DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5-9, 11-13, 18, 28-36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Skyum (WO2021198053) in view of Bonnet (US6005211).
Referring to claim 1. Skyum et al (“herein “Skyum”) discloses a “Pick and Place Robot System, Method, Use, and Sorter System”. See Figs. 1-8 and respective portions of the specification. Skyum further discloses a robot system for handling a stream of objects of various shapes and sizes in bulk, the system comprising: a feeder system (FC), a pick and place robot comprising a controllable gripper (G) with gripping members (M1, M2) arranged to engage a surface of the object, and a controllable robotic actuator (RA) arranged to move the griper (See at least Pg. 2 L. 10-20; Pg. 50 L. 1-15), a sensor system (CM) providing an image of objects upstream of the pick and place robot’s position, and a control system (CS) executing a control algorithm to identify objects, select which object to grip, control the gripping configuration in response to properties of the selected object, control the robotic actuator to move the gripper to a gripping position, grip the object, and move/release the object at a target position (See at least Pg. 2 L. 10 – Pg. 3 L. 3; Pg. 50 L. 20 – Pg. 51 L. 3). Skyum does not disclose a transfer platform comprising means for multi-directional transfer of the objects and a plurality of destination slots arranged around the transfer platform, or a scanner system reading information on the objects for the purpose of controlling transfer of the object from a receiving point to a selected destination slot in accordance with scanner information. It should be noted that Skyum does disclose a scanner (CM) for providing a 3D image for object identification. Bonnet discloses a “Method and Apparatus For Sorting Articles Using Matrix of Conveyor Cells”. See Figs. 1-23 and respective portions of the specification. Bonnet further discloses a matrix of stationary conveyor cells, including a plurality of the cells positioned to form at least two transversely extending rows of adjacent conveyor cells and at least two longitudinally of adjacent conveyor cells, an input cell of the conveyor cells in a first extending row being positioned to receive objects from the object source; a controller connected to operate a plurality of the conveyor cells in the matrix individually to discharge an object thereon in one of a plurality of directions; a plurality of destination locations positioned adjacent to the conveyor cells in at least one of the transverse rows other than the first transverse row; a reader positioned adjacent to the steam of objects to read destination information borne by the objects, the controller being responsive to the reader to guide each object received by the input cell from cell to cell through the matrix to a destination location corresponding to the destination information (See at least Col. 5 L. 10-45, Col. 9 L. 20 – Col. 10 L. 60, Claim 1). Likewise, Bonnet further discloses an optical scanner (22) is mounted above the feed conveyor (20), so as to be able to scan a package (25), the packages provided with labels/codes, in which the controller assigns a destination bin (160) to the a package based on the information read by the scanner, and maps a path through the system from cell to cell. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Bonnet with the system of Skyum to incorporate the Bonnet’s matrix of conveyor cells multi-directional sorting platform and scan-driven destination location routing, as this would allow a system be capable of sorting in multiple directions therefore utilizing less floor space.
Referring to claims 2-3. Skyum in view of Bonnet discloses the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Skyum doesn’t disclose wherein the transfer platform is organized as a grid with a plurality of substantially orthogonal transport rows or wherein the means for multi-directional transfer comprises a system substantially orthogonal conveyor. Bonnet discloses a plurality of the cells positioned to form at least two transversely extending rows of adjacent conveyor cells and further discloses cells arranged in transversely and longitudinally extending rows of substantially orthogonal conveyors. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the transfer platform sorter configuration as taught by Bonnet as it would allow the system to be capable of sorting objects in multiple directions to multiple rows.
Referring to claim 5. Skyum in view of Bonnet discloses the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Skyum doesn’t disclose wherein the means for multi-directional transfer comprises multiple individually driven conveyor modules arranged in a grid configuration on the transfer platform. Bonnet discloses a controller connected to operate a plurality of the conveyor cells in the matrix individually to discharge an object thereon in one of a plurality of directions (See at least Col. 5 L. 10-45, Col. 9 L. 20 – Col. 10 L. 60, Claim 1). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Bonnet to include the multi-directional transfer means comprising means for omni-directional transfer, as this would allow for independently controlling each cells discharge direction and allow for object by object routing.
Referring to claims 6-7. Skyum in view of Bonnet discloses the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Skyum doesn’t explicitly disclose comprises a plurality of receiving points in one or more rows adjacent a feeding section, and wherein the robot system can reach all of said receiving points or wherein the destination slots are destination bins such as roller cages. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to modify the system of Skyum to configure the robot’s working envelop to match the full extent of the zone from which it must pick objects to increase efficiency and throughput. It should further be noted that it would have been obvious matter of design choice to make the destination slots as destination bins such as roller cages, since applicant has not disclosed that doing so solves any stated problem or is for any particular purpose and is merely a matter of design option when the general knowledge in the relevant field of the art is used.
Referring to claim 8. Skyum in view of Bonnet discloses the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Skyum doesn’t disclose wherein the destination slots preferably comprise chutes for receiving the object from the transfer platform and directing said object into collection means, such as the destination bin and more preferably the chutes are modular in order to change the layout in a short time. Bonnet discloses chutes, and specifically an output chute comprising a chute input sensor assembly, a vertical lift assembly that contains destination locations leading to output chutes at different levels. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Bonnet to include destination slots comprises as chutes and directing objects to collection means, and wherein the chutes were of a modular construction as it would permit rapid layout reconfiguration and allow for adaptable capacity.
Referring to claim 9. Skyum in view of Bonnet discloses the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Skyum discloses a sensor system comprising a 3D camera (CM) mounted on a fixed position to provide a 3D image (IM) of an image area upstream of the position of the pick and place robot (See at least Pg. 21 L. 12-17) before the object reaches the gripping area and is picked.
Referring to claim 11. Skyum in view of Bonnet discloses the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Skyum doesn’t disclose wherein the scanner system is adapted to read information in the form of scan codes on the objects. Bonnet discloses that packages comprise labels on which are printed optically encoded symbols such as bar codes or two-dimensional codes, that are read by an optical scanner. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement Skyum’s scanner system, which already reads information on each of the objects, to drive routing decisions using Bonnets bar cord/2D-code reading technology, as this would allow for a more efficient scanning to object identification to routing process.
Referring to claim 12. Skyum in view of Bonnet discloses the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Skyum discloses wherein the pick and place robot system comprises at least one portal structure carrying the one or more controllable robots in a gantry configuration and being controllably movable along said portal structure, and wherein the at least one robot is configured with a controllable gripper arranged for picking objects from the at least first feeder section and placing objects on the adjacent transfer platform on which the objects are individually conveyed to the allocated destination slot. More specifically, Skym discloses a robotic actuator (RA) in a gantry type actuator which allows a movable part of the robotic actuator to move along the elongated elements to move a controllable gripper (G) (See at least Pg. 19 L. 27-35, Fig. 3).
Referring to claim 13. Skyum in view of Bonnet discloses the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Skyum discloses wherein the pick and place robot system comprises a plurality of controllable robots each comprising a controllable articulated arm, such as a six-axis controllable articulated arm. More specifically, Skyum discloses the robotic actuator (RA) is a robotic manipulator arm comprising at least three joints or axes (See PG. 20 L. 5-6) and further discloses multiple robots operating together (See Pg. 15, L. 22-26, Figs. 5a-5c, 7-8).
Referring to claim 18. Skyum in view of Bonnet discloses the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Skyum doesn’t disclose wherein the destination slots are provide in the grid on the transfer platform. Bonnet discloses destination locations positioned adjacent to the conveyor cells within the matrix structure. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate the teachings of Bonnet into the system of Skyum as the destination slots provided in the grid on the transfer platform would allow for the system to take up less floor space and being accommodating for multi-directional transfer of objects to destination slots.
Referring to claim 28. Skyum in view of Bonnet discloses the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Skyum further discloses the system handling objects comprising at least one of mail pieces, parcels, baggage, items handled at a warehouse distribution, items handled at a mail order distribution centre, and items handled at a smalls handling centre (See at least Pg. 1 L. 8-11, Pg. 17 L. 1-4).
Referring to claim 29-36. With respect to claims 29-36, the method described in these claims would inherently result from the use of Skyum’s “Pick and Place Robot System, Method, Use and Sorter System” and Bonnet’s “Method and Apparatus For Sorting Articles Using A Matrix of Conveyor Cells” as advanced above.
Claim(s) 4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Skyum (WO2021198053) in view of Bonnet (US6005211) and further view of Zhang (WO2019062310).
Referring to claim 4. Skyum in view of Bonnet discloses the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Skyum doesn’t disclose wherein the means for multi-directional transfer comprises means for omni-directional transfer of the objects, which comprises a plurality of mobile robots or AGV’s adapted for moving along the rows of the grid. Zhang discloses a “System Method For Automatically Transferring Article”. See Figs. 1-10 and respective portions of the specification. Zhang further discloses a steel platform sorting system in which the steel platform is provided with a number of sorting grids, and a chute and an item container are arranged under each sorting grid, wherein an intelligent robot runs along a calculated path on the steel platform and places the package into the designated sorting compartment. Likewise, Zhang discloses mobile robots as automated guided vehicles. It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to substitute Zhang’s mobile robot/AGV based grid transfer mechanism for Bonnet’s fixed conveyor cell matrix in the combination, as would allow the system to achieve multi-directional object transfer across a sortation grid and have objects routed to selected destination locations on a grid platform.
Claim(s) 10, 27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Skyum (WO2021198053) in view of Bonnet (US6005211) and further view of Wagner (WO20200151407).
Referring to claim 10. Skyum in view of Bonnet discloses the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Skyum does not disclose wherein the scanner system is provided at the robot system, for instance so that an object is picked by a robot from the bulk and presented to the scanner for scanning. Wagner discloses a “System and Method For Separating Objects Using a Vacuum Roller With One or More Object Processing Systems”. See Figs. 1-73 and respective portions of the specification. Wagner further discloses a 3D scanner system in which the 3D scanners are directed toward a common volume in which the object (197) is positioned while attached to the end effector (118) of a robot, such that the object is scanned after being grasped by the robot’s gripper (See Sect. 0121). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to incorporate Wagner’s grasped object scanning arrangement into the combination as an improvement to the scanner system wherein object identification via imaging was achieved and implemented into the control scheme for the robots for automated object handling.
Referring to claim 27. Skyum in view of Bonnet discloses the combination as set forth above as applied to claim 1. Skyum discloses wherein a plurality of robot systems share components such as sensor system and part of the control system (See Pg. 16 L. 16-20). Wagner discloses a plurality of complete object processing/induction system arranged together or in parallel (See Sect. 0149) and that the operation of the systems can be controlled by one or more computer processing systems (Sect. 0144). It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the combination such that the combined sorter system is provided as discrete modules controlled by a single, control system, as one control system would reduce cost, avoid redundant uncoordinated control system, and enable coordinated load balancing across modules.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 19-26 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
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/TERRELL H MATTHEWS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3653
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