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 .
DETAILED ACTION
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 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, first paragraph, as based on a disclosure which is not enabling. The disclosure does not enable one of ordinary skill in the art to practice the invention without electromagnetic sensors mounted on an UAV, which is/are critical or essential to the practice of the invention but not included in the claim(s). See In re Mayhew, 527 F.2d 1229, 188 USPQ 356 (CCPA 1976).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 2-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
With regards to Claim 2, the (mathematical) meaning of “within a range of [3, 5]” is unclear to one with ordinary skill in the art.
Similar issue exists in other claims (claims 4, 6, 7).
For the purpose of a compact prosecution, the examiner treated the range [3, 5] as the range of natural numbers starting from numeral 3 and ending at numeral 5 for example, “within a range from 3 to 5” or, alternatively, “within a 3-5 range”.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
Specifically, representative Claim 1 recites:
“A dynamic measurement method for a spatial magnetic field of transmission lines based on a two-dimensional electromagnetic sensor matrix, wherein a first electromagnetic sensor matrix is arranged parallel to transmission lines and is used for calibrating an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight status, while a second electromagnetic sensor matrix is arranged perpendicular to the transmission lines and is used for measuring magnetic field distribution characteristics within a vertical profile of the transmission lines; the first electromagnetic sensor matrix parallel to the transmission lines and the second electromagnetic sensor matrix perpendicular to the transmission lines form a two-dimensional electromagnetic sensor matrix; and dynamic measurement for a spatial magnetic field of the transmission lines is achieved through the two-dimensional electromagnetic sensor matrix during UAV flight.”
The claim limitations in the abstract idea have been highlighted in bold above; the remaining limitations are “additional elements”.
Under the Step 1 of the eligibility analysis, we determine whether the claims are to a statutory category by considering whether the claimed subject matter falls within the four statutory categories of patentable subject matter identified by 35 U.S.C. 101: Process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter. The above claim is considered to be in a statutory category (process).
Under Step 2A, Prong One, we consider whether the claim recites a judicial exception (abstract idea). In the above claim, the highlighted portion constitutes an abstract idea because, under a broadest reasonable interpretation, it recites limitations that fall into/recite an abstract idea exception. Specifically, under the 2019 Revised Patent Subject Matter Eligibility Guidance, it falls into the groupings of subject matter that covers mathematical concepts - mathematical relationships, mathematical formulas or equations, mathematical calculations.
Next, under Step 2A, Prong Two, we consider whether the above claims that recite a judicial exception are integrated into a practical application.
The above claims comprise the following additional elements:
In Claim 1: A dynamic measurement method for a spatial magnetic field of transmission lines; calibrating an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight status; electromagnetic sensors; UAV flight.
The additional elements in the preambles are recited in generality and represent insignificant extra-solution activity (field-of-use limitations) that is not meaningful to indicate a practical application.
The limitations that imply collecting electromagnetic data by sensors represent insignificant extra-solution activity of mere data gathering. According to the October update on 2019 SME Guidance such steps are “performed in order to gather data for the mental analysis step and is a necessary precursor for all uses of the recited exception. It is thus extra-solution activity and does not integrate the judicial exception into a practical application”.
Therefore, the claims are directed at a judicial exception and require further analysis under Step 2B.
However, the above claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception (Step 2B analysis) because these additional elements/steps are well-understood and conventional in the relevant art based on the prior art of record.
The independent claims, therefore, are not patent eligible.
With regards to the dependent claims, claims 2-9 provide additional features/steps which are part of an expanded abstract idea of the independent claims (additionally comprising abstract idea steps) and, therefore, these claims are not eligible without meaningful additional elements that reflect a practical application and/or additional elements that qualify for significantly more for substantially similar reasons as discussed with regards to Claim 1.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 2, 4, and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over James Waite et al. (US 20150226559), hereinafter ‘Waite’ in view of Guo-song Wu et al. (CN 106655003), hereinafter ‘Wu’.
With regards to Claim 1, Waite discloses
A dynamic measurement method for a spatial magnetic field of transmission lines based on a two-dimensional electromagnetic sensor matrix (A system and method for providing autonomous navigation for an Autonomous Vehicle such as an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) or an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) in the vicinity of power lines or other signal carrying lines or underwater cable is presented. Autonomous navigation is achieved by measuring the magnitude and phase of the electromagnetic field at an unknown location within a space under excitation by a set of power cables of the power line with one or more orthogonal electromagnetic sensors formed on the AV, Abstract; In some embodiments of the present invention, these tasks are enabled by forming a local two-dimensional reference frame centered on the power line [0029]; Both the magnetic and electric fields are passively emitted from power transmission in the lines [0037]: the cable state prediction (Equation 9) can be integrated with the off-cable centerline AUV position y through the state transition matrix of the Kalman Filter [0083]; This state relationship is employed in the state transition matrix. Thus for a loosely coupled AUV cable tracking modeled, the three state parameters a, b, and f are added to the cable states (represented in Equation 9), the independently estimated off-axis motion of the AUV can improve the ability of the cable tracking system. [0084-0085]: The final modeling of the cable states can be performed between the data acquired by AUV 1101 and the data acquired by measurement circuit 1204 [0086]).
However, Waite does not disclose
wherein a first electromagnetic sensor matrix is arranged parallel to transmission lines and is used for calibrating an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight status, while a second electromagnetic sensor matrix is arranged perpendicular to the transmission lines and is used for measuring magnetic field distribution characteristics within a vertical profile of the transmission lines; the first electromagnetic sensor matrix parallel to the transmission lines and the second electromagnetic sensor matrix perpendicular to the transmission lines form a two-dimensional electromagnetic sensor matrix; and dynamic measurement for a spatial magnetic field of the transmission lines is achieved through the two-dimensional electromagnetic sensor matrix during UAV flight.
Wu discloses wherein a first electromagnetic sensor matrix is arranged parallel to transmission lines and is used for calibrating an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight status, the first electromagnetic sensor matrix parallel to the transmission lines and the second electromagnetic sensor matrix perpendicular to the transmission lines form a two-dimensional electromagnetic sensor matrix (The invention claims a detecting device and method for tracking a power frequency line and device, comprising a vehicle body, vertically set on the passive array magnetic induction antenna device of the unmanned machine body head, array scanning and collecting control circuit, attitude and flight controller with distance data processor in the unmanned machine body, Abstract; laying direction according to the line space (generally parallel to the ground), the sensor array plane and the transmission line are parallel and perpendicular to the ground (the position of aircraft attitude control system, p.9; The particular voltage level of power transmission line and space coordinate of the aircraft (aircraft satellite positioning receiver), real-time sensing presence of transmission line sensing aircraft relative distance information and the position angle information and provides judging basis for subsequent signal processing circuit, as shown in FIG. 2. array scanning and collecting control circuit according to a certain way controlling the n X m matrix type electromagnetic field sensing array, point-by-point scanning, line scanning, scanning and so on, it realizes the fast scan drive and a signal collecting and transmitting the information to the posture and behind the data processor. attitude and distance data processor according to a specially designed fast data processing algorithm, by digital filtering, curve fitting algorithm, calculating the posture parameter, distance parameter in real time and transmitted to the onboard system for adjusting the flight path of the aircraft to achieve the automatic tracking of the transmission line and the barrier flight, p.9).
Hu also discloses dynamic measurement for a spatial magnetic field of the transmission lines is achieved through the two-dimensional electromagnetic sensor matrix during UAV flight (magnetic induction antenna device is composed of a helix tube inductor coils n X m matrix type electromagnetic field sensing array as the spatial magnetic field sensing device (closer distance power transmission, the higher the magnetic field strength), laying direction according to the line space (generally parallel to the ground), the sensor array plane and the transmission line are parallel and perpendicular to the ground (the position of aircraft attitude control system, p.9).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Waite in view of Wu to use a 3-dimensional matrix representation of electromagnetic field in space above a transmission line (parallel and perpendicular) to accurately model a spatial, 3-dimensional magnetic field during UAV flight that consists of first electromagnetic sensor matrix that is arranged parallel to transmission lines and a second electromagnetic sensor matrix that is arranged perpendicular to the transmission lines and is used for evaluating magnetic field distribution within a horizontal and vertical profile of the transmission lines as known in the art, for example from Li, Figure 1, and p.9, “Therefore, it is necessary to study the distribution law of electric field strength in the three-dimensional motion space of the UAV”. (Yincheng Li et al., “A Method for Autonomous Navigation and Positioning of UAV Based on Electric Field Array Detection”, Sensors, 2021, 21, 1146) and/or Dean Martinovic et al., “Mathematical Considerations for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Navigation in the Magnetic Field of Two Parallel Transmission Lines”, Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, https:/ /doi.org/10.3390/app11083323 (Figs. 4 and 5).
With regards to Claims 2, 4, and 6, Waite is silent on wherein the first electromagnetic sensor matrix is a j×k-order matrix formed by j×k electromagnetic sensors, and j and k are both natural numbers within a range of [3, 5], with j representing the number of rows and k representing the number of columns (Claim 2) or wherein the second electromagnetic sensor matrix is an m×n-order matrix formed by m×n electromagnetic sensors, and m and n are both natural numbers, with m representing the number of rows, within a range of [3, 5], and n representing the number of columns, within a range of [5, 10] (Claim 4) and, similar to Claim 4 subject matter of Claim 6 dependent on Claim 4.
Hu discloses wherein the first electromagnetic sensor matrix is an a (j×k)-order matrix formed by (j×k) electromagnetic sensors, and these numbers (j and k) are both natural numbers within a range representing the number of rows and representing the number of columns (the plurality of electromagnetic sensing array is uniformly provided, marked as M* N array matrix, the drive circuit comprises a row driving circuit, driving circuit of M rows, N channel array driving circuit and M* N AND gate circuit, a magnetic sensing module corresponding to the AND gate circuit, the row driving circuit, driving circuit of M rows and N paths of driving circuits are NPN triode; each row of the electromagnetic sensing unit corresponding to one row NPN triode to drive, each array corresponding to one column of the electromagnetic sensing module where NPN triode to drive, p.2).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Waite in view of Wu that the (first and second) electromagnetic sensor matrix is a j×k or m x n -order matrix formed by j×k (m x n) electromagnetic sensors, and j and k or m and n are both natural numbers within a range, with j (m) representing the number of rows and k (n) representing the number of columns as known in the art (Hu) while particular natural numbers representing rows/columns are arbitrarily selected as a matter of a inventor’s preference, since the applicant has not disclosed that these numbers solve any stated problem or are for any particular purposes, and it appears that the invention would perform equally well with different natural numbers.
Examiner Note with Regards to Prior Art of Record
Claims 3, 5, and 7-9 are distinguished over prior art of record based on the reasons below.
In regards to Claim 3, the claims differ from the closest prior art, Weite, Hu, Li, and Martinovic, either singularly or in combination, because they fail to anticipate or render obvious wherein the calibration of the UAV flight status comprises: measuring a magnetic field distribution parallel to the transmission lines by using k electromagnetic sensors in each row of electromagnetic sensor matric containing j rows, wherein if results measured by the k electromagnetic sensors in each row are consistent, it indicates that a UAV is flying along a position parallel to the transmission lines, and if the results are inconsistent, the UAV flight status is adjusted; measuring a magnetic field distribution parallel to the transmission lines by using j electromagnetic sensors in each column of electromagnetic sensor matric containing k columns, and analyzing a magnetic field gradient direction to determine whether it is necessary to adjust a flight altitude of the UAV to keep the UAV at an altitude the same as the transmission lines, in combination with all other limitations in the claim as claimed and defined by applicant.
In regards to Claim 5, the claims differ from the closest prior art, Weite, Hu, Li, and Martinovic, either singularly or in combination, because they fail to anticipate or render obvious a calculation formula as follows: {Gx(x,y)=H(x+1,y)-H(x-1,y)Gy(x,y)=H(x,y+1)-H(x,y-1) G(x,y)=Gx2(x,y)+Gy2(x,y) α(x,y)=tan-1Gy(x,y)Gx(x,y) wherein H(x, y) represents a characteristic value of a magnetic field at (x, y), G.sub.x(x, y) represents a lateral gradient of the magnetic field at (x, y), G.sub.y(x, y) represents a longitudinal gradient of the magnetic field at (x, y), G(x, y) represents a gradient amplitude value of the magnetic field at (x, y), α(x, y) represents a gradient direction of the magnetic field at (x, y), and (x, y) represents a position of each electromagnetic sensor in the second electromagnetic sensor matrix in the vertical profile of the transmission lines, in combination with all other limitations in the claim as claimed and defined by applicant.
In regards to Claim 8, the claims differ from the closest prior art, Weite, Hu, Li, and Martinovic, either singularly or in combination, because they fail to anticipate or render obvious calculation formula as follows: {Gx(x,y)=H(x+1,y)-H(x-1,y)Gy(x,y)=H(x,y+1)-H(x,y-1) G(x,y)=Gx2(x,y)+Gy2(x,y) α(x,y)=tan-1Gy(x,y)Gx(x,y) wherein H(x, y) represents a characteristic value of a magnetic field at (x, y), G.sub.x(x, y) represents a lateral gradient of the magnetic field at (x, y), G.sub.y(x, y) represents a longitudinal gradient of the magnetic field at (x, y), G(x, y) represents a gradient amplitude value of the magnetic field at (x, y), α(x, y) represents a gradient direction of the magnetic field at (x, y), and (x, y) represents a position of each electromagnetic sensor in the second electromagnetic sensor matrix in the vertical profile of the transmission lines, in combination with all other limitations in the claim as claimed and defined by applicant.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Aykut C. Satici et al., “Controlling UAVs by Sensing the Electric or the Magnetic Field Around Power Lines”, IEEE CONTROL SYSTEMS LETTERS, VOL. 7, November 21, 2023, pp. 3477-3482, https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10324331 discloses a control algorithm is developed that forces a drone to follow the gradient of the potential to the power lines.
Chunguang Suo et al., “Research on UAV Three-Phase Transmission Line Tracking and Localization Method Based on Electric Field Sensor Array”, Sensors 2021, 21, 8400, https://doi.org/10.3390/s21248400, discloses the sensor array can sense the change of the UAV position in the flight area, indicating that the electric field sensor array can realize the transmission line tracking and localization of transmission lines.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALEXANDER SATANOVSKY whose telephone number is (571)270-5819. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F: 9 am-5 pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Catherine Rastovski can be reached on (571) 270-0349. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/ALEXANDER SATANOVSKY/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2857
Prosecution Insights