 13 (as discussed above in claim 13),
Weber further teaches further comprising: receiving, by the scenario manager, telemetry data from the at least one object, wherein the telemetry data is based on the command (see Pg. 2, Para. 7, a control room environment must be provided for the operators of the simulated scenario; Pg. 4, Para. 1-3, As shown in fig. 1, The satellite console (SACO) is a Linux workstation that is used in multi-mission satellite operations. To communicate with a spacecraft, it uses the Spacecraft Operating System (SCOS) which itself runs on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi Server; The rendezvous console (RECO) is installed on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi server. To read telemetry and to create telecommands it uses the same TM/TC C++ 11 library. The console interacts with the on-board guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system of the satellite. In order to receive the telemetry and to send telecommands it shares its bandwidth with SACO and uses an external interface (EXIF) of SCOS; As shown in fig. 9, A GUI is used to visualize the parameters and to trigger commands; Pg. 6, Para. 3, The main function in the FPGA has a command interpreter for sending commands and reading out telemetry such as IP and MAC addresses, port numbers, packet counters etc; Pg. 9, Para. 3, The communication chain is regularly being used to transfer the telemetry and telecommands of the consoles. Science data like the camera images of the GNC system and the robotic telepresence data is regularly being transferred with the setup; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.).
Regarding Claim 15
Weber teaches a system for viewing on-orbit operations (see Pg. 1, Para. 1, The aim of the On-Orbit-Servicing End-to-End Simulation project is to connect the different simulation facilities of these institutes and integrate them into a single end-to-end simulation of on-orbit servicing.), the system comprising:
one or more processors and memory storing code instructions (see Fig. 1, all), wherein the code instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
initiate a simulation engine on a virtual machine, the simulation engine providing scenario data describing a status of the on-orbit operations (see Pg. 2, Para. 7, The End-to-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated. Also a control room environment must be provided for the operators of the simulated scenario; Pg. 4, Para. 1, The satellite console (SACO) is a Linux workstation that is used in multi-mission satellite operations. To communicate with a spacecraft, it uses the Spacecraft Operating System (SCOS) which itself runs on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi Server; Pg. 5, Para. 1, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite. The forces acting between the two satellites during the operations are sent by EPOS and OOS-Sim to SASI at a frequency of 200 Hz; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full endto end simulation is also presented.);
receive object information about how an at least one object interacts with the on-orbit operations (see Pg. 2, Para. 7, The End-to-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated. Also a control room environment must be provided for the operators of the simulated scenario; Pg. 5, Para. 1, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser, while the OOS-Sim simulates the robotic interaction between the two satellites ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite [object information]. The forces acting between the two satellites during the operations are sent by EPOS and OOS-Sim to SASI at a frequency of 200 Hz; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.);
integrate the scenario data with the object information to obtain the on-orbit operations (see Pg. 2, Para. 7, The End-to-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated. Also a control room environment must be provided for the operators of the simulated scenario; Pg. 5, Para. 1, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser, while the OOS-Sim simulates the robotic interaction between the two satellites ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite [object information]. The forces acting between the two satellites during the operations are sent by EPOS and OOS-Sim to SASI at a frequency of 200 Hz; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.);
receive a request for the on-orbit operations (see Figure 8, all; Pg. 2, Para. 7, The End-to-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated; Pg. 4, Para. 1-3, As shown in fig. 1, The satellite console (SACO) is a Linux workstation that is used in multi-mission satellite operations. To communicate with a spacecraft, it uses the Spacecraft Operating System (SCOS) which itself runs on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi Server; The rendezvous console (RECO) is installed on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi server ... The console interacts with the on-board guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system of the satellite. In order to receive the telemetry and to send telecommands it shares its bandwidth with SACO and uses an external interface (EXIF) of SCOS [pilot vehicle interface]; Pg. 5, Para. 1, As shown in fig. 6, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite [object]; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.); and
providing the view of the on-orbit operations (see Figure 8, all; Pg. 2, Para. 7, The Endto-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated; Pg. 4, Para. 1-3, As shown in fig. 1, The satellite console (SACO) is a Linux workstation that is used in multi-mission satellite operations. To communicate with a spacecraft, it uses the Spacecraft Operating System (SCOS) which itself runs on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi Server; The rendezvous console (RECO) is installed on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi server ... The console interacts with the on-board guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system of the satellite. In order to receive the telemetry and to send telecommands it shares its bandwidth with SACO and uses an external interface (EXIF) of SCOS [pilot vehicle interface]; Pg. 5, Para. 1, As shown in fig. 6, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.).
Although it may be inherent, Weber does not explicitly teach a pilot vehicle interface configured to receive a request for a view of the on-orbit operations.
Weber is additionally silent regarding persist the scenario data representing a prior view of the on-orbit operations; and
modify a maneuver associated with the at least one object at a prior point in the simulated time;
wherein the view comprises a current state of the at least one object and the maneuver modified at the prior point in the simulated time and comprises a quantitative difference between the current state and the maneuver modified.
Wolff teaches a system for viewing on-orbit operations (see Abstract, all; Pg. 79, all), the system comprising:
one or more processors and memory storing code instructions (see Figs. 6-7, all), wherein the code instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
initiate a simulation engine on a machine, the simulation engine providing scenario data describing a status of the on-orbit operations (see Figs. 6-7, all; Pg. 73, Para. 5, The goal of the proposed simulation environment is to train the procedure and correct sequence of actions within various on-orbit servicing tasks. In order to support the training of a wide range of possible servicing scenarios, the system must provide a set of basic tasks that often occur and can be combined to various servicing scenarios.; Pg. 76, Para. 8-9, Each module manages its own internal representation of the scene. A scene consists of a hierarchy of objects, also called nodes, each with a given state. Common state parameters include at minimum a unique identification string and a transformation matrix to describe the location of the object within the scene. Other information, such as mass, friction, or shading effects, that is specific to a particular module implementation is added to the internal node's state. ... All modules implement the same functional structure. Within each processing cycle, a module … first reads state updates received from other modules …; Pg. 77, Para. 9, The manager module hosts the central logic of the system. While the physics module handles the dynamics and kinematics of the individual parts in the simulation, the manager handles the semantics. This includes, for example, monitoring the on/off state of a switch, but also the management of dynamic constraints.... As the physics engine is expected to implement measures for increasing stability, such as through spring and dampers, the manager is responsible for the recognition and management of inter-part geometric constraints between colliding objects. It monitors the result of the physics engine for allowable rigid body motion and intervenes if geometric constraints or semantic states were detected.; Pg. 78, Para. 3, Besides of importing geometric models from CAD tools, the user needs to specify physics and haptics properties of the virtual objects, as well as their location within the scene and relationships to other objects. Ideally, all this information would go into one central description of the scene.;);
receive object information about how an at least one object interacts with the on-orbit operations (see Pg. 74, Para. 3-5, A key element of the application is the real-time simulation of the kinematic and dynamic behavior of the satellite components when manipulated by the user ... For the moment, we only concentrate on the simulation of rigid bodies that make up most of the virtual satellite and robot components ... This includes the detection of collisions between the haptic interaction point (HIP) and any objects within the virtual scene, as well as the computation of the resulting force and torque affecting the HIP.; Pg. 76, Para. 9, Other information, such as mass, friction, or shading effects, that is specific to a particular module implementation is added to the internal node's state ... All modules implement the same functional structure. Within each processing cycle, a module …steps the simulation or processes object behavior …; Pg. 77, Para. 1-5, The algorithm utilizes two data structures, voxel map and point shell, to represent the solid parts of static objects by volume-based pixels (voxels) and the surface of moving objects by a net of contact points each with a normal pointing inwards, see Fig. 8, left image ... The haptic module receives the transformations of moving objects and updates the nodes in the internal representation, before starting the collision detection and force calculation in the simulation process ... For accelerated collision detection, simple objects are approximated through basic collision shapes, such as box, sphere, or cylinder, which allow for optimized collision detection.;);
integrate the scenario data with the object information to obtain the on-orbit operations (see Pg. 76, Para. 9, All modules implement the same functional structure. Within each processing cycle, a module first reads state updates received from other modules; interprets the messages and updates the internal scene representation; steps the simulation or processes object behavior; gathers any state changes and communicates these and any other necessary status messages to the other modules; Pg. 77, Para. 9, As the physics engine is expected to implement measures for increasing stability, such as through spring and dampers, the manager is responsible for the recognition and management of inter-part geometric constraints between colliding objects. It monitors the result of the physics engine for allowable rigid body motion and intervenes if geometric constraints or semantic states were detected.; Pg. 79, Para. 6, The architecture divides the physics simulation, visualization and haptic rendering into separate modules that run in parallel on dedicated machines. A central manager mediates the communication of state updates, while managing the global semantics of object behaviors. Preliminary results have shown that our system is able to provide an end-to-end latency across the modules of 28ms for sending updates from moving the haptic device to displaying the visual response.); and
a pilot vehicle interface (see Figs. 2 and 9, all) configured to:
receive a request for a view of the on-orbit operations (see Abstract, This paper outlines the development of a real-time interactive application for the analysis, training and programming of on-orbit servicing tasks within a virtual reality environment. ; Pg. 74, Para. 3-5, A key element of the application is the real-time simulation of the kinematic and dynamic behavior of the satellite components when manipulated by the user … The haptic control component generates the necessary data for providing haptic feedback to the user via a haptic device ... In case the user grasps a virtual object, the complexity of resolving the chain of forces between the interacting objects (virtual scene, grasped object, HIP) can be reduced by attaching the grasped objects with a constant offset to the HIP and apply the resulting transformation based on the HIP's transformation.; Pg. 75, Para. 6, In the proposed simulation and training system, the user interacts through a VR display, and optionally the haptic device ... Additionally, the user's head is tracked. This is used to render the view in the correct perspective based on the user's current viewpoint.; Pg. 76, Para. 4, Finally, being an interactive simulation, any responses to actions made by the user within the virtual environment should be displayed with minimum delay.; Pg. 78, Para. 2-3, Additionally, the manager module provides an interface to the user to control the whole simulation system, such as starting, stopping and resetting the simulation, as well as to record simulation and training sessions for analysis and evaluation ... In order to provide a flexible and accessible platform, we need a mechanism for the user to be able to make changes to the scene, load other 3D models and adjust parameters easily, as well as to exchange data with other sites.).
Pepe teaches a system for viewing on-orbit operations (see all Figs.; [0006]-[0007] and [0038]), the system comprising:
one or more processors and memory storing code instructions (see Fig. 1, processor 104 and memory 106; [0023]), wherein the code instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
providing scenario data describing a status of the on-orbit operations (see Fig. 2, all; [0006]-[0007 "The planned continuous trajectory may include an orbit of the space vehicle about a planet. The planned continuous trajectory may include a docking of the space vehicle with another space vehicle."] and [0038 "Embodiments may be used in a variety of contexts for a variety of purposes including, by way of non-limiting examples: precision satellite repositioning, precision satellite cluster operations, spacecraft rendezvous, proximity and docking operations (e.g., space station docking, on-orbit refueling), launch vehicle upper stage maneuvering, and other applications."]);
persist the scenario data representing a prior view of the on-orbit operations (see [0023], [0026]-[0027], [0031 "The trajectory 200 may be uploaded to a space vehicle, e.g., the space vehicle 200 as shown and described herein in reference to FIG. 1 . The trajectory 200 may be uploaded in the form of sets of polynomials, e.g., the coefficients thereof, where each set of polynomials represents one segment of the trajectory 200. These data may be stored in a persistent electronic memory, such as the memory 106 as shown and described herein in reference to FIG. 1 . The trajectory 200 may be uploaded to the space vehicle prior to its embarking on a traversal of the trajectory, e.g., while the space vehicle is on the ground."] and [0034]).
Lee teaches a system for viewing on-orbit operations (see all Figs.; [0004]-[0009]), the system comprising:
one or more processors and memory storing code instructions (see [0010] and [0079]), wherein the code instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
modify a maneuver associated with the at least one object at a prior point in the simulated time (see Fig. 3, steps S320-S330; [0006 "When a simulation is in a paused or terminated state, the updater may be configured to update the simulated value based on at least one of the operational data, telecommands, and flight dynamics information."]-[0007 "The updater may be configured to compare telecommands and simulated telecommands and update the simulated value using telecommands that are not simulated."], [0030 "The satellite 110 may receive a command signal (hereinafter also referred to as “telecommand”)..."] and [0058 "In operation 320, the simulation apparatus may determine whether telecommands transmitted to the satellite include a telecommand not executed in the simulator … When it is determined that the non-simulated telecommand is present in operation 330, operation 330 may be performed."]-[0059 "In operation 330, the simulation apparatus may execute the unexecuted telecommand. In operation 330, the simulation apparatus may execute a missing telecommand to prevent accumulation of errors in a simulation input and output variable. Through this, a more accurate simulation model state set can be obtained. When operation 330 is performed, the method 330 of determining whether to update a simulated value of the simulator may be performed again."]); and
a pilot vehicle interface configured to:
providing the view of the on-orbit operations (see [0050 "The simulation apparatus 200 may provide a user with actual current operational data measured by the satellite and the simulation model state set, simultaneously. The simulation apparatus 200 may extract a subset of the operational data and a subset of the simulation model state set and provide matching information to the user."]-[0051], [0070] and [0076]), wherein the view comprises a current state of the at least one object and the maneuver modified at the prior point in the simulated time and comprises a quantitative difference between the current state and the maneuver modified (see Fig. 3, steps S350-S360; [0005], [0050 "The simulation apparatus 200 may provide a user with actual current operational data measured by the satellite and the simulation model state set, simultaneously. The simulation apparatus 200 may extract a subset of the operational data and a subset of the simulation model state set and provide matching information to the user."]-[0052], [0059 "In operation 340, the simulation apparatus calculates a difference value between a stored simulated value and operational data."]-[0061 "In operation 350, the simulation apparatus may compare the difference calculated in operation 340 to a threshold and determine whether the difference is greater than or equal to the threshold. As described above, the simulation apparatus may obtain the difference value of 60 km in operation 340. When a threshold is set as a value corresponding to 10% of the received first operational data, the simulation apparatus may calculate the threshold to be 56 km. In this example, since the difference value of 60 km is greater than the threshold of 56 km, the simulation apparatus may perform operation 360 following operation 350."] and [0070] and [0076]).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of Weber to include a pilot vehicle interface configured to receive a request for a view of the on-orbit operations, as taught by Wolff, in order to provide a user with an interactive simulation of the on-orbit operations to facilitate analysis, training and programming of the on-orbit operations.
It additionally would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of Weber to further include instructions to persist the scenario data representing a prior view of the on-orbit operations, as taught by Pepe, in order to provide permanent storage of on-orbit trajectory data to prevent data loss during power failures or application restarts.
It additionally would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of Weber to further include instructions to modify a maneuver associated with the at least one object at a prior point in the simulated time and to provide a view including a current state of the at least one object and the maneuver modified at the prior point in the simulated time including a quantitative difference between the current state and the maneuver modified, as taught by Lee, in order to periodically update a simulation of the at least one object to more accurately reflect the real world.
Regarding Claim 19
Modified Weber teaches the system of claim 15 (as discussed above in claim 15),
Weber further teaches wherein the pilot vehicle interface executes on the virtual machine (see Pg. 4, Para. 1-3, As shown in fig. 1, The satellite console (SACO) is a Linux workstation that is used in multi-mission satellite operations. To communicate with a spacecraft, it uses the Spacecraft Operating System (SCOS) which itself runs on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi Server; The rendezvous console (RECO) is installed on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi server ... The console interacts with the on-board guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system of the satellite. In order to receive the telemetry and to send telecommands it shares its bandwidth with SACO and uses an external interface (EXIF) of SCOS [pilot vehicle interface].).
Regarding Claim 20
Modified Weber teaches the system of claim 19 (as discussed above in claim 19),
Weber further teaches wherein the system relies on a single clock (see Pg. 1, Para. 2, the beginning, the end and possible handovers of a satellite passage must be simulated ... This is done by specially developed FPGA devices that can be synchronized to a common master clock to multiplex/demultiplex both data streams into/from a single space link in a timely manner.).).
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Weber (as modified by Wolff, Pepe and Lee) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Suzuki et al. (US 20020052676 A1 and Suzuki hereinafter).
Regarding Claim 3
Modified Weber teaches the method of claim 1 (as discussed above in claim 1),
Weber is silent regarding wherein the scenario data comprises launch information, and wherein the object information comprises a calculation of orbital data that is based on the launch information.
Suzuki teaches a method for viewing on-orbit operations (see all Figs.; [0014]), the method comprising:
receiving, from a simulation engine, scenario data describing a status of the on-orbit operations (see Table 5, Simulation Data at Launch; [0038]-[0040], [0048] and [0097]-[0098]);
receiving object information about how the at least one object interacts with the on-orbit operations (see Table 5, Western Most Orbit and Easter Most Orbit; [0089]-[0090] and [0096]-[0098]); and
integrating the scenario data with the object information to obtain the on-orbit operations (see Table 5, all; [0094]-[0098]);
wherein the scenario data comprises launch information (see Table 5, Simulation Data at Launch; [0038]-[0040], [0048] and [0097]-[0098]), and wherein the object information comprises a calculation of orbital data that is based on the launch information (see Table 5, Western Most Orbit and Easter Most Orbit; [0089]-[0090] and [0096]-[0098]).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to further modify the process of modified Weber to include scenario data comprising launch information and object information comprising a calculation of orbital data that is based on the launch information, as taught by Suzuki, in order to account for errors at launching for calculating predicted orbital parameters.
Claims 4-5 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Weber (as modified by Wolff, Pepe and Lee) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Hales et al. (US 20150064657 A1 and Hales hereinafter).
Regarding Claim 4
Modified Weber teaches the method of claim 1 (as discussed above in claim 1),
Weber further teaches wherein the view of the on-orbit operations is a simulation of at least two scenarios of the at least one object being on-orbit (see Pg. 2, Para. 7-8, The Endto- End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated; Depending on the simulation scenario the delay can range from one hundred milliseconds in case of a low Earth Orbit (LEO) to several seconds in case of using a geostationary relay satellite. Also Loss of Signal (LOS) and Acquisition of Signal (AOS) must be simulated. For this purpose a WAN-Simulator is used; Pg. 10, Para. 2, A simulation setup for a HIL-OOS Simulation has been implemented and the setup meets the delay requirements of the simulation scenario ... It has been shown that the communication parameters can be changed for other scenarios using the WAN-Simulator; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.).
Wolff additionally teaches wherein the view of the on-orbit operations is a simulation of at least two scenarios of the at least one object being on-orbit (see Pg. 73, Para. 5-12, especially, The goal of the proposed simulation environment is to train the procedure and correct sequence of actions within various on-orbit servicing tasks. In order to support the training of a wide range of possible servicing scenarios, the system must provide a set of basic tasks that often occur and can be combined to various servicing scenarios. We selected a number of tasks that would occur in most servicing scenarios based on common EVAs. These will be used as benchmark for the future evaluation of our system.).
Weber is silent regarding wherein the at least one object is not on-orbit.
Hales teaches a method for viewing on-orbit operations (see all Figs.; [0004]), the method comprising:
requesting, using a pilot vehicle interface, a view of the on-orbit operations, wherein the view comprises at least one object (see [0004 "In one aspect, a method of simulating a launch of an unmanned air vehicle can include providing an interface for a user selectable launch option for a plurality of simulation modes, and responsive to a user input at the interface, simulating a launch of an unmanned air vehicle into an orbit using a predefined launch model and orbit parameters."] and [0057]);
receiving, from a simulation engine, scenario data describing a status of the on-orbit operations (see Fig. 4, all; [0034], [0034 "Flight simulation is useful for providing training scenarios to operators of ground control systems. During initial launch of a simulated flight, the operator will typically have to go through a series of steps and procedures prior to launch of the flight. For example, such procedures may include simulated checks for the ground control station, links to ground equipment and radios, code to simulate autopilot and payloads, and so on. The simulation may be designed to provide the look and feel of a real flight scenario, and thus the operator may have to perform procedures such as turning on the UAV, turning on radios, starting the engine, etc."]-[0051]);
receiving object information about how the at least one object interacts with the on-orbit operations (see [0004] and [0057 "At block 902, responsive to a user input at the interface, a launch of an unmanned air vehicle into an orbit using a predefined launch model and orbit parameters is simulated. In some examples, the user input may be a mouse click. Additionally, the predefined launch model may be a pneumatic launcher or a catapult launcher. In some examples, the orbit parameters may include an altitude and radius."]);
integrating the scenario data with the object information to obtain the on-orbit operations (see [0004] and [0057 "At block 902, responsive to a user input at the interface, a launch of an unmanned air vehicle into an orbit using a predefined launch model and orbit parameters is simulated. In some examples, the user input may be a mouse click."]); and
providing, via the pilot vehicle interface, the view of the on-orbit operations (see [0004 "...simulating a launch of an unmanned air vehicle into an orbit using a predefined launch model and orbit parameters."] and [0057]);
wherein the at least one object is not on-orbit (see [0004 "In one aspect, a method of simulating a launch of an unmanned air vehicle can include providing an interface for a user selectable launch option for a plurality of simulation modes, and responsive to a user input at the interface, simulating a launch of an unmanned air vehicle into an orbit using a predefined launch model and orbit parameters."] and [0034 "During initial launch of a simulated flight, the operator will typically have to go through a series of steps and procedures prior to launch of the flight. For example, such procedures may include simulated checks for the ground control station, links to ground equipment and radios, code to simulate autopilot and payloads, and so on. The simulation may be designed to provide the look and feel of a real flight scenario, and thus the operator may have to perform procedures such as turning on the UAV, turning on radios, starting the engine, etc."])
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to further modify the process of modified Weber to include a step where the at least one object is not on-orbit, as taught by Hales, in order to provide an operator with a simulation including a series of steps and procedures prior to launch of the flight which imitates the look and feel of a real flight scenario.
Regarding Claim 5
Modified Weber teaches the method of claim 4 (as discussed above in claim 4),
Weber further teaches wherein after the view of the simulation, the at least one object is on-orbit and a second view is provided that displays on-orbit information for the at least one object after it is on-orbit (see Pg. 2, Para. 7-8, The Endto-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated; Depending on the simulation scenario the delay can range from one hundred milliseconds in case of a low Earth Orbit (LEO) to several seconds in case of using a geostationary relay satellite. Also Loss of Signal (LOS) and Acquisition of Signal (AOS) must be simulated. For this purpose a WAN-Simulator is used; Pg. 3, Para. 2, The aim of the communication setup is to implement the communication to the satellite in a single simulated space link supporting soft real-time delivery [second view] while maintaining the possibility to carry out standard satellite operations with guaranteed delivery in parallel. Pg. 10, Para. 2, A simulation setup for a HIL-OOS Simulation has been implemented and the setup meets the delay requirements of the simulation scenario ... It has been shown that the communication parameters can be changed for other scenarios using the WANSimulator; Pg. 5, Para. 1, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser, while the OOS-Sim simulates the robotic interaction between the two satellites ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite [on-orbit information]. The forces acting between the two satellites during the operations are sent by EPOS and OOS-Sim to SASI at a frequency of 200 Hz; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.).
Wolff additionally teaches wherein after the view of the simulation, the at least one object is on-orbit (see Figs. 2 and 9, all; Abstract, This paper outlines the development of a real-time interactive application for the analysis, training and programming of on-orbit servicing tasks within a virtual reality environment.;) and a second view is provided that displays on-orbit information for the at least one object after it is on-orbit (see Figs. 2 and 9, all; Abstract, This paper outlines the development of a real-time interactive application for the analysis, training and programming of on-orbit servicing tasks within a virtual reality environment.; Pg. 74, Para. 5, The haptic control component generates the necessary data for providing haptic feedback to the user via a haptic device ... In case the user grasps a virtual object, the complexity of resolving the chain of forces between the interacting objects (virtual scene, grasped object, HIP) can be reduced by attaching the grasped objects with a constant offset to the HIP and apply the resulting transformation based on the HIP's transformation.; Pg. 75, Para. 4, Besides, from training the correct sequence of sub-tasks, a goal of the simulation environment is to allow the user to get an awareness of the appearance and arrangement of parts and tools. Hence, the realistic and high-quality visualization of the satellite components and the environment are important factors for the success of a training simulation.; Pg. 75, Para. 6, Additionally, the user's head is tracked. This is used to render the view in the correct perspective based on the user's current viewpoint.; Pg. 77, Para. 8, It is currently implemented using the VR toolkit ViSTA [20], which offers support for a wide range of VR interfaces and scalable to multi -display technology. The scene is organized in a scenegraph (viaOpenSG) that is continuously synchronized with state updates from the physics module and rendered during the simulation process of the module.).
Claims 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Weber (as modified by Wolff, Pepe and Lee) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Conn (US 20220363415 A1 and Conn hereinafter).
Regarding Claim 9
Modified Weber teaches the method of claim 1 (as discussed above in claim 1),
Weber is silent regarding further comprising receiving, from an AI agent, an action to maneuver the at least one object.
Conn teaches a method for viewing on-orbit operations (see all Figs; [0032] and [0037]), the method comprising:
receiving, from a simulation engine, scenario data describing a status of the on-orbit operations (see [0037 "In another aspect, the present disclosure provides a method for training a DRL agent of a spacecraft swarm including a plurality of spacecraft, the method comprising: (A) defining a first MDP state including first position and velocity states of the spacecraft propagated in a high-fidelity simulation environment for a plurality of time steps..."], [0041 "In one embodiment, evaluating the DRL agent comprises: providing different initial conditions of the spacecraft in the simulation environment; maneuvering the spacecraft in the simulation environment using various actions in the DRL agent; and determining evaluation metrics for the spacecraft to maneuver in accordance with said various actions."], [0058] and [0095]); and
further comprising receiving, from an AI agent, an action to maneuver the at least one object (see [0032 "In one aspect, the method comprises: deploying a DRL agent including a plurality of trajectory control models to the multi-spacecraft swarm, the trajectory control models corresponding to swarm configurations of the multi-spacecraft swarm; determining a state vector of said plurality of spacecraft in the multi-spacecraft swarm; transmitting a collective command to the multi-spacecraft swarm, such that said plurality of spacecraft in the multi-spacecraft swarm are to be distributed in one of the swarm configurations; determining actions of said plurality of spacecraft based on the state vector and the collective command in accordance with one of the trajectory control models of the DRL agent; and maneuvering the multi-spacecraft swarm in accordance with the actions."]-[0033], [0041], [0057 "The present disclosure provides a framework for training and evaluating a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) agent 210 to design and control the trajectories of all individual spacecraft in a swarm, and then to deploy that agent for use in mission design and/or on-orbit real-time operations."]-[0058] and [0095]).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to further modify the process of modified Weber to include a step of receiving, from an AI agent, an action to maneuver the at least one object, as taught by Conn, in order to automatically provide commands to objects to maneuver them as a swarm in a desired formation along an orbit.
Regarding Claim 10
Modified Weber teaches the method of claim 9 (as discussed above in claim 9),
Weber further teaches wherein the action is provided as a simulation in the view by the pilot vehicle interface (see Pg. 2, Para. 7, The Endto-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are: The European Proximity Operations Simulator (EPOS) which simulates the rendezvous maneuver ... Furthermore the space link and ground station must be simulated; Pg. 4, Para. 1-3, As shown in fig. 1, The satellite console (SACO) is a Linux workstation that is used in multi-mission satellite operations. To communicate with a spacecraft, it uses the Spacecraft Operating System (SCOS) which itself runs on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi Server; The rendezvous console (RECO) is installed on a virtual machine on a VMware ESXi server ... The console interacts with the on-board guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system of the satellite. In order to receive the telemetry and to send telecommands it shares its bandwidth with SACO and uses an external interface (EXIF) of SCOS [pilot vehicle interface]; Pg. 5, Para. 1, As shown in fig. 6, The space segment consists of three simulation facilities, the OOS-Sim and EPOS as well as SASI. EPOS simulates the rendezvous maneuver between the client and the chaser, while the OOS-Sim simulates the robotic interaction between the two satellites ... The second is a Microsoft Windows workstation which performs numerical calculations in real-time in order to determine the orbit dynamics and the relative position between the chaser and the client satellite; Pg. 9, Para. 3, The setup has been fully integrated and tested. The communication chain is regularly being used to transfer the telemetry and telecommands of the consoles. Science data like the camera images of the GNC system and the robotic telepresence data is regularly being transferred with the setup; Pg. 2, Para. 2, A demonstration video of a full end to end simulation is also presented.).
Claims 11-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Weber (as modified by Wolff, Pepe, Lee and Conn) as applied to claim 9 above, and further in view of Griffith SR. et al. (US 20160023783 A1 and Griffith hereinafter).
Regarding Claim 11
Modified Weber teaches the method of claim 9 (as discussed above in claim 9),
Weber is silent regarding wherein the at least one object is on-orbit in real-life, and further comprising receiving a confirmation of the action and sending a command to execute the action in real-life to the at least one object.
Conn teaches wherein the at least one object is on-orbit in real-life (see [0057 "The present disclosure provides a framework for training and evaluating a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) agent 210 to design and control the trajectories of all individual spacecraft in a swarm, and then to deploy that agent for use in mission design and/or on-orbit real-time operations."] and [0095 "Using the real-world, in-orbit experience data (states and actions), the agent can be re-trained, re-tested, and the updated policy deployed to the spacecraft."]), and further comprising sending a command to execute the action in real-life to the at least one object (see [0032 "In one aspect, the method comprises: deploying a DRL agent including a plurality of trajectory control models to the multi-spacecraft swarm, the trajectory control models corresponding to swarm configurations of the multi-spacecraft swarm ... transmitting a collective command to the multi-spacecraft swarm, such that said plurality of spacecraft in the multi-spacecraft swarm are to be distributed in one of the swarm configurations ... and maneuvering the multi-spacecraft swarm in accordance with the actions."]-[0033], [0041], [0057 "The present disclosure provides a framework for training and evaluating a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) agent 210 to design and control the trajectories of all individual spacecraft in a swarm, and then to deploy that agent for use in mission design and/or on-orbit real-time operations."]-[0058] and [0095]).
Griffith teaches a method for viewing on-orbit operations (see all Figs.; [0004]-[0005]), the method comprising:
receiving an action to maneuver the at least one object (see [0004]-[0005 "In one embodiment, an apparatus includes a spacecraft control unit configured to guide and navigate the apparatus to a target."]);
wherein the at least one object is on-orbit in real-life (see [0004 "For example, an ADRV (hereinafter “vehicle”) may be configured to approach a target debris object (hereinafter “target”), assess the characteristics and motion of the target, determine an initial capture trajectory, match the rates of the target, execute a capture maneuver and control sequence on the target, capture and deorbit the target."] and [0029]-[0033]), and further comprising receiving a confirmation of the action and sending a command to execute the action in real-life to the at least one object (see [0056]-[0059], especially [0057 "When hard dock is confirmed, the onboard sequencing software modules can automatically shift to the control portion of the sequence. There may be a pause at this point to allow ground control to confirm hard dock prior to beginning the control sequence."] and [0059 "The vehicle may automatically begin the control process once the onboard system confirms that the capture operations are complete."]).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to further modify the process of modified Weber to include an on-orbit object in real-life and to include steps of receiving a confirmation of the action and sending a command to execute the action in real-life to the at least one object, as taught by Conn and Griffith, in order to automatically provide commands to objects to maneuver them as a swarm in a desired formation along an orbit.
Regarding Claim 12
Modified Weber teaches the method of claim 11 (as discussed above in claim 11),
Weber further teaches wherein the simulation is executed prior to in real-time progress of the at least one object (see Abstract, It is therefore essential to perform end-to-end hardware in-the-loop simulations of a mission on ground before it is being carried out in space.; Pg. 2, Para. 7, In order to advance robotic on-orbit servicing technologies– especially in the commercial sector– it is necessary to provide the means to test and verify procedures on ground before they are executed in space. The End-to-End On-Orbit-Servicing Simulation project copes with that by providing means for a HIL supported simulation of the complete servicing procedure. The components of the simulation environment are:...).
Weber is silent regarding wherein the command is executed based on a simulation of the action in real-life.
Lee teaches further comprising receiving, an action to maneuver the at least one object (see [0004 "According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a simulation apparatus of a satellite, the apparatus using telecommands sent to a satellite and operational data and flight information telemetry received from a satellite to update simulation parameters. "]-[0007], [0030] and [0058]),
wherein the command is executed based on a simulation of the action in real-life (see [0039 "The control center 120 may calculate a mission plan 134 using an updated result of the simulation 133 and transfer the calculated mission plan 134 to the satellite 110, so that it is possible to control the satellite 110 with increased accuracy."]), wherein the simulation is executed prior to in real-time progress of the at least one object (see Figs. 1-3, all [0039 "The control center 120 may calculate a mission plan 134 using an updated result of the simulation 133 and transfer the calculated mission plan 134 to the satellite 110, so that it is possible to control the satellite 110 with increased accuracy."])
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to further modify the process of modified Weber to execute the command based on a simulation of the action in real-life, as taught by Lee, in order to control the at least one object with increased accuracy.
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Weber (as modified by Wolff, Pepe and Lee) as applied to claim 15 above, and further in view of NPL_Worch et al. "Air Force Command…" (Worch hereinafter).
Regarding Claim 16
Modified Weber teaches the system of claim 15 (as discussed above in claim 15),
Weber is silent regarding wherein the simulation engine executes in at least five modes, the modes comprising: command and control, space battle management, battlespace, tactical decision aids, and digital space range.
Worch teaches a system for viewing on-orbit operations (see Pg. 3-41, Para. 4, Create a Distributed C4 ISR Simulation Network environment and accompanying procedures for hosting, evaluating, developing, and exercising interoperable C4 ISR systems ; see the corresponding page numbers in the attached NPL), the system comprising:
wherein the simulation engine executes in at least five modes, the modes comprising: command and control (see Pg. 2-5, Para. 3, All C4 I applications and software infrastructure development efforts should be consolidated under two programs: the Global Command and Control System-Air Force (GCCS-AF) and GCCS-AF Real Time Weapons Control.), space battle management (see Pg. 2-25, Para. 3, The integration of all future Air Force unit- and force-level applications (for example, mission planning, crisis planning, space battle management, and mobility planning and execution applications on the GCCSAF software and hardware infrastructures) should be clearly stated in the policy directive.), battlespace (see Pg. 1-2, Para. 3, The key elements of dynamic C2 are knowledge of the adversary, real-time knowledge of the battlespace, distributed knowledge of the commander's intent, decentralized execution, dynamic control of sensors and shooters, and real-time assessment of effects.), tactical decision aids (see Appendices 6-18, Para. 4, The Reconstruction (RECON) segment archives data from the GCCS Tactical Data Base Manager (TDBM) and Communications Manager. It enables the operator to recreate past tactical events on an operational GCCS system and apply tactical decision aides to this non-real time track data.), and digital space range (see Pg. 7-3, Para. 11, Intelligence preparation of the battlefield (IPB) is critically important to sensor planning, tasking, exploitation, and geo-registration ... Based on a worldwide high precision, digital foundation database of imagery, digital terrain elevation database, digital feature analysis data (DFAD), and other information, it will produce terrain delimitation (probability of route and location of command posts, forces, etc.) as well as precision geo-registration reference [digital space range].).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to further modify the simulation engine of the system of modified Weber to execute the modes including command and control, space battle management, battlespace, tactical decision aids, and digital space range, as taught by Worch, for the purpose of providing a complete, dynamically updated, accurate foundation data environment that maps the battlespace. See Pg. 7-3, Para. 12.
Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Weber (as modified by Wolff, Pepe, Lee and Worch) as applied to claim 16 above, and further in view of Lei et al. (CN 115270437 A and Lei hereinafter).
Regarding Claim 18
Modified Weber teaches the system of claim 16 (as discussed above in claim 16),
Weber is silent regarding wherein a state estimation library is used in the battlespace mode.
Lei teaches a system for viewing operations (see [0001] and [n0006]; see the corresponding paragraphs in the attached reference CN_115270437_A), the system comprising:
wherein a state estimation library is used in the battlespace mode (see [n0090 "The implementation of the automatic distribution mechanism of shared object models is based on three modules: battlefield space object database, battlefield space object manager, and battlefield space interaction manager. The Battlespace Object Database (BSODatabase for short) is responsible for managing the real state data of all objects in the battlefield space scene that need to be shared between entities at the last simulation moment (in distributed operation mode, it also includes the data of objects calculated remotely)."]).
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to further modify the system of modified Weber to include a state estimation library which is used in the battlespace mode, as taught by Lei, in order to manage all objects in a battlefield space scene that need to be shared between entities at the last simulation moment.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 6 and 17 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
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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/TANNER L CULLEN/Examiner, Art Unit 3656
/KHOI H TRAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3656
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