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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant's election with traverse of the restriction requirement in the reply filed on 2 September 2026 is acknowledged. The traversal is on the ground(s) that Groups I and III are not mutually exclusive and include similar structure. This is not found persuasive because as noted in the requirement, each group includes mutually exclusive limitations and there is two-way distinctness between them. Furthermore searching through thousands of references, and the subsequent patentability determination of four patentably distinct inventions does indeed present a serious burden on the examiner.
The requirement is still deemed proper and is therefore made FINAL.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticpated by Watanabe et al JP 2005-28971.
Watanabe et al. disclose a robot comprising:
a rear joint motor 16,17 and a front joint motor 14,15installed to be spaced apart from each other at a lower portion of a body 1;
a rear joint 8,9 configured to be rotated by the rear joint motor;
a rear drive motor 12,13 disposed at a lower portion of the rear joint;
a rear wheel 4,5 configured to be rotated by the rear drive motor;
a front joint 6,7 configured to be rotated by the front joint motor;
a front drive motor 10,11 disposed at a lower portion of the front joint;
a front wheel 2,3 configured to be rotated by the front drive motor; and
a processor 80 configured to control the rear joint motor, the front joint motor, the rear drive motor and front drive motor,
wherein the rear joint motor and the front joint motor are configured to respectively rotate the rear joint and the front joint to change a wheel distance between the rear wheel and the front wheel in a front and rear direction according to a driving mode (as shown in Figs. 4A and 4B); wherein the wheel distance is set to a first distance for an indoor driving mode (Fig. 4A “normal driving 1”),
wherein the wheel distance is set to a second distance for a terrain driving mode (Fig. 4B “normal driving 2”), and wherein the wheel distance is set to a third distance for an outdoor flat driving mode (Fig. 7c “step 6”),
wherein the second distance is greater than the first distance, and wherein the third distance is greater than the second distance; wherein a height of a lower body of the body is positioned at a first height above a ground in the indoor driving mode, wherein the height of the lower body is positioned at a second height above the ground in the terrain driving mode, and wherein the second height is lower than the first height; wherein the height of the lower body is positioned at a third height above the ground in the outdoor flat driving mode, and wherein the third height is lower than the second height.
Conclusion
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/KEVIN HURLEY/
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3611
September 18, 2026
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