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 . In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claim 17 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claim(s) does/do not fall within at least one of the four categories of patent eligible subject matter because it claims computer readable medium that typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media comprising instructions to cause the vehicle controller to execute the steps of the method.
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.
Claim(s) 1-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Garcia et al. (EP2952993).
Regarding claim 1: Garcia discloses a method of controlling an autonomous vehicle which is movable on a surface, comprising:
initializing an occupancy grid with reference map data, wherein the occupancy grid comprises a plurality of cells, each of which represents a portion of the surface and is associated with a plurality of obstacle hypotheses and respective probability scores (fig. 1, Paragraphs 0037,0052, 0056-0058, 0070-0071);
repeatedly obtaining measurement data from one or more sensors (fig. 1, Paragraphs 0037,0052, 0056-0058, 0070-0071);
associating the obtained measurement data with corresponding cells in the occupancy grid; in each of said corresponding cells but not in any intervening cells between said corresponding cells and respective sensor-position cells, updating the probability score of at least one of the obstacle hypotheses in accordance with the obtained measurement data (fig. 1, Paragraphs 0037,0052, 0056-0058, 0070-0071);
outside said corresponding cells, evolving the probability scores based on the time elapsed since a latest update of these probability scores (fig. 1, Paragraphs 0037,0052, 0056-0058, 0070-0071); and
controlling the autonomous vehicle on the basis of the occupancy grid (fig. 1, Paragraphs 0037,0052, 0056-0058, 0070-0071).
Regarding claim 2: Garcia discloses wherein evolving the probability scores includes gradually approaching each probability score to a predefined limit value (Paragraph 0056-0058).
Regarding claim 3: Garcia discloses wherein a first predefined limit value applies to cells outside a field-of-view of the sensors from which the measurement data was obtained, and a second predefined limit value applies to cells in said field-of-view (Paragraph 0070-0071).
Regarding claim 4: Garcia discloses wherein the first predefined limit value represents that the obstacle hypothesis is non-confirmed (Paragraph 0056-0058).
Regarding claim 5: Garcia discloses wherein the second predefined limit value represents that the obstacle hypothesis is disproved (Paragraph 0056-0058).
Regarding claim 6: Garcia discloses wherein said evolving is performed on any intervening cells between said corresponding cells and respective sensor-position cells (fig. 1, Paragraphs 0037,0052, 0056-0058, 0070-0071).
Regarding claim 7: Garcia discloses wherein the updating of the probability scores is based on a comparison of the measurement data and the reference map data (fig. 1, Paragraphs 0037,0052, 0056-0058, 0070-0071).
Regarding claim 8: Garcia discloses wherein the updating of the probability scores is based on a comparison of a measured elevation and an elevation indicated by the reference map data (Paragraph 0058).
Regarding claim 9: Garcia discloses wherein updating the probability scores includes applying a recursive rule (Paragraph 0056-0058).
Regarding claim 10: wherein the probability scores are updated in accordance with a predefined scoring model, which is specific to the respective obstacle hypothesis and/or specific to the sensor from which the measurement data has been obtained (Paragraph 0056-0058, 0070-0071).
Regarding claim 11: Garcia discloses wherein the scoring model is dependent on an update rate and/or a spatial measurement density of the sensor (Paragraph 0053-0056).
Regarding claim 12: Garcia discloses wherein the obstacle hypotheses in the occupancy grid include one or more of the following: pothole, snow, ice, pollutant, physical object, terrain, absence of road, absence of road material (Paragraph 0038, physical object).
Regarding claim 13: Garcia discloses wherein the sensors apply at least one of the following measuring principles: optical, electromagnetic reflection, electromagnetic scattering, electromagnetic diffraction, lidar, color-depth sensing, millimeter-wave radar, ultra-wideband radar (Paragraph 0052).
Regarding claim 14: Garcia discloses wherein said controlling the autonomous vehicle includes aggregating the cell-wise probability scores of the obstacle hypotheses into an occupancy probability (Paragraph 0053-0056).
Regarding claim 15: Garcia discloses wherein said aggregating is restricted to cells on a tentative trajectory of the vehicle or to cells in a vicinity of the vehicle (Paragraph 0052).
Regarding claim 16: Garcia discloses a vehicle controller configured to control at least one autonomous vehicle movable on a surface, wherein the autonomous vehicle is controlled on the basis of an occupancy grid comprising a plurality of cells, each of which represents a portion of the surface and is associated with a plurality of obstacle hypotheses and respective probability scores (fig. 1, Paragraphs 0037,0052, 0056-0058, 0070-0071), the vehicle controller comprising:
an input interface for receiving measurements from one or more sensors; processing circuitry (fig. 1, Paragraphs 0037,0052, 0056-0058, 0070-0071); and
an output interface for supplying commands to the autonomous vehicle, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to perform the method of claim 1 (fig. 1, Paragraphs 0037,0052, 0056-0058, 0070-0071).
Regarding claims 17: this claims contain the same features and limitations as claims 1-15 above and are therefore rejected under the same basis and rationale.
Conclusion
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/MICHAEL D LANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3667