DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after 16 March 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . This Office action is in response to the application received on 05 September 2024. Claims 1-19 are pending.
Priority
The claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d) is acknowledged. A certified copy of the priority application has been received.
Claim Interpretation
Where it appears in the claims, the term "and/or" is considered to be equivalent to "or" under a broadest reasonable standard of interpretation.
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.
Claims 7 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for not particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 7.
The phrase "for example" renders the claim indefinite because it is unclear whether the limitations associated with the phrase are part of the claimed invention. See MPEP § 2173.05(d).
Claim 12.
The limitation "the post-accelerator" in claim 12 lacks antecedent basis in either claim 12 or in preceding claims 10 and 1. Below, the limitation is interpreted as though antecedent basis was not necessary (i.e., "a post-accelerator").
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 1-2, 7-14, and 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 9,861,040 B2 (Bonefas).
Claim 1.
Bonefas discloses a control system for controlling operation of one or more operable components of or otherwise associated with a crop transfer device of an agricultural harvesting machine,
the control system comprising one or more controllers (Fig 1, col 4 ln 42-46 - "one or more of the following communicates with the vehicle controller 46 through transmission line or a secondary data bus: a rotation sensor 116, a rotation actuator 210, an auger rotation system 16, or an auger driver 47", col 5 ln 17-18 - "the imaging processing module 18 or any other controller may comprise a controller"), and
being configured to:
receive data indicative of a position of an unloading spout of the crop transfer device with respect to the harvesting machine (col 4 ln 28-30 - "an auger rotation system 16 may comprise: (1) a rotation angle sensor 116 for sensing a spout rotation angle (.alpha. in FIG. 5A and .beta. in FIG. 5B)");
determine, in dependence on the received data, an operational setting for a crop transfer device for controlling a discharge trajectory of material from the unloading spout (col 4 ln 31-33 - "an actuator 210 for moving the spout 89 to change the spout rotation angle"); and
generate one or more control signals for controlling operation of one or more operable components of or otherwise associated with the crop transfer device in accordance with the determined operational setting (col 7 ln 48-54 - "actuator 210 or the auger rotation system 16, alone or in combination with its vehicle controller 46, may adjust the spout angle (e.g., a first spout angle (.alpha.) or rotation angle, a second spout angle (.beta.) or tilt angle, or a compound angle (.alpha. and .beta.)) that the spout 89 makes with respect to a reference axis or reference coordinate system associated with the transferring vehicle 91").
Claim 2.
Bonefas discloses the control system of claim 1, and further discloses wherein the position of the unloading spout comprises an angular position of the unloading spout determinable with respect to a longitudinal axis of the harvesting machine (Fig 5A, col 4 ln 28-30).
Claim 7.
Bonefas discloses the control system of claim 1, and further discloses wherein the position of the unloading spout comprises a vertical position of the unloading spout determinable with respect to a vertical axis, for example (Fig 5B, col 4 ln 28-30).
Claim 8.
Bonefas discloses the control system of claim 1, and further discloses wherein the position of the unloading spout is user controllable (col 13 ln 58-62 - "The vision-augmented guidance system 111 of FIG. 2 is similar to the system 11 of FIG. 1; except that the system 111 of FIG. 2 further comprises an implement data bus 58, a gateway 29, and vehicle controllers 50 coupled to the vehicle data bus 60 for the optional lights 14 and spout 56", col 15 ln 3-12 - "a first location-determining receiver 42, a user interface 44, a user interface processing module 26, and the gateway 29 are coupled to the implement data bus 58, although in other embodiments such elements or network devices may be connected to the vehicle data bus 60. Vehicle controller 50 and spout controller 54 are coupled to the vehicle data bus 60. In turn, the vehicle controller 50 and spout controller 54 are coupled, directly or indirectly, to optional lights 52 on the transferring vehicle and the spout 89 of the transferring vehicle").
Claim 9.
Bonefas discloses the control system of claim 1 and further discloses wherein the position of the unloading spout is at least partly automated (col 9 ln 11-12 - "the mode controller 225 may determine whether to use an automated control mode of the spout").
Claim 10.
Bonefas discloses the control system of claim 1, and further discloses wherein the trajectory of the crop material comprises a directional component and/or a speed component (col 3 ln 36-38 - "A transferring vehicle may have a spout for directing agricultural material toward a storage portion of the receiving vehicle", col 7 ln 9-14 - "the alignment module 24 or image processing module 18 may regularly or periodically move, adjust or rotate the target zone or central zone during loading of the container 85 of the receiving vehicle to promote even filling, a uniform height, or uniform distribution of the agricultural material in the entire container 85").
Claim 11.
Bonefas discloses the control system of claim 1, and further discloses wherein the crop transfer device includes a post-accelerator for providing an additional propulsive force to the crop material passing through the crop transfer device (col 14 ln 4-7 - "The deflector actuator 264 may activate a deflector at or near a spout end 87 of the spout 89 to avoid overshooting or undershooting the container or storage area of the receiving vehicle with harvested material"); and
wherein the one or more controllers are configured to control one or more operational parameters of the post-accelerator in dependence on the position of the unloading spout (col 13 ln 64-66 - "the spout controller 54 controls the spout 89 via one or more of the following: a rotation actuator 260, tilt actuator 262, or deflector actuator 264", col 14 ln 4-7).
Claim 12.
Bonefas discloses the control system of claim 10, and further discloses wherein the one or more controllers are configured to control an operational speed of one or more operable components of the post-accelerator, including controlling one or more of:
a rotational speed of one or more operable elements for generating an airflow for providing the propulsive force to the crop material; an operational speed of one or more paddles or the like which apply a propulsive force to the crop material through direct contact with the material; and a clearance or size of a flow path for the crop material (col 13 ln 64-66, col 14 ln 4-7).
Claim 13.
Bonefas discloses the control system of claim 1, and further discloses wherein the crop transfer device comprises a flap or the like at an end of the unloading spout for defining the size and/or shape of the opening through which crop material is discharged, in use (col 13 ln 64-66, col 14 ln 4-7); and
wherein the one or more controllers are configured for controlling an operational parameter of the flap in dependence on the determined position of the unloading spout (col 13 ln 64-66, col 14 ln 4-7).
Claim 14.
Bonefas discloses the control system of claim 1, and further discloses wherein the one or more operable components includes a user interface (col 11 ln 57-60 - "The image processing module 18 provides image data to a user interface processing module 26 that provides, directly or indirectly, status message data and performance message data to a user interface 44"); and
wherein the one or more controllers are configured to control operation of the user interface by controlling display of a graphical representation thereon indicative of the determined position of the unloading spout and/or the operational setting(s) for operable components associated with the crop transfer device (col 34 ln 50-57 - "user interface data is provided, outputted or displayed to an operator of the receiving vehicle on its user interface 44 such that the operator can manually control the steering system 30, the braking system 34, and the propulsion system 38 to control its heading, position, velocity or acceleration to facilitate placement of the spout and the storage container in cooperative alignment or target alignment").
Claim 18.
Bonefas discloses the control system of claim 1, and further discloses an agricultural machine comprising or being controllable by the control system of claim 1 (col 3 ln 31-35 - "FIG. 1 shows a machine vision-augmented guidance system 11 for a transferring vehicle for managing the unloading of agricultural material (e.g., grain) from the transferring vehicle (e.g., combine)").
Claim 19.
Claim 19 recites limitations that correspond to claim 1, and therefore claim 19 is rejected on the same grounds as claim 1.
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.
Claims 3-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bonefas in view of US 11,330,762 B2 (Kelber).
Claim 3.
Bonefas discloses the control system of claim 2.
Kelber teaches the limitations not expressly further disclosed by Bonefas, namely:
wherein the unloading spout is moveable with respect to the longitudinal axis of the machine between a maximum displacement left or right of the machine (with respect to the direction of travel) and a minimum displacement which may correspond to a position whereby the unloading spout is positioned substantially along the longitudinal axis with a discharge direction towards the rear of the machine (col 4 ln 61-67 - "A frame of reference for the position value .epsilon. may be that the stowed position for the auger tube 108 is 0 degrees, while a position of the auger tube 108 away from the ground driving and steering unit 102 is a positive angle greater than 0 degrees. For example, the position value .epsilon. of the auger tube 108 as shown in FIG. 3 is approximately 90 degrees").
As of the effective filing date of the claimed invention, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Bonefas and Kelber because both relate to control systems for harvesters. The combination would yield predictable results according to the teachings of Kelber by providing the control system with limits on a variable parameter corresponding to the physical construction of the harvester vehicle.
Claim 4.
The combination of Bonefas and Kelber teaches the control system of claim 3.
Bonefas further discloses wherein the unloading spout is moveable in a continuous manner between any position corresponding to the maximum and minimum displacement (col 4 ln 47-51 - "If the actuator 210 comprises an electro-hydraulic device, the use of proportional control valves in the hydraulic cylinder of the electro-hydraulic device that rotates the spout (or changes the spout rotation angle) facilitates finer adjustments to the spout angle (e.g., .alpha.) than otherwise possible"); and
wherein the one or more controllers are configured to apply a corresponding proportional adjustment to the operational setting(s) of the one or more operable components in dependence on the position of the unloading spout across this range of positions (col 4 ln 42-46, col 4 ln 47-51).
Claim 5.
The combination of Bonefas and Kelber teaches the control system of claim 3.
Bonefas further discloses wherein the unloading spout is moveable between a series of discrete positions (col 4 ln 55-62 - "Many commercially available combines are typically equipped with non-proportional control valves for controlling spout angle or movement of the spout 89; electro-hydraulic devices with non-proportional control valves can fill the storage container with an inefficient multi-modal or humped distribution (e.g., 508) of agricultural material with local high areas and local low areas"); and
wherein the one or more controllers are configured to select between a set of operational settings corresponding to each of the set positions of the unloading spout (col 4 ln 42-46, col 4 ln 55-62).
Claim 6.
The combination of Bonefas and Kelber teaches the control system of claim 5.
Kelber further teaches wherein the series of discrete positions include two or more positions of the unloading spout corresponding to a side unloading configuration where the spout is positioned to the left or right hand side of the machine with respect to the direction of travel of the agricultural machine, in use, and a rear unloading configuration where the spout is position behind the machine for ejecting material to the rear thereof (col 4 ln 61-67).
Bonefas further discloses wherein the one or more controllers are configured to select between a set of operational settings corresponding to a side unloading configuration and a rear unloading configuration (col 4 ln 42-46, col 4 ln 55-62).
Claims 15-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bonefas in view of US 2021/0195836 A1 (Koch et al.).
Claim 15.
Bonefas discloses the control system of claim 1.
Koch teaches the limitations not expressly further disclosed by Bonefas, namely:
wherein the one or more controllers are configured to receive additional operational data (para [0018] - "the combine harvester 10 may include a plurality of sensors 12, a user interface 14, and a control system 16. [...] The sensors 12 are operable to generate data representative of the operational metrics and transmit the data to the control system 16"); and
control the operable component(s) of or otherwise associated with the crop transfer device in dependence thereon (para [0031] - "The processing element 21 of the control system 16 may be configured to determine a suggested adjustment to the mechanical configuration associated with improving the operational metric and/or performance metric").
As of the effective filing date of the claimed invention, one of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine Bonefas and Koch because both relate to control systems for agricultural harvesting machines. The combination would yield predictable results according to the teachings of Koch by providing the control system with feedback to improve the performance of the harvesting machine.
Claim 16.
The combination of Bonefas and Koch teaches the control system of claim 15.
Koch further teaches wherein the additional operational data includes crop data indicative of one or more measurable parameters of the crop material, including one or more of: a dry matter content; a crude ash content for the crop material; a crop type; and a cut length (para [0018] - "The sensors 12 detect operational metrics of the combine 10 and may include a yield sensor, a sensor for detecting grain loss at a header of the combine harvester 10, a sensor for detecting material other than grain (MOG) amount in an elevator of the combine harvester 10, a grain moisture sensor, a grain quality sensor, a grain cleanliness sensor").
Claim 17.
The combination of Bonefas and Koch teaches the control system of claim 15.
Koch further teaches wherein the additional operational data relates to operable components of the harvesting machine itself, including operational states of one or more of a header, a chopper tool, and a conditioner of the harvesting machine (para [0018] - "The sensors 12 detect operational metrics of the combine 10 and may include [...] a grain cleanliness sensor, a detector for determining where grain exits a processing stage in the combine harvester 10, a spread detector, a fuel consumption sensor, a sensor for detecting speed of the combine harvester 10, a sensor for determining a location of the combine harvester 10, and/or any other sensors that sense operational aspects of the combine harvester 10").
Conclusion
The additional prior art made of record on Form 892 (Notice of References Cited) generally relates to control systems for agricultural harvesters and similar machines.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Todd Melton whose telephone number is (571)270-3871. The examiner can normally be reached weekdays, 9:30am - 6:00pm (Eastern time). Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Navid Mehdizadeh can be reached at 571-272-7691. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/TODD MELTON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3669
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