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
This action is in response to communications filed on 12/12/2025. Claims 1 & 7 have been amended. Claims 13- 14 have been newly added. No other claims have been amended, added, or canceled. Accordingly, claims 1- 14 are pending.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 12/12/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. Applicant’s representative argues, in substance, that Cha fails to teach and/or disclose: A- "receiving loading completion information…from the goods loading-related device; B- "transmitting the loading completion information to the delivery robot"; C- interacting or internetworking with the urban infrastructure, wherein the urban infrastructure includes a lift.
In response to A, the examiner respectfully disagrees. Initially the examiner would like to point out that applicant's representative employs broad language within the claim and as such the examiner reserves the right to interpret the claims broadly. The instantly contested claim does not distinguish what is meant by goods, hence the examiner interprets a passenger to be such a good. Furthermore, all that is needed to read on this limitation is receiving some sort of a completion information (i.e., acknowledgment, message, authentication etc.) that the goods/person has arrived and/or boarded the autonomous vehicle. As such the examiner contends that Cha's disclosure of authenticating a user--in order to allow them to board the vehicle--either by using biometric data and/or by communicating with the user and/or user terminal (i.e., a mobile device of a passenger--see ¶68--to board and/or disembark reads on this limitation.
In response to B, the examiner respectfully disagrees. Keeping in mind the points made above, with respect to A, the examiner contends that Cha's disclosure of driving the user to their destination in a manner the user has input reads on this limitation. In other words, the driving of the passenger/user occurs only upon them boarding the vehicle, otherwise the vehicle just moors/roams around until the passenger/user has been picked up (see at least ¶73-76).
In response to C, the examiner respectfully disagrees. Cha discloses the use of various communication standards such as, V2X where the vehicle is capable of communicating with everything, cellular mobile communication, local area mobile communication (i.e., WiFi) for communicating with the outside with the autonomous vehicle. As such the examiner contends that Cha discloses the currently contested limitation (see at least ¶68).
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.
Claims 1- 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Cha (hereinafter Cha, US2023/0094093 A1).
Cha discloses:
1: A method of operating a delivery robot service provider that manages a delivery robot, the method comprising:
receiving delivery information in response to a delivery request from a user (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1, 3 and ¶ 43, 46; user-based criteria);
assigning a delivery robot that is to perform the delivery request (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1, 3 and ¶ 43, 46; matching AV to user-based criteria, vehicle identification number);
generating route information based on the delivery information and robot map information (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76; vehicle information DB, route search device);
transmitting the route information to the delivery robot (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76; route search device);
checking whether the delivery robot arrives at a pick-up location where goods are loaded according to the delivery request, based on first delivery status information transmitted from the delivery robot (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76; vehicle information DB, route search device);
in response to the delivery robot arriving at the pick-up location, transmitting loading request information to a goods loading-related device associated with loading the goods (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76; vehicle information DB, route search device, passenger boarding and disembarking);
receiving loading completion information indicating that loading the goods has been completed from the goods loading-related device (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4-6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76; vehicle information DB, route search device, passenger boarding and disembarking); transmitting the loading completion information to the delivery robot (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; vehicle information DB, route search device, passenger boarding and disembarking, boarding history); and
upon the delivery robot reaching a urban infrastructure while moving toward the pick-up location, notifying the urban infrastructure that the delivery robot is waiting for interworking with the urban infrastructure, wherein the urban infrastructure includes a lift (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; autonomous vehicle communicating with everything outside via V2X communication standards, routing autonomous vehicle based on real-time traffic information, identifying surrounding objects in real-time).
2: further comprising: checking whether the delivery robot arrives at a delivery location where the goods are unloaded, based on second delivery status information transmitted from the delivery robot; in response to the delivery robot arriving at the delivery location, transmitting unloading request information to a goods unloading-related device associated with unloading the goods; receiving, from the goods unloading-related device, unloading completion information indicating that unloading the goods has been completed; and transmitting the unloading completion information to the delivery robot (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; vehicle information DB, route search device, passenger boarding and disembarking, boarding history).
3: further comprising: transmitting delivery completion information based on the unloading completion information (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; vehicle information DB, route search device, passenger boarding and disembarking, boarding history).
4: wherein the delivery completion information is transmitted to the user requesting delivery of the goods (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; vehicle information DB, route search device, passenger boarding and disembarking, boarding history).
5: wherein the generating of the route information comprises: extracting the pick-up location and the delivery location from the delivery information; and generating the route information comprising the pick-up location and the delivery location based on the robot map information (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; vehicle information DB, route search device, passenger boarding and disembarking, boarding history).
6: wherein the generating of the route information comprises: when the delivery information comprises N pick-up locations and M delivery locations, determining differently a loading and unloading order based on the route information, wherein N and M are natural numbers greater than 1 (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; vehicle information DB, route search device, passenger boarding and disembarking, boarding history).
7: A delivery robot service providing device configured to manage a delivery robot configured for delivering goods, the delivery robot service providing device comprising: a processor; and a memory storing instructions, wherein, when executed by the processor, the instructions cause the delivery robot to perform a plurality of operations, wherein the plurality of operations comprises: receiving delivery information in response to a delivery request from a user; assigning a delivery robot that is to perform the delivery request; generating route information based on the delivery information and robot map information; transmitting the route information to the delivery robot; checking whether the delivery robot arrives at a pick-up location where goods are loaded according to the delivery request, based on first delivery status information transmitted from the delivery robot; in response to the delivery robot arriving at the pick-up location, transmitting loading request information to a goods loading-related device associated with loading the goods; receiving loading completion information indicating that loading the goods has been completed from the goods loading-related device; transmitting the loading completion information to the delivery robot; and robot; and upon the delivery robot reaching a urban infrastructure while moving toward the pick-up location, notifying the urban infrastructure that the delivery robot is waiting for interworking with the urban infrastructure, wherein the urban infrastructure includes a lift (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; see claim 1 above).
8: wherein the plurality of operations further comprises: checking whether the delivery robot arrives at a delivery location where the goods are unloaded, based on second delivery status information transmitted from the delivery robot; in response to the delivery robot arriving at the delivery location, transmitting unloading request information to a goods unloading-related device associated with unloading the goods; receiving, from the goods unloading-related device, unloading completion information indicating that unloading the goods has been completed; and transmitting the unloading completion information to the delivery robot (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; see claim 2 above).
9: wherein the plurality of operations further comprises: transmitting delivery completion information based on the unloading completion information (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; see claim 3 above).
10: wherein the delivery completion information is transmitted to the user requesting delivery of the goods (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; see claim 4 above).
11: wherein the generating of the route information comprises: extracting the pick-up location and the delivery location from the delivery information; and generating the route information comprising the pick-up location and the delivery location based on the robot map information (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; see claim 5 above).
12: wherein the generating of the route information comprises: when the delivery information comprises N pick-up locations and M delivery locations, determining differently a loading and unloading order based on the route information, wherein N and M are natural numbers greater than 1 (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; see claim 6 above).
13: further comprising: receiving a response to the notification from the urban infrastructure; and transmitting the response to the delivery robot (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; autonomous vehicle communicating with everything outside via V2X communication standards, routing autonomous vehicle based on real-time traffic information, identifying surrounding objects in real-time).
14: wherein the plurality of operations further comprises: receiving a response to the notification from the urban infrastructure; and transmitting the response to the delivery robot (see Cha at least fig. 1-7 and in particular fig. 1- 3, 4- 6 and ¶ 52-54, 62- 76, 96-98; autonomous vehicle communicating with everything outside via V2X communication standards, routing autonomous vehicle based on real-time traffic information, identifying surrounding objects in real-time).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MACEEH ANWARI whose telephone number is 571-272-7591. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday 7:30-5:00 PM ES.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Ortiz can be reached on 571-272-1206. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MACEEH ANWARI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3663
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