DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
This Office Action is sent in response to Applicant’s Communication received on September 7, 2024 for application number 18/827,672. This Office hereby acknowledges receipt of the following and placed of record in file: Specification, Drawings, Abstract, Oath/Declaration, and Claims.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d). No certified copies have been filed for the parent application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on September 7, 2024 and December 5, 2025 are noted. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are considered by the examiner.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-9, 13-15 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Matsuno et al. (US PG Pub No. 2016/0132055), hereinafter “Matsuno”.
Regarding claim 1, Matsuno discloses a vehicle control system (Fig. 1 (1)) comprising: a brake device (Fig. 1 (22)) configured to perform a brake operation of a vehicle (Vehicle not shown but mentioned); a steering sensor (Fig. 2; paragraph 22) configured to detect operation of a steering wheel (Fig. 2 (34)) of the vehicle; and one or more controllers (Fig. 2 (10, 23)) configured to: detect a failure of an electric power steering (EPS) system (Fig. 2 (30); paragraphs 42, 43, 45); determine a target yaw rate of the vehicle based on the detected operation of the steering wheel of the vehicle in response to detection of the failure of the EPS system (paragraphs 45, 47, 48); and control the brake device to generate a differential braking force required for the determined target yaw rate of the vehicle when the failure of the EPS system is detected (paragraphs 31, 43, 48).
Regarding claim 2, Matsuno discloses the vehicle control system of claim 1, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to: when a direction of the determined target yaw rate of the vehicle is a direction in which the vehicle moves to a left, control the brake device to generate a left-sided differential braking force, and when the direction of the determined target yaw rate of the vehicle is a direction in which the vehicle moves to a right, control the brake device to generate a right-sided differential braking force (paragraphs 17, 25, 35, 47 and 48).
Regarding claim 3, Matsuno discloses the vehicle control system of claim 1, wherein: the steering sensor is configured to generate steering operation information based on the detected operation of the steering wheel of the vehicle, the one or more controllers are configured to determine the target yaw rate of the vehicle based on the steering operation information, and the steering operation information includes a rotation angle of the steering wheel and/or a torque of the steering wheel (paragraphs 42, 43, 45, 47-56).
Regarding claim 4, Matsuno discloses the vehicle control system of claim 1, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to receive final steering state information about the vehicle as feedback and use the final steering state information as a correction factor when generating the differential braking force (paragraphs 37, 38).
Regarding claim 5, Matsuno discloses the vehicle control system of claim 4, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to receive disturbance information related to an external action occurring while the vehicle is traveling and use the disturbance information as the correction factor when generating the differential braking force (paragraphs 37, 38).
Regarding claim 6, Matsuno discloses the vehicle control system of claim 5, wherein the disturbance information includes a friction force of a road on which the vehicle is traveling and/or a slope of the road (paragraphs 37, 38).
Regarding claim 7, Matsuno discloses the vehicle control system of claim 6, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to receive the final steering state information and the disturbance information through a controller area network (CAN) of the vehicle (paragraphs 42, 43, 45, 47-56).
Regarding claim 8, Matsuno discloses the vehicle control system of claim 1, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to control rear wheels of the vehicle such that the rear wheels of the vehicle are steered to a rear wheel steering angle required for the determined target yaw rate of the vehicle (paragraphs 42, 43, 45).
Regarding claim 9, Matsuno discloses the vehicle control system of claim 8, wherein the one or more controllers are configured to generate rear wheel steering information including the rear wheel steering angle (paragraphs 42, 43, 47-56).
Regarding claim 13, Matsuno discloses a method for controlling a vehicle, the method comprising: detecting a failure of the EPS system (30); detecting, by a steering sensor (Fig. 2 (30); paragraphs 42, 43, 45), operation of a steering wheel of a vehicle; determining, by one or more controllers (Fig. 2 (10, 23)), a target yaw rate of the vehicle based on the detected operation of the steering wheel of the vehicle when the failure of the EPS system is detected (paragraphs 45, 47, 48); and controlling, by the one or more controllers (Fig. 2 (10, 23)), a brake device to generate a differential braking force required for the determined target yaw rate of the vehicle when the failure of the EPS system is detected (paragraphs 31, 43, 48).
Regarding claim 14, Matsuno discloses the method of claim 13, wherein the controlling of the brake device to generate the differential braking force required for the determined target yaw rate of the vehicle comprises: when a direction of the determined target yaw rate is a direction in which the vehicle moves to a left, controlling the brake device to generate a left-sided differential braking force, and when the direction of the calculated target yaw rate is a direction in which the vehicle moves to a right, controlling the brake device to generate a right-sided differential braking force (paragraphs 17, 25, 35, 47 and 48).
Regarding claim 15, Matsuno discloses the method of claim 13, further comprising controlling rear wheels of the vehicle such that the rear wheels of the vehicle are steered to a rear wheel steering angle required for the determined target yaw rate (paragraphs 42, 43, 45).
Regarding claim 20, Matsuno discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, in response to execution by one or more processors (paragraphs 42, 43, 45, 47-56), cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising: detecting a failure of the EPS system (30); detecting operation of a steering wheel of a vehicle (Fig. 2 (30); paragraphs 42, 43, 45); determining a target yaw rate of the vehicle based on the detected operation of the steering wheel of the vehicle when the failure of the EPS system is detected (paragraphs 45, 47, 48); and controlling a brake device to generate a differential braking force required for the determined target yaw rate of the vehicle when the failure of the EPS system is detected (paragraphs 31, 43, 48).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 10-12 and 16-19 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMAR MORALES whose telephone number is (571)272-5923. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday thru Friday.
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, Lindsay Low can be reached on (571)272-1196. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see https://ppair-my.uspto.gov/pair/PrivatePair. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/O.M/Examiner, Art Unit 3747
/LINDSAY M LOW/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3747