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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu, et al., US 2023/0014580 A1, in view of Webster, et al., US 11,422,565 B1.
As per Claim 1, Zhu teaches a computer-implemented method for area dividing in a map (¶ 76) for a mobile robot (¶¶ 248-249), the method comprising:
obtaining a target binary map of a target area (¶¶ 299, 301; based on a “binary code format”); and
obtaining a first area map and a second area map according to the target binary map (¶ 216; for ‘frequently visited areas” based on “customer traffic”).
Zhu does not expressly teach: obtaining a target area-dividing map of the target area according to the first area map and the second area map; and controlling the mobile robot according to the target area-dividing map. Webster teaches:
obtaining a target area-dividing map of the target area according to the first area map and the second area map (column 3, lines 5-9); and
controlling the mobile robot according to the target area-dividing map (column 4, lines 13-20).
At the time of the invention, a person of skill in the art would have thought it obvious to combine the map drawing method of Zhu with the robot control steps of Webster, in order to help the robot accomplish its objectives more efficiently and without impeding the travel paths of humans or pets.
As per Claim 8, Zhu teaches a mobile robot (¶¶ 165-166, 248-249) comprising:
one or more processors (¶ 168); and a memory coupled to the one or more processors (¶ 164), the memory storing programs that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause performance of operations comprising:
obtaining a target binary map of a target area (¶¶ 299, 301; based on a “binary code format”); and
obtaining a first area map and a second area map according to the target binary map (¶ 216; for ‘frequently visited areas” based on “customer traffic”).
Zhu does not expressly teach: obtaining a target area-dividing map of the target area according to the first area map and the second area map; and controlling the mobile robot according to the target area-dividing map. Webster teaches:
obtaining a target area-dividing map of the target area according to the first area map and the second area map (column 3, lines 5-9); and
controlling the mobile robot according to the target area-dividing map (column 4, lines 13-20).
See Claim 1 above for the rationale based on obviousness, motivations and reasons to combine.
As per Claim 15, Zhu teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions (¶¶ 71, 84) that, when executed by at least one processor of a mobile robot, cause the at least one processor to perform a method, the method comprising:
obtaining a target binary map of a target area (¶¶ 299, 301; based on a “binary code format”); and
obtaining a first area map and a second area map according to the target binary map (¶ 216; for ‘frequently visited areas” based on “customer traffic”).
Zhu does not expressly teach: obtaining a target area-dividing map of the target area according to the first area map and the second area map; and controlling the mobile robot according to the target area-dividing map. Webster teaches:
obtaining a target area-dividing map of the target area according to the first area map and the second area map (column 3, lines 5-9); and
controlling the mobile robot according to the target area-dividing map (column 4, lines 13-20).
See Claim 1 above for the rationale based on obviousness, motivations and reasons to combine.
As per Claims 2, 9 and 16, Zhu teaches that obtaining the target binary map of the target area comprises:
obtaining an initial binary map of the target area, wherein the initial binary map is generated by the mobile robot in a mapping process for the target area (¶¶ 299, 301); and
preprocessing the initial binary map to obtain the target binary map, wherein the preprocessing is denoising (¶¶ 168, 173, 184).
As per Claim 3, 10 and 17, Zhu teaches that obtaining the first area map and the second area map according to the target binary map comprises: extracting all of first areas in the target binary map whose lengths are greater than a first preset threshold to obtain the first area map (¶¶ 275, 368-369, 377); and that extracting all of second areas in the target binary map whose lengths are less than the first preset threshold to obtain the second area map (¶ 369; by “rejecting any candidate TSSC segment with a length differentiation larger than a fourth threshold”).
As per Claims 4, 11 and 18, Zhu teaches that obtaining the target area-dividing map of the target area according to the first area map and the second area map comprises: adding all of areas in the second area map that are larger in area than a second preset threshold to the first area map and update the first area map (¶ 168; based on “map-based” “thresholding” measurements), and updating the second area map (¶¶ 274-276).
Zhu does not expressly teach obtaining the target area-dividing map of the target area according to the updated first area map and the updated second area map. Webster teaches obtaining the target area-dividing map of the target area according to the updated first area map and the updated second area map (column 3, lines 5-9). See Claim 1 above for the rationale based on obviousness, motivations and reasons to combine.
As per Claims 5, 12 and 19, Zhu teaches that obtaining the target area-dividing map of the target area according to the first area map and the second area map comprises:
extracting a contour of each of the first areas in the first area map, and obtaining a first bounding rectangle for the contour of each of the first areas (¶ 170; as the “shape of the building can be, e.g., round, square, rectangular, triangle, or irregular-shaped”);
dividing each second area in the second area map, and obtaining a contour of each divided second area and a corresponding second bounding rectangle (¶ 316; as an “accessible room should typically appear roughly as a rectangle”); updating the first area map and the second area map according to the first bounding rectangles and the second bounding rectangles (¶ 342; as “each segment may be transformed/adjusted with a transformation”); and
obtaining the target area-dividing map of the target area according to the updated first area map and the updated second area map (¶ 344).
As per Claims 6, 13 and 20, Zhu teaches, after obtaining the target area-dividing map of the target area according to the first area map and the second area map, differentiating obstacle areas and working areas of the target area-dividing map by color, number or text labels (¶ 216; with an “identifier”).
As per Claim 7, Zhu does not expressly teach that controlling the mobile robot according to the target area-dividing map comprises: controlling the mobile robot to bypass the obstacle areas and operate in the working areas according to the target area-dividing map. Webster teaches that controlling the mobile robot according to the target area-dividing map comprises: controlling the mobile robot to bypass the obstacle areas (column 5, lines 15-18) and operate in the working areas according to the target area-dividing map (column 5, lines 45-48; “if the robot 104 is being used within a warehouse”). See Claim 1 above for the rationale based on obviousness, motivations and reasons to combine.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ATUL TRIVEDI whose telephone number is (313)446-4908. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri; 9:00 AM-5:00 PM EST.
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ATUL TRIVEDI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3661
/ATUL TRIVEDI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3661
