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 OFFICE ACTION
Status of Claims
Claims 4-23 are pending in this Office Action.
Claims 1-3 cancelled
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) filed on the following dates 09/05/2024 have been considered.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b) (2) (C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a) (2) prior art against the later invention.
1. Claims 4,5,6,8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being patentable over SCHUH et al. ( USPUB 20170242095 ) in view of Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. ( NPL Doc: " A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings," 18th July 2016, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT VEHICLES, VOL. 1, NO. 1, MARCH 2016, Pages 68-76.).
As per claim 4, SCHUH et al. teaches A method for operating a platoon of vehicles traveling on a roadway ( Paragraph [0035]- “The architecture and design of control systems suitable for implementing vehicle platooning may vary widely. By way of example, FIG. 1 diagrammatically illustrates a vehicle control architecture that is suitable for use with platooning tractor-trailer trucks. In the illustrated embodiment a platoon controller 110, receives inputs from a number of sensors 130 on the tractor and/or one or more trailers or other connected units, and a number of actuators and actuator controllers 150 arranged to control operation of the tractor's powertrain and other vehicle systems. An actuator interface (not shown) may be provided to facilitate communications between the platoon controller 110 and the actuator controllers 150. The platoon controller 110 also interacts with an inter-vehicle communications controller 170 which orchestrates communications with the platoon partner and a NOC communications controller 180 that orchestrates communications with a network operations center (NOC)….”) , the method comprising: at a first vehicle of the platoon of vehicles ( FIG.3 AND Paragraph [0062]- “A representative bounding box 255 applied around a lead truck 251 in a platoon of two trucks is diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 3…”) : communicating with a central operation system using a first wireless communication system (FIG. 1- Platoon Controller ( 110) AND Paragraph [0035]- “…facilitate communications between the platoon controller 110 and the actuator controllers 150. The platoon controller 110 also interacts with an inter-vehicle communications controller 170 which orchestrates communications with the platoon partner and a NOC communications controller 180 that orchestrates communications with a network operations center (NOC). ….”) ; while traveling in the platoon, detecting, with a sensing system, a condition affecting travel on the roadway ( Paragraph [0051]- “…object(s) detected within a designated field together with the relative position and speed of such object(s). Thus, during driving, such a radar unit may detect the presence of a variety of objects within its operational field. The detected objects may include any vehicle positioned directly in front of the host vehicle, vehicles in adjacent lanes that may be passing, being passed by or driving in parallel to the platoon, stationary objects such as obstacles in the road, signs, trees, and other objects to the side of the road, etc. Although many different types of objects may be detected, the radar unit itself typically doesn't know or convey the identity or nature of the detected object. …”) ;in response to detecting the condition affecting travel on the roadway: changing a state of the first vehicle ( FIG. 7 and Paragraphs [0100-0101]- “… a new radar scene is received (step 502) a determination is made regarding whether any of the radar object points (targets) matches the expected position and relative velocity of the back of the partner vehicle (step 504). This is preferably a probabilistic determination in which it is concluded that that there is a high probability that the “matching” target indeed represents the back of the partner vehicle. One way to determine whether a matching target is to quantify an uncertainty factor in association with the estimated position….”) ;
SCHUH et al. does not explicitly teach transmitting state change information of the first vehicle to a second vehicle via a line-of- sight communication system; and at the second vehicle of the platoon of vehicles: communicating with the central operation system using a second wireless communication system; while travelling in the platoon, receiving, from the first vehicle, the state change information of the first vehicle; and changing a state of the second vehicle based on the received state change information of the first vehicle.
However, within analogous art, Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teaches transmitting state change information of the first vehicle to a second vehicle via a line-of- sight communication system(Fig. 8 – the KOVOI PLATOON SYSTEM and Page 70 – Col. 1- “…Each truck is equipped with a 76 GHz radar and a 2-dimensional lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) used for obstacle detection on the first truck, and for gap measurement on the following trucks. The use of two different sensors is for robustness. Since the sensing system is not sufficient for precise control of the gap keeping and provides no feedforward information about the state of the trucks before the immediate predecessor, the platoon employs V2V communications….”) ; and at the second vehicle of the platoon of vehicles: communicating with the central operation system using a second wireless communication system ( Fig. 8 teaches the communication to the Central Server and wireless communication taught within Page 73- Col. 2- “…For the second generation of truck platooning tests, PATH added a third identical truck tractor and upgraded the wireless communications to an 802.11p DSRC system specifically designed for mobile applications [4]. In order to comply with the standards governing cooperative collision warning applications in the U.S., and to avoid generating excessive wireless channel communication traffic this was operated at a 100 ms update interval and the control system was modified to operate at this slower update rate. The…”) ; while travelling in the platoon, receiving, from the first vehicle, the state change information of the first vehicle; and changing a state of the second vehicle based on the received state change information of the first vehicle ( Page 72 -Fig.8 and Fig.9 showing the communication between the travelling vehicles in platoons and based on the received communication of state of vehicle changing the other vehicle state further taught within Page 72- Col.1 - “…The V2V communication transfers necessary vehicle data from all platoon members, which are required for the ACC to realize the target following distance of 10 m. In all trucks, a target acceleration interface is implemented, which automatically calculates the commands to the drivetrain and the management of the different brakes in the vehicles. The acceleration is either calculated autonomously for each vehicle or deduced from the data which is transferred via the vehicle to-vehicle communications [18]. 3) Sensing Systems, Actuators, and HMI: Every experimental vehicle is equipped with cameras which are able to identify the lane markers, thus determining the position of every truck within the traffic lane. Steering actuator using an electricmotor delivers the necessary steering torque for the automated lateral guidance of the trucks….”) .
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. within the modified teaching of the Sensor fusion for autonomous or partially autonomous vehicle control mentioned by SCHUH et al. because the A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings mentioned by Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. provides a system and method for implementing effective communication between autonomous vehicles within platooning system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings mentioned by Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. within the modified teaching of the Sensor fusion for autonomous or partially autonomous vehicle control mentioned by SCHUH et al. for implementation of a system and method for effective communication between autonomous vehicles within platooning system.
As per claim 5, Combination of SCHUH et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teach claim 1,
SCHUH et al. does not explicitly teach herein: changing the state of the first vehicle comprises decelerating the first vehicle; and changing the state of the second vehicle comprises one or more of: decelerating the second vehicle; and changing a route of the second vehicle.
However, within analogous art, Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teaches wherein: changing the state of the first vehicle comprises decelerating the first vehicle; and changing the state of the second vehicle comprises one or more of: decelerating the second vehicle; and changing a route of the second vehicle ( Page 73- Col. 2- “…which made it possible to do steady-state cruising for 20 to 30 seconds after accounting for the time and distance needed to accelerate and decelerate to and from cruise speed. The trucks were tested at clearance gaps of 10, 8, 6, 4 and 3 m to measure energy consumption and criteria pollutant emissions [23], [24]. For the second generation of truck platooning tests, PATH added a third identical truck tractor and upgraded the wireless communications to an 802.11p DSRC system specifically designed for mobile applications [4]. In order to comply with the standards governing cooperative collision warning applications in the U.S., and to avoid generating excessive wireless channel communication traffic this was operated at a 100 ms update interval and the control system was modified to operate at this slower update rate. The second generation system was tested on an 8 km section of two-lane roadway that was temporarily closed to public traffic for testing. These tests included following varying speed profiles with accelerations and decelerations, positive and negative grade angles, and platoon join and split maneuvers….”).
As per claim 6, Combination of SCHUH et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teach claim 5,
SCHUH et al. teaches wherein the condition affecting travel on the roadway is a road obstruction ( Paragraph [0051]- “… detected objects may include any vehicle positioned directly in front of the host vehicle, vehicles in adjacent lanes that may be passing, being passed by or driving in parallel to the platoon, stationary objects such as obstacles in the road, signs, trees, and other objects to the side of the road, etc. Although many different types of objects may be detected…” ) .
As per claim 8, Combination of SCHUH et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teach claim 5,
SCHUH et al. teaches wherein the first vehicle further transmits information about the condition affecting travel to the second vehicle ( Paragraph [0095]- “…gap monitor 610 includes a position/state estimator 612 having a Kalman filter 615 that is used to determine both the most recent estimate of the position of the partner vehicle relative to the host vehicle and to predict the expected position of the partner vehicle at the time the next radar sample will be taken. As described in more detail with respect to FIG. 7, in the illustrated embodiment, the position/state estimator 612 utilizes both the detected radar scenes and other available vehicle state information such as the respective GPS positions, wheel speeds, and inertial measurements of the host and partner vehicles in the estimate of the expected state (e.g. position, velocity etc.) of the leading vehicle. These state estimates can then be used to help interpret the received radar scene. …”) .
As per claim 9, Combination of SCHUH et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teach claim 4,
SCHUH et al. teaches wherein each of the first and the second vehicle is further configured to communicate with a central operations system via a respective wireless communication system ( FIG. 1- 170- Inter-Vehicle Communication Controller AND Paragraph [0052]- “When a platoon partner is identified a communications link is preferably established between the platooning vehicles. The communications may be established over one or more wireless links such as a Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) link, a cellular link, etc. Once communications are established between the two vehicles,….”) .
2. Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being patentable over SCHUH et al. ( USPUB 20170242095 ) in view of Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. ( NPL Doc: " A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings," 18th July 2016, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT VEHICLES, VOL. 1, NO. 1, MARCH 2016, Pages 68-76.) in further view of François Michaud et al. ( NPL Doc: “Coordinated Maneuvering of Automated Vehicles in Platoons,”31st July 2006, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, VOL. 7, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2006,Pages 437-445.).
As per claim 7, Combination of SCHUH et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teach claim 5,
Combination of SCHUH et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. does not explicitly teach wherein the condition affecting travel on the roadway is an emergency situation.
Within analogous art, Francois Michaud et al. teaches wherein the condition affecting travel on the roadway is an emergency situation (Page 440 – Col. 2- “…This activates the Follow BPM. When a vehicle entering the platoon is detected(either sensed or from communicated information), the following vehicle remains in the FOLLOWING state, but decreases its speed to provide space for the entering vehicle. A vehicle enters the EMERGENCY state if its leading vehicle experiences failure: The vehicle can either join again the platoon if it is still possible to do so after having avoided its leading vehicle, or simply stop so that the rest of the platoon is secured. When a vehicle wants to exit the platoon (activated remotely by the experimenter), the state changes to EXITING, …”).
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Francois Michaud et al. within the combined modified teaching of the Sensor fusion for autonomous or partially autonomous vehicle control mentioned by SCHUH et al. and the A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings mentioned by Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. because the Coordinated Maneuvering of Automated Vehicles in Platoons mentioned by Francois Michaud et al. provides a system and method for implementing vision and obstacle avoidance sensing within autonomous platoon vehicle system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the Coordinated Maneuvering of Automated Vehicles in Platoons mentioned by Francois Michaud et al. within the combined modified teaching of the Sensor fusion for autonomous or partially autonomous vehicle control mentioned by SCHUH et al. and the A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings mentioned by Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. for implementation of a system and method for vision and obstacle avoidance sensing within autonomous platoon vehicle system.
3. Claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being patentable over Lijian xu et al. ( NPL Doc: “Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons,” 6th November 2014, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 63, NO. 9, NOVEMBER 2014,Pages 4206-4218.) in view of Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. ( NPL Doc: " A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings," 18th July 2016, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT VEHICLES, VOL. 1, NO. 1, MARCH 2016, Pages 68-76.).
As per claim 11, Lijian xu et al. teaches A method of operating a platoon of vehicles traveling along a roadway( Page 4206- Col. 1- “HIGHWAY platooning of vehicles has been identified as a promising framework in developing intelligent transportation systems [1], [2]. By autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle control and intervehicle coordination, an appropriately managed platoon can potentially offer enhanced safety, improved highway utility, increased fuel economy, and reduced emissions. In a platoon formation and maintenance, high level distributed supervisors adjust vehicle spatial distributions based on intervehicle information such that roadway utilization is maximized whereas the risk of collision is minimized or avoided. Controllers at vehicle levels, sensors, and communication systems interact intimately in vehicle platoon formation and control….”) , the method comprising: at a first vehicle of the platoon of vehicles : receiving an instruction to depart the platoon ( Page 4218- Col. 2- “…While this paper is focused on one platoon formation, a platoon experiences many dynamic variations in real implementations. These include lane change, vehicle departure and addition, platoon reformation, etc. At the network level, such changes amount to network topology variations…”) ; in response to receiving the instruction: changing a state of the first vehicle; and transmitting state change information of the first vehicle to a second vehicle via a line-of- sight communication system ( Page 4207- Col. 1- “…Vehicles receive platoon movement information by using sensors and communication systems. We assume that radars are either installed at front or rear of the vehicle. The raw data from the radars are distance information between two vehicles. Although it is theoretically possible to derive speed information by signal processing (derivatives of the distances), this paper works with the direct information and leaves signal processing as part of control design. As a result, radar information is limited to distances. In contrast, a communication channel from vehicle i to vehicle j can transmit any information that vehicle i possesses….”) ;
Lijian xu et al. does not explicitly teach at the second vehicle of the platoon of vehicles: receiving the state change information of the first vehicle; and changing a state of the second vehicle based on the received state change information of the first vehicle.
However, within analogous art, Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teaches at the second vehicle of the platoon of vehicles: communicating with the central operation system using a second wireless communication system ( Fig. 8 teaches the communication to the Central Server and wireless communication taught within Page 73- Col. 2- “…For the second generation of truck platooning tests, PATH added a third identical truck tractor and upgraded the wireless communications to an 802.11p DSRC system specifically designed for mobile applications [4]. In order to comply with the standards governing cooperative collision warning applications in the U.S., and to avoid generating excessive wireless channel communication traffic this was operated at a 100 ms update interval and the control system was modified to operate at this slower update rate. The…”) ; and changing a state of the second vehicle based on the received state change information of the first vehicle ( Page 72 -Fig.8 and Fig.9 showing the communication between the travelling vehicles in platoons and based on the received communication of state of vehicle changing the other vehicle state further taught within Page 72- Col.1 - “…The V2V communication transfers necessary vehicle data from all platoon members, which are required for the ACC to realize the target following distance of 10 m. In all trucks, a target acceleration interface is implemented, which automatically calculates the commands to the drivetrain and the management of the different brakes in the vehicles. The acceleration is either calculated autonomously for each vehicle or deduced from the data which is transferred via the vehicle to-vehicle communications [18]. 3) Sensing Systems, Actuators, and HMI: Every experimental vehicle is equipped with cameras which are able to identify the lane markers, thus determining the position of every truck within the traffic lane. Steering actuator using an electricmotor delivers the necessary steering torque for the automated lateral guidance of the trucks [20]….”) .
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. within the modified teaching of the Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons mentioned by Lijian xu et al. because the A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings mentioned by Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. provides a system and method for implementing effective communication between autonomous vehicles within platooning system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings mentioned by Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. within the modified teaching of the Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons mentioned by Lijian xu et al. for implementation of a system and method for effective communication between autonomous vehicles within platooning system.
4. Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being patentable over Lijian xu et al. ( NPL Doc: “Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons,” 6th November 2014, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 63, NO. 9, NOVEMBER 2014,Pages 4206-4218.) in view of Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. ( NPL Doc: " A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings," 18th July 2016, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT VEHICLES, VOL. 1, NO. 1, MARCH 2016, Pages 68-76.) in further view of François Michaud et al. ( NPL Doc: “Coordinated Maneuvering of Automated Vehicles in Platoons,”31st July 2006, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, VOL. 7, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2006,Pages 437-445.).
As per claim 14, Combination of Lijian xu et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teach claim 11,
Combination of Lijian xu et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. does not explicitly teach wherein the instruction to depart the platoon is received following detection of an emergency situation by the first vehicle.
Within analogous art, Francois Michaud et al. teaches wherein the instruction to depart the platoon is received following detection of an emergency situation by the first vehicle (Page 440 – Col. 2- “…This activates the Follow BPM. When a vehicle entering the platoon is detected(either sensed or from communicated information), the following vehicle remains in the FOLLOWING state, but decreases its speed to provide space for the entering vehicle. A vehicle enters the EMERGENCY state if its leading vehicle experiences failure: The vehicle can either join again the platoon if it is still possible to do so after having avoided its leading vehicle, or simply stop so that the rest of the platoon is secured. When a vehicle wants to exit the platoon (activated remotely by the experimenter), the state changes to EXITING, …”).
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Francois Michaud et al. within the combined modified teaching of the Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons mentioned by Lijian xu et al. and the A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings mentioned by Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. because the Coordinated Maneuvering of Automated Vehicles in Platoons mentioned by Francois Michaud et al. provides a system and method for implementing vision and obstacle avoidance sensing within autonomous platoon vehicle system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the Coordinated Maneuvering of Automated Vehicles in Platoons mentioned by Francois Michaud et al. within the combined modified teaching of the Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons mentioned by Lijian xu et al. and the A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings mentioned by Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. for implementation of a system and method for vision and obstacle avoidance sensing within autonomous platoon vehicle system.
5. Claims 16,17 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being patentable over Lijian xu et al. ( NPL Doc: “Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons,” 6th November 2014, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 63, NO. 9, NOVEMBER 2014,Pages 4206-4218.) in view of Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. ( NPL Doc: " A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings," 18th July 2016, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT VEHICLES, VOL. 1, NO. 1, MARCH 2016, Pages 68-76.) in further view of SUBRAMANYA ( USPUB 20140210646).
As per claim 16, Combination of Lijian xu et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teach claim 11,
Combination of Lijian xu et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. does not explicitly teach wherein a line-of-sight transmitter of the first vehicle comprises an array of independently controllable light-emitting elements.
However, within analogous art, SUBRAMANYA teaches wherein a line-of-sight transmitter of the first vehicle comprises an array of independently controllable light-emitting elements ( Paragraph [0068]- “…sensors can use laser, visible, near infra-red (NIR) or infra-red (IR) light emitting diode (LED) or laser diodes, ultrasound, NIR or IR triangulation based sensors with or without a linear photo sensor array, frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW), Doppler, inductance sensing, imaging, passive acoustic, optical disturbance or other techniques for vehicle detection….”) .
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of SUBRAMANYA within the combined modified teaching of the Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons mentioned by Lijian xu et al. and the A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings mentioned by Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. because the Advanced parking and intersection management system
mentioned by SUBRAMANYA provides a system and method for implementing light emitting sensors for detection within autonomous vehicle system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the Advanced parking and intersection management system mentioned by SUBRAMANYA within the combined modified teaching of the Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons mentioned by Lijian xu et al. and the A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings mentioned by Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. for implementation of a system and method for light emitting sensors for detection within autonomous vehicle system.
As per claim 17, Combination of Lijian xu et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. and SUBRAMANYA teach claim 16,
Within analogous art, Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teaches wherein a line-of-sight receiver of the second vehicle comprises a camera (Page 70- Col. 1- “…The other feature is that the vision system consists of two kinds of sensors for robustness: one is a conventional CCD camera, and the other is active vision consisting of a laser scanner and an opto-electronic receiver…”).
As per claim 18, Combination of Lijian xu et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teach claim 11,
Combination of Lijian xu et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. does not explicitly teach wherein: the first vehicle is in a first lane and travelling in a first direction; and the second vehicle is in a second lane adjacent to the first lane and travelling in the first direction.
Within analogous art, SUBRAMANYA teaches wherein: the first vehicle is in a first lane and travelling in a first direction; and the second vehicle is in a second lane adjacent to the first lane and travelling in the first direction ( Paragraph [0068]- “…sensors can use laser, visible, near infra-red (NIR) or infra-red (IR) light emitting diode (LED) or laser diodes, ultrasound, NIR or IR triangulation based sensors with or without a linear photo sensor array, frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW)…”) .
6. Claims 19 and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being patentable over Lijian xu et al. ( NPL Doc: “Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons,” 6th November 2014, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 63, NO. 9, NOVEMBER 2014,Pages 4206-4218.) in view of Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. ( NPL Doc: " A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings," 18th July 2016, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT VEHICLES, VOL. 1, NO. 1, MARCH 2016, Pages 68-76.).
As per claim 19, Lijian xu et al. teaches A method of operating a platoon of vehicles traveling along a roadway( Page 4206- Col. 1- “HIGHWAY platooning of vehicles has been identified as a promising framework in developing intelligent transportation systems [1], [2]. By autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle control and intervehicle coordination, an appropriately managed platoon can potentially offer enhanced safety, improved highway utility, increased fuel economy, and reduced emissions. In a platoon formation and maintenance, high level distributed supervisors adjust vehicle spatial distributions based on intervehicle information such that roadway utilization is maximized whereas the risk of collision is minimized or avoided. Controllers at vehicle levels, sensors, and communication systems interact intimately in vehicle platoon formation and control….”) , the method comprising: at a first vehicle of the platoon of vehicles: communicating, via at least one of a wireless communication system or a line-of-sight communication system ( Page 4207- Fig. 1 and Fig. 3 teaches the first / front vehicle communicating within the other vehicle and Page 4207- Col. 2- “…the front vehicle) or its rear sensor (on its distance to the vehicle behind it), or wireless communication channels between two vehicles. The wireless communication channels may carry different information contents such as distance, speed, driver’s action, etc.….”) , with a second vehicle to coordinate platoon travel operations with the second vehicle ( Page 4207- Col. 2- “…Vehicles receive platoon movement information by using sensors and communication systems. We assume that radars are either installed at front or rear of the vehicle. The raw data from the radars are distance information between two vehicles. Although it is theoretically possible to derive speed information by signal processing (derivatives of the distances),…”) ; receiving, via at least one of the wireless communication system or the line-of-sight communication system, first information that requires the first vehicle to change at least one of a speed or direction of the first vehicle ( Page 4207- Col. 2- “…use a basic three-car platoon to present our key results. Although this is a highly simplified platoon, the main issues are revealed clearly in this system. Three information structures are studied, shown in Fig. 2. “Information Structure (a)” employs only front sensors, implying that vehicle 1 follows vehicle 0 by measuring its front distance d1, and then vehicle 2 follows vehicle 1 by measuring its front distance d2. For safety consideration, this structure provides a baseline safety metric for comparison with other information structures. “Information Structure (b)” provides both front and rear distances. Then, “Information Structure (c)” expands with wireless communication networks. Although we employ a three-car platoon for simplicity, it forms a generic base for studying platoon safety issues for more general platoons. This is graphically explained in Fig. 3. Here, the vehicles in between the leading vehicle and the vehicle of interest are grouped as one subplatoon.We treat this subplatoon as one vehicle, and this leads to the generic structure of Fig. 2. This also implies that the communication distance between the two vehicles may be high….” AND Page 4214= Col. 1- “…We now add the speed information of the leading vehicle to both vehicles 1 and 2 by communications. Example 6: For the same three-car platoon under the same initial conditions as Example 5, we add the leading vehicle’s speed v0 into the information structure. This information is transmitted (or broadcast) to both vehicles 1 and 2….”) ;
Lijian xu et al. does not explicitly teach in response to receiving the first information, transmitting second information to a second vehicle of the platoon of vehicles via the line-of-sight communication system; and at the second vehicle of the platoon of vehicles: receiving the second information from the first vehicle; and in response to receiving the second information, changing at least one of a speed or direction of the second vehicle.
However, within analogous art, Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teaches in response to receiving the first information, transmitting second information to a second vehicle of the platoon of vehicles via the line-of-sight communication system(Fig. 8 – the KOVOI PLATOON SYSTEM and Page 70 – Col. 1- “…Each truck is equipped with a 76 GHz radar and a 2-dimensional lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) used for obstacle detection on the first truck, and for gap measurement on the following trucks. The use of two different sensors is for robustness. Since the sensing system is not sufficient for precise control of the gap keeping and provides no feedforward information about the state of the trucks before the immediate predecessor, the platoon employs V2V communications….”) ; and at the second vehicle of the platoon of vehicles: receiving the second information from the first vehicle; and in response to receiving the second information, changing at least one of a speed or direction of the second vehicle. ( Page 72 -Fig.8 and Fig.9 showing the communication between the travelling vehicles in platoons and based on the received communication of state of vehicle changing the other vehicle state further taught within Page 72- Col.1 - “…The V2V communication transfers necessary vehicle data from all platoon members, which are required for the ACC to realize the target following distance of 10 m. In all trucks, a target acceleration interface is implemented, which automatically calculates the commands to the drivetrain and the management of the different brakes in the vehicles. The acceleration is either calculated autonomously for each vehicle or deduced from the data which is transferred via the vehicle to-vehicle communications [18]. 3) Sensing Systems, Actuators, and HMI: Every experimental vehicle is equipped with cameras which are able to identify the lane markers, thus determining the position of every truck within the traffic lane. Steering actuator using an electricmotor delivers the necessary steering torque for the automated lateral guidance of the trucks….”) .
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. within the modified teaching of the Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons mentioned by Lijian xu et al. because the A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings mentioned by Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. provides a system and method for implementing effective communication between autonomous vehicles within platooning system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings mentioned by Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. within the modified teaching of the Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons mentioned by Lijian xu et al. for implementation of a system and method for effective communication between autonomous vehicles within platooning system.
As per claim 22, Combination of Lijian xu et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teach claim 19,
Lijian xu et al. teaches wherein the first information is received from a stationary infrastructure device positioned along the roadway (Stationary wireless tower taught within Page 4218- Col. 2- Fig. 32 - System integration of a platoon with a VANET framework.- Within a VANET, the links among vehicles can be realized by vehicle-to-vehicle communications or vehicle-to-infrastructure pathways involving access points, wireless towers, and other infrastructures….”) .
7. Claims 20 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C 103 as being patentable over Lijian xu et al. ( NPL Doc: “Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons,” 6th November 2014, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 63, NO. 9, NOVEMBER 2014,Pages 4206-4218.) in view of Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. ( NPL Doc: " A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings," 18th July 2016, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT VEHICLES, VOL. 1, NO. 1, MARCH 2016, Pages 68-76.) in further view of François Michaud et al. ( NPL Doc: “Coordinated Maneuvering of Automated Vehicles in Platoons,”31st July 2006, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, VOL. 7, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2006,Pages 437-445.).
As per claim 20, Combination of Lijian xu et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. teach claim 19,
Combination of Lijian xu et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. does not explicitly teach wherein the first information includes a merge request from an additional vehicle to merge between the first vehicle and the second vehicle.
Within analogous art, François Michaud et al. teaches wherein the first information includes a merge request from an additional vehicle to merge between the first vehicle and the second vehicle ( Fig. 6 and Page 444- Col. 1- “….This coordination strategy allows M to be notified that a problem occurred, and anticipates the problem. Once M has avoided L, it can either stop (to implement a fail-safe mode) or proceed to merge with the upper portion of the platoon if it is visible. Such maneuver would for instance facilitate access to an accident area. 3) M ↔ F. In our trials, this is similar to scenario M → F since having F communicate back with M will not affect its decision. It could contribute however in helping M decide what to do based on sensed information from the rear portion of the platoon. 4) M ↔ F/L. With this scenario, the vehicle preceding L can be notified that a failure has occurred. The front part of the platoon can then slow down for a potential merge with the rear part of the platoon. …”).
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teaching of Francois Michaud et al. within the combined modified teaching of the Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons mentioned by Lijian xu et al. and the A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings mentioned by Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. because the Coordinated Maneuvering of Automated Vehicles in Platoons mentioned by Francois Michaud et al. provides a system and method for implementing vision and obstacle avoidance sensing within autonomous platoon vehicle system.
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one in the ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement the Coordinated Maneuvering of Automated Vehicles in Platoons mentioned by Francois Michaud et al. within the combined modified teaching of the Communication Information Structures and Contents for Enhanced Safety of Highway Vehicle Platoons mentioned by Lijian xu et al. and the A Review of Truck Platooning Projects for Energy Savings mentioned by Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. for implementation of a system and method for vision and obstacle avoidance sensing within autonomous platoon vehicle system.
As per claim 21, Combination of Lijian xu et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. and François Michaud et al. teach claim 20,
Combination of Lijian xu et al. and Sadayuki Tsugawa et al. does not explicitly teach wherein the additional vehicle is travelling alongside the platoon.
Within analogous art, Francois Michaud et al. teaches wherein the additional vehicle is travelling alongside the platoon ( Fig. 6 showing the platooning vehicles and B travelling close /alongside to Y and O) .
It is noted that any citations to specific, pages, columns, lines, or figures in the prior art references and any interpretation of the reference should not be considered to be limiting in any way. A reference is relevant for all it contains and may be relied upon for all that it would have reasonably suggested to one having ordinary skill in the art. See MPEP 2123.
Allowable Subject Matter
8. Claims 10 ,12 ,13, 15 and 23 are 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.
9. The following is an examiner’s statement of reasons for objecting the claims as allowable subject matter:
As to claim 10, prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitation mentioned within claim 10 : “ … the line-of-sight communication system is a first line-of-sight communication system of the first vehicle; the second vehicle further transmits the state change information of the second vehicle to a third vehicle of the platoon via a second line-of-sight communication system of the second vehicle; and the method further comprises, at the third vehicle of the platoon of vehicles: receiving the state change information of the first vehicle; and changing a state of the third vehicle based on the received state change information of the second vehicle.”
As to claim 12, prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitation mentioned within claim 12: “ … the roadway comprises a closed system of lanes; the instruction is issued by a central operation system in response to a request to pick up a passenger at a pick up location within the closed system of lanes; and the state change of the first vehicle comprises redirection of the first vehicle towards the pick up location.”
As to claim 13, prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitation mentioned within claim 13: “ … the roadway comprises a closed system of lanes; the instruction is issued by a central operation system in response to a request to drop off a passenger at a drop off location within the closed system of lanes; and the state change of the first vehicle comprises redirection of the first vehicle towards the drop off location.”
As to claim 15, prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitation mentioned within claim 15: “ …the first vehicle transmits information about the emergency situation to a central operation system via a wireless communication system separate from the line-of-sight communication system; and the central operation system provides the instruction to depart the platoon.”
As to claim 23, prior art of record does not teach or suggest the limitation mentioned within claim 23 : “ …at the first vehicle, receiving third information that requires the first vehicle to change the speed or direction of the first vehicle; determining whether the line-of-sight communication system is operational; and in accordance with a determination that the line-of-sight communication system is not operational and in response to the third information, sending fourth information to the second vehicle and via the wireless communication system.”
Any comments considered necessary by applicant must be submitted no later than the payment of the issue fee and, to avoid processing delays, should preferably accompany the issue fee. Such submissions should be clearly labeled “Comments on Statement of Reasons for Allowance.”
Examiner’s Notes
10. The Examiner acknowledges the following prior arts below as pertinent to the current applications claim limitations and inventive concept, although the following prior arts shown below were not relied upon to address the limitations within the claim , they are analogous art mentioning the inventive concept key points on ( Autonomous vehicle to vehicle communication, wireless communication , vehicle platooning system, optical communication, detection of obstacle within road way etc.).
1) Christian Krupitzer,"Towards Infrastructure-Aided Self-Organized Hybrid Platooning,"20th January 2019,2018 IEEE Global Conference on Internet of Things (GCIoT),Pages 1-6.
2) Mohammad Y. Abualhoul,"Platooning Control Using Visible Light Communications: A Feasibility Study,"30th January 2014, Proceedings of the 16th International IEEE Annual Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC 2013), The Hague, The Netherlands, October 6-9, 2013,Pages 1-5.
3) Susumu Ishihara, “Improving Reliability of Platooning Control Messages Using Radio and Visible Light Hybrid Communication,"21st January 2016,2015 IEEE Vehicular Networking Conference (VNC),Pages 96-100.
4) Siyang Zhao,"Vehicle to Vehicle Communication and Platooning for EV with Wireless Sensor Network," 01st October 2015,SICE Annual Conference 2015 July 28-30, 2015, Hangzhou, China, Pages 1435-1439.
5) Seyhan Ucar,"Security Vulnerabilities of IEEE 802.11p and Visible Light Communication Based Platoon,"30th January 2017,2016 IEEE Vehicular Networking Conference (VNC),Pages 1-2.
6) Mohammad Y. Abualhoul,"Enhancing the Field of View Limitation of Visible Light Communication-based Platoon,"13 November 2014,2014 IEEE 6th International Symposium on Wireless Vehicular Communications (WiVeC 2014),Pages 1-3.
7) Alin-Mihai C˘ailean,"Current Challenges for Visible Light Communications Usage in Vehicle Applications: A Survey,"23 May 2017,IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, VOL. 19, NO. 4, FOURTH QUARTER 2017, Pages 2681-2696.
8) Hua-Yen Tseng , "Characterizing link asymmetry in vehicle-to-vehicle Visible Light Communications,"21 January 2016, 2015 IEEE Vehicular Networking Conference (VNC), 16-18 Dec. 2015, Pages.88-94.
9) Mohammad Y. Abualhoul, " Visible Light Inter-Vehicle Communication for Platooning of Autonomous Vehicles,"08 August 2016, 2016 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV)Gothenburg, Sweden, June 19-22, 2016, Pages. 508-512.
10) Mate Boban et al., “Connected Roads of the Future,” 12th July 2018, IEEE vehicular technology magazine, September 2018, Pages 110-121.
11) Md Mahbubur Rahman et al., “Establishing Line-of-Sight Communication Via Autonomous Relay Vehicles,” 26th December 2016, MILCOM 2016 - 2016 IEEE Military Communications Conference, Pages 1-6.
12) Duo Lu , “ Platooning as a Service of Autonomous Vehicles,” 13th July 2017, 2017 IEEE 18th International Symposium on A World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks (WoWMoM),Pages 1-5.
13) Tran et al. (USPUB 20200020165)
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Conclusion
11. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Refer to PTO-892, Notice of Reference Cited for a listing of analogous art.
12. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMAR S ISMAIL whose telephone number is (571)272-9799 and Fax # ( 571) 273- 9799. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 9:00am-6:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, David C. Payne can be reached on ((571) 272-3024. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571)273-8300.
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/OMAR S ISMAIL/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2635
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