Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to communications filed on 10/1/2024. Claims 1-10 and 12-13 have been preliminarily amended, claim 11 has been preliminarily cancelled and claim 14 has been newly added. Accordingly, claims 1-10 & 12-14 are pending.
Claim Objections
Claims 13 & 14 are objected to because of the following informalities: the claim is an independent claim written in dependent format. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1- 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Janardhanan et al.
Janardhanan discloses:
1: A method of controlling a motion support system in a heavy commercial vehicle, the method comprising:
repeatedly selecting a current drive mode from a plurality of predefined drive modes (see Janardhanan at least II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept: cruise mode, startability mode, power mode);
solving a quadratic programming, (QP) problem related to optimal control of independently controlled actuators in the motion support system in accordance with a current state of the vehicle and subject to constraints representing actuator limits, wherein the independently controlled actuators include at least two electric motors at respective axles and a set of service brakes (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept: motion prediction and coordination); and
utilizing a solution of the QP problem for controlling the motion support system (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept: motion prediction and coordination);
wherein the predefined drive modes include:
a first drive mode, in which the QP problem represents a control allocation problem for the motion support system and the QP problem is independent of power loss (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept: motion prediction and coordination); and
a second drive mode, in which the QP problem represents minimal power loss in the motion support system (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept: motion prediction and coordination).
2: wherein the constraints representing actuator limits are variable in accordance with the current state of the vehicle (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept, modeling and simulation).
3: wherein the QP problem in the second drive mode includes relationships between power loss and torque for at least two of the actuators (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept, modeling and simulation).
4: wherein the QP problem in the second drive mode includes relationships between power loss and torque for at least one of the actuators in quadratic form and for at least another one of the actuators in linear form (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept, modeling and simulation).
5: wherein the relationships between power loss and torque are smooth approximations of measurements or simulations (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept, modeling and simulation).
6: wherein the QP problem relates to optimal control of independently controlled actuators which two independent electric motors include an electric motor arranged as a cruise actuator and a further electric motor arranged as a startability actuator (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept, modeling and simulation).
7: wherein the QP problem relates to optimal control of independently controlled actuators which include one type of independent electric motors arranged on include an electric drive axle with cruise actuators and a further type of independent electric motors arranged on an electric axle with startability actuators (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept, modeling and simulation, table 1).
8: wherein the cruise actuators and startability actuators differ with respect to gear ratio (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept, modeling and simulation, table 1).
9: wherein the QP problem relates to optimal control of actuators in a motion support system which has an electric propulsion power of at most 20 kW/ton, such as at most 10 kW/ton, such as at most 5 kW/ton (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept, modeling and simulation, table 1).
10: wherein the QP problem relates to optimal control of actuators in a motion support system which is operable to provide a decelerating force of at least 3 kN/ton, such as at least 4 kN/ton, such as at least 5 kN/ton (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept, modeling and simulation, table 1).
12: A controller configured to control a motion support system in a heavy commercial vehicle, the controller comprising: an input interface configured to receive data indicative of a current vehicle state; processing circuitry configured to perform the method of any of the preceding claims; and an output interface configured to feed control signals to the motion support system (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept, modeling and simulation).
13: A computer program comprising instructions to cause a controller of claim 12 to execute the method of claim 1; wherein the controller is configured to control a motion support system in a heavy commercial vehicle (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept, modeling and simulation).
14: A heavy commercial vehicle comprising a motion support system and the controller of claim 12 (see Janardhanan at least fig. 1-12 & II. Cruise and Startability Electric Axle Concept, modeling and simulation).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MACEEH ANWARI whose telephone number is 571-272-7591. The examiner can normally be reached on 9-9:30.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Angela Ortiz can be reached on 571-272-1206. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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MACEEH . ANWARI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3663
/MACEEH ANWARI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3663