DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
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 1-8, 13-15 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.
Limitation “without preprocessing” is indefinite. Simple signal detection and AD conversion is preprocessing for example, filtering using bandwidth filter can be considered preprocessing. It is unclear what Applicant means by term “without preprocessing”. Claim 9 clarifies the term by indicating that preprocessing is machine learning and therefore is not rejected under U.S.C 112.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 13 and claims bellow are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by D1 US 20200082546 A1.
Regarding claims bellow D1 teaches
1, 3, 13 A calculation device in which a moving object is configured to move by unmanned driving in a factory in which a plurality of manufacturing steps is executed to manufacture the moving object, and the moving object is classified into a plurality of states by having different appearances depending on the manufacturing steps, the calculation device comprising(fig. 3)
a sensor information acquisition unit(140) configured to acquire first sensor(130_1) information that is output from a first sensor by detecting the moving object classified into a first state([0056] fig. 2,3) among the states via the first sensor from an outside of the moving object and that represents the moving object classified into the first state[0031](recoding entry to the corresponding station), and
acquire second sensor (130_2)information that is output from a second sensor of a different kind from the first sensor by detecting the moving object classified into a second state different from the first state among the states via the second sensor from the outside and that represents the moving object classified into the second state; and[0031-0032]
a calculation unit configured to calculate at least one of a position and an orientation of the moving object by using the first sensor information without executing preprocessing, and execute the preprocessing to calculate at least one of the position and the orientation of the moving object by using the second sensor information.[0056][0026][0031](record entry)[0081][0118](camera detects entry without pre-processing and LIDAR for example calculates actual position )
14. A factory that manufactures a moving object, in which a plurality of manufacturing steps is executed to manufacture the moving object in the factory, the moving object is configured to move by unmanned driving in the factory, and the moving object is classified into a plurality of states by having different appearances by the manufacturing steps, the factory comprising(fig. 2,3 )
a first sensor installed in a first area in which the moving object classified into a first state among the states moves; and(220_1)
a second sensor installed in a second area in which the moving object classified into a second state different from the first state among the states moves, wherein(220_3)
the first sensor is any one of a camera and a Light detection and ranging; (claim 3)
the second sensor is the Light detection and ranging in a case where the first sensor is the camera(claim 3 it can be wither camera or lidar ); and
the second sensor is the camera in a case where the first sensor is the Light detection and ranging. (claim 3 it can be wither camera or lidar depending on desire operational requirements)
2. The calculation device according to claim 1, wherein:
the first sensor is any one of a camera and a light detection and ranging; and(claim 3)
the second sensor is the other of the camera and the Light detection and ranging.(claim 3)
4. The calculation system according to claim 3, further comprising:
a determination information acquisition unit configured to acquire at least one of state information indicating which of the states the state of the moving object is[0028](sensor 220_1 detects entry into the Assembly 1), and step information indicating which of the manufacturing steps the manufacturing step being executed on the moving object is; and[0028-0029]
a determination unit configured to determine which of the first sensor and the second sensor is used to detect the moving object by using at least one of the state information and the step information, for calculating at least one of the position and the orientation of the moving object,(implicit depending on whether it is assembly 1 or assembly 2 one will produce different actions)
wherein the calculation unit is configured to calculate at least one of the position and the orientation of the moving object by using the first sensor information without executing the preprocessing in a case where the determination unit determines that the moving object is detected by using the first sensor,(detection of the entry only )
execute the preprocessing to calculate at least one of the position and the orientation of the moving object by using the second sensor information in a case where the determination unit determines that the moving object is detected by using the second sensor.(identifying that the object got into assembly 2 when 220_3 detects ently)
5. The calculation system according to claim 3, further comprising:
a determination information acquisition unit configured to acquire at least one of state information indicating which of the states the state of the moving object is, and step information indicating which of the manufacturing steps the manufacturing step being executed on the moving object is; and
a determination unit configured to determine which of the first sensor and the second sensor is used to detect the moving object by using at least one of the state information and the step information, for calculating at least one of the position and the orientation of the moving object,
wherein the calculation unit is configured to calculate at least one of the position and the orientation of the moving object by using the first sensor information or the second sensor information output from the first sensor or the second sensor determined by the determination unit to be used to detect the moving object.[0028](implict)
6. The calculation system according to claim 3, wherein:
the first sensor is one of a camera and a Light detection and ranging; and(claim 3)
the second sensor is the other of the camera and the Light detection and ranging.(claim 3)
15. The factory according to claim 14, wherein:
the first sensor is configured to output first sensor information representing the moving object classified into the first state by detecting the moving object classified into the first state from an outside of the moving object;
the second sensor is configured to output second sensor information representing the moving object classified into the second state by detecting the moving object classified into the second state from the outside;
the first sensor information is used to calculate at least one of a position and an orientation of the moving object represented by the first sensor information; and
the second sensor information is used to calculate at least one of the position and the orientation of the moving object represented by the second sensor information.(see rejection above first and second sensors detect entrance and presence of the object in corresponding area)
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.
Claim(s) 7, 8 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 US 20200082546 A1 in view of D2 US 20200238519 A1.
D1 does not teach but D2 teaches
7. The calculation system according to claim 6, wherein the calculation unit is configured to
detect the moving object from a captured image output from the camera and output shape data indicating an appearance shape of the moving object,
calculate coordinates of a positioning point set in advance for the moving object in an image coordinate system by using the shape data, and
calculate at least one of the position and the orientation of the moving object represented by the captured image by transforming the calculated coordinates into coordinates in a global coordinate system.[0024-0025] [0097-0099][0142]
8. The calculation system according to claim 6, wherein the calculation unit is configured to execute matching between measurement point group data output from the Light detection and ranging and point group data for reference prepared in advance, to calculate at least one of the position and the orientation of the moving object represented by the measurement point group data.[0098]
9. The calculation system according to claim 3, wherein the preprocessing includes learning processing of training a machine learning model.(obvious over.[0060])+[0088]
10. The calculation system according to claim 9, wherein the calculation unit is configured to
acquire shape data indicating an appearance shape of the moving object by inputting the second sensor information to the machine learning model that is trained by executing the learning processing and is trained to output the shape data when the second sensor information is input, and
calculate at least one of the position and the orientation of the moving object by using the shape data. .(obvious over.[0060])+[0088]
It will be obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art to modify teachings taught by D1 with teachings by D2 in order to perform special handling of the object and define special operations on it.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 11, 12 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Prior art by CN-114589487-A also relevant to the rejection as teaches the manufacturing system comprises a visual system for accurately locating parts.
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/HOVHANNES BAGHDASARYAN/Examiner, Art Unit 3645
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