DETAILED ACTION
This is the first office action in response to U.S. application 18/865,425. All claims are pending.
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
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.
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.
Claims 1-2 and 5-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grant (US 20010045691) in view of Cartmill (US 20170327913) and further in view of Cheon (KR 101372726B1).
Regarding claim 1, Grant teaches a robot system (400) for operating a ([0033] discusses the utility vehicle 10 as shown in Fig. 1 which with the extendable arm 48 is interpreted as a robot system and is operating on converter vessel 16 (furnace)), wherein the
a furnace sidewall (220) and a floor (270) defining a container for holding a charge material (300) of liquid metal (306), and
a tap hole assembly (240) within the furnace sidewall (220), wherein the tap hole assembly comprises a tap hole block (242) wherein a tap hole bore (244) or channel runs through the tap hole block (242) to let the liquid metal (306) flow from the charge material (300), and out of the furnace body (200) (Fig. 1 shows the converter vessel 16 which has a sidewall and a floor defining the vessel, with [0004]-[0006] discussing the converter vessel as a furnace in which molten metal is removed through a tap hole formed in a well block of the furnace with Fig. 1 further showing tap hole channel 20 which is sealed by refractory material 26 as described in [0029]),
characterised in that the robot system further comprises and arm (420) for operating a tool (422) ([0033] discusses the multi-purpose utility vehicle with an extendable arm 48 which can have a drill mounted as an attachment)
([0036] discusses moving the multi-purpose utility vehicle adjacent to the furnace 16 in a drilling position where the vehicle is positioned so that the tap hole can be drilled).
Grant does not explicitly teach the furnace being a rotating arc furnace, a marker being provided on the furnace wall, or a fine positioning system comprising an optical system, wherein the fine position system uses optical system to track the marker to position the arm.
Cartmill teaches a BOF vessel that can also be an electric arc furnace with a taphole ([0013]-[0014]).
Grant teaches positioning a robot for the taphole of a furnace. Cartmill teaches the taphole structure of a rotating arc furnace. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of Grant with the rotating arc furnace of Cartmill as it utilizes each respective teaching in a conventional obvious to try manner such that no undue experimentation is required and yielded nothing more than predictable results, the predictable results being positioning of a taphole of a furnace.
Cheon teaches a marker being provided on the furnace wall, and a fine positioning system comprising an optical system, wherein the fine position system uses optical system to track the marker to position the arm (p. 5 line 58 – p. 6 line 12 discuss a system that uses a camera sensor so that a control unit operator can automatically move the excavating bit so that it is centered in the tap hole of a furnace based on the visual representation of the taphole (marker) as shown in Fig. 4).
Modified Grant teaches positioning a robot for the taphole of an electric arc furnace. Cheon teaches using a camera in determining a position of a taphole. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of modified Grant with the camera of Cheon as Cheon teaches that this prevents the operator from being in close proximity to the furnace making the system safer for the operator.
Regarding claim 2, Grant teaches a coarse positioning system (410), for use prior to the fine positioning system ([0033] discusses the multi-purpose utility vehicle being self-driven where self-driven movement of the vehicle is interpreted as coarse positioning prior to fine positioning with the extendable arm 48).
Regarding claim 5, Grant teaches a method for operating a robot system (400) for operating a([0033] discusses the utility vehicle 10 as shown in Fig. 1 which with the extendable arm 48 is interpreted as a robot system and is operating on converter vessel 16 (furnace)), according to claim 1,
wherein the
a furnace sidewall (220) and a floor (270), defining a container forholding a charge material (300) of liquid metal (306), and
a tap hole assembly (240) within the furnace sidewall (220), wherein the tap hole assembly comprises a tap hole block (242) wherein a tap hole bore(244) or channel runs through the tap hole block (242) to let the liquid metal (306) flow from the charge material (300), and out of the furnace body (200) (Fig. 1 shows the converter vessel 16 which has a sidewall and a floor defining the vessel, with [0004]-[0006] discussing the converter vessel as a furnace in which molten metal is removed through a tap hole formed in a well block of the furnace with Fig. 1 further showing tap hole channel 20 which is sealed by refractory material 26 as described in [0029]),
wherein the robot system further comprises
an arm (420) for operating a tool (422),
([0036] discusses moving the multi-purpose utility vehicle adjacent to the furnace 16 in a drilling position where the vehicle is positioned so that the tap hole can be drilled).
Grant does not explicitly teach the furnace being a rotating arc furnace, a marker being provided on the furnace wall, or a fine positioning system comprising an optical system, wherein the fine position system uses optical system to track the marker to position the arm.
Cartmill teaches a BOF vessel that can also be an electric arc furnace with a taphole ([0013]-[0014]).
Grant teaches positioning a robot for the taphole of a furnace. Cartmill teaches the taphole structure of a rotating arc furnace. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of Grant with the rotating arc furnace of Cartmill as it utilizes each respective teaching in a conventional obvious to try manner such that no undue experimentation is required and yielded nothing more than predictable results, the predictable results being positioning of a taphole of a furnace.
Cheon teaches a marker being provided on the furnace wall, and a fine positioning system comprising an optical system, wherein the fine position system uses optical system to track the marker to position the arm (p. 5 line 58 – p. 6 line 12 discuss a system that uses a camera sensor so that a control unit operator can automatically move the excavating bit so that it is centered in the tap hole of a furnace based on the visual representation of the taphole (marker) as shown in Fig. 4).
Modified Grant teaches positioning a robot for the taphole of an electric arc furnace. Cheon teaches using a camera in determining a position of a taphole. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of modified Grant with the camera of Cheon as Cheon teaches that this prevents the operator from being in close proximity to the furnace making the system safer for the operator.
Regarding claim 6, Grant teaches positioning a robot for the taphole of an electric arc furnace but does not explicitly teach the step of identifying the specific marker (280) and applying offset calibration specific to the marker
Cheon teaches the step of identifying the specific marker (280) and applying offset calibration specific to the marker (280) prior to positioning the arm (p. 6 lines 1-36 discuss the process of using the camera sensor with respect to the sensed exit (marker) to acquire calibration data to center the excavation bit).
Modified Grant teaches positioning a robot for the taphole of an electric arc furnace. Cheon teaches using a camera in determining a position of a taphole. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of modified Grant with the camera of Cheon as Cheon teaches that this prevents the operator from being in close proximity to the furnace making the system safer for the operator.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grant in view of Cartmill and Cheon and further in view of Zhao (US 20120290134).
Regarding claim 3, Modified Grant teaches using a camera but does not explicitly teach wherein the optical system (430) comprises two cameras for stereo imaging.
Zhao teaches wherein the optical system (430) comprises two cameras for stereo imaging ([0089] discusses the use of a stereo camera (two cameras) in determining the relationship between a manipulator and its environment).
Modified Grant teaches using a camera in robot positioning. Zhao teaches using a stereo camera in robot positioning. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of modified Grant with the stereo camera of Zhao as Zhao teaches that this allows for three dimensional point correspondence [0090].
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Grant in view of Cartmill, Cheon, and further in view of Calvi (US 20160047601).
Regarding claim 4, Grant teaches positioning a robot for the taphole of an electric arc furnace but does not explicitly teach wherein the marker (280) identifies the tap hole assembly from a plurality of tap hole assemblies, and is used for retrieving calibration data for guiding the tool with respect to the tap hole assembly.
Cheon teaches wherein the marker (280) identifies the tap hole assembly (p. 6 lines 1-36 discuss the process of using the camera sensor with respect to the sensed exit (marker) to acquire calibration data to center the excavation bit).
Modified Grant teaches positioning a robot for the taphole of an electric arc furnace. Cheon teaches using a camera in determining a position of a taphole. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of modified Grant with the camera of Cheon as Cheon teaches that this prevents the operator from being in close proximity to the furnace making the system safer for the operator.
Cheon does not teach identifying the tap hole assembly from a plurality of tap hole assemblies. Calvi teaches identifying the tap hole assembly from a plurality of tap hole assemblies ([0067]).
Modified Grant teaches positioning a robot for the taphole of an electric arc furnace. Calvi teaches identifying the tap hole assembly from a plurality of tap hole assemblies. It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the system of modified Grant with the system of Calvi as this would make the system more versatile in being able to work on furnaces even if they have multiple tap hole assemblies.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure: Volkert (US 20210318069) teaches maintaining a tap hole of an electric arc furnace; Stercho (US 20030086469) teaches a transport vehicle for displacing a scrap charger of an electric arc furnace; and Longo (US 20160123668) teaches an imaging device for remotely viewing a tap hole.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DANIELLE M JACKSON whose telephone number is (303)297-4364. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00-4:30 MT.
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/D.M.J./Examiner, Art Unit 3657 /ABBY LIN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3657