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 .
Status of the Application
2. Claim 1-20 have been examined in this application. This communication is the first action on the merits.
Drawings
3. The drawings filed on 9/20/24 are acceptable for examination proceedings.
Specification
4. The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 6, and 14 recites the similar limitation and 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.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
5. 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.
6. Claims 1-4, 7-12, and 15-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a) (1) as being anticipated by Cella (US PG Pub: 2018/0284758).
7. Regarding claim 1, Cella discloses:
A method for managing operation of a distributed system, the method comprising: obtaining, by a control system of the distributed system, at least simplified directed flows indicating potential future operation of the distributed system (e.g., In embodiments, a system for data collection in an industrial environment may comprise: an industrial system comprising a plurality of components, and a plurality of sensors each operatively coupled to at least one of the plurality of components; a sensor communication circuit structured to interpret a plurality of sensor data values in response to a sensed parameter group, the sensed parameter group comprising at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors; a pattern recognition circuit structured to determine a recognized pattern value in response to a least a portion of the plurality of sensor data values; and a system characterization circuit structured to provide a system characterization value for the industrial system in response to the recognized pattern value. In embodiments, a characterization value may include at least one characterization value selected from the characterization values consisting of: a predicted outcome for a process associated with the industrial system; a predicted future state for a process associated with the industrial system) (Para. [1129]);
obtaining, by the control system and using the at least the simplified directed flows, a failure likelihood for at least one device of the distributed system (e.g., a prediction value for one of the plurality of components; a future state value for one of the plurality of components. The system characterization value may include at least one characterization value selected from the characterization values consisting of: a predicted off-nominal operation for one of the plurality of components; a predicted fault operation for one of the plurality of components; and a predicted exceedance value for one of the plurality of components.) (Para. [1129]);
analyzing, by the control system, the failure likelihood and a root cause of the failure to identify at least one proactive management process for reducing an impact of the failure (e.g., When failures occur, or conditions of a portion of a machine in an industrial environment reach a critical point prior to failure, such as may be detected during preventive maintenance and the like, back-calculation may be useful in determining information to gather that might help avoid the failure and/or improve system performance—for example, by avoiding substantive degradation in component operation. Visualizing data collection sources, components related to a condition, algorithms that may determine the potential onset of the condition and the like may facilitate preparation of data collection templates for configuring data sensing, routing, and collection resources in a system for data collection in an industrial environment. In embodiments, configuring a data collection template for a system for collecting data in an industrial environment may be based on back-calculations applied to machine failures that identify candidate conditions to monitor for avoiding the machine failures. The resulting template may identify sensors to monitor, sensor data collection path configuration, frequency, and amount of data to collect, acceptable levels of sensor data, and the like. With access to information about the machine, such as which parts closely relate to others and sensors that collected data from parts in the machine, a data collection system configuration template may be automatically generated when a target component is identified.) (Para. [1198]);
updating operation of the at least one device or another device of the distributed system based on the at least one proactive management process to obtain an updated at least one device (e.g., Referring to FIG. 284, the methods and systems described herein for hydrogen production, storage, distribution, use, and control may be coupled with predictive maintenance methods and systems to facilitate improvements in operation with less unplanned downtime and fewer component failures. In the embodiment of FIG. 284, predictive maintenance facility 5903 may be configured to operate on a processor associated with or more particularly integrated with a hydrogen production, storage, and use facility. Alternatively, predictive maintenance facility may be configured to operate on a processor that is not integrated, such as a cloud computer, a stand alone computer, a networked server, and the like. Predictive maintenance facility 5903 may receive input from various system sensors 5905 along with information from various data sets, such as a use/maintenance model 5915, warranty and standards rules 5919, and an archive of sensor data and analytics derived there from 5917, among other sources.) (Para. [2129]);
and providing, by the updated at least one device of the distributed system, computer implemented services during the failure (e.g., In embodiments, methods and systems related to hydrogen production, storage, distribution and use may include, be associated with, or integrate improvement features that may provide ongoing improvements in system performance, quality and the like. In embodiments, improvement features may include process control and heat recovery, flow control and precision control, safety, reliability and greater service availability, process and output quality including output consistency. Other features that may be provided and/or be integrated with the hydrogen-based systems described herein may include data collection, analysis, and modeling for improvement, data security, cyber security, network security to avoid external attacks on control systems and the like, monitoring and analysis to facilitate preventive maintenance and repair.) (Para. [2181]).
8. Regarding claim 2, Cella discloses:
The method of claim 1, wherein the proactive management process comprises reducing dependency on data hosted by the at least one device for continuity of computer implemented services provided by the distributed system (e.g., A storage backup plan 12590 or profile may account for or specify a plan for backup or redundancy of stored data, such as indicating redundant locations and managing any or all of the above factors for a backup storage location. In certain embodiments, the storage security plan 12586 and/or storage backup plan 12590 may specify parameters such as data retention, long-term storage plans (e.g., migrate the stored data to a different storage media after a period of time and/or after certain operations in the system are performed on the data), physical risk management of the data and/or storage media (e.g., provision of the data in multiple geographic regions having distinct physical risk parameters, movement of the data when a storage location experiences a physical risk, refreshing the data according to a predicted life cycle of a long-term storage media, etc.)) (Para. [1616]).
9. Regarding claim 3, Cella discloses:
The method of claim 1, wherein the at least simplified directed flows comprises a plurality of flows of state transitions, and likelihoods of the flows occurring in the future (e.g., As described elsewhere herein, an expert system in an industrial environment may use sensor data to make predictions about outcomes or states of the environment or items in the environment. Data collection may be of various types of data (e.g., vibration data, noise data and other sensor data of the types described throughout this disclosure) for event detection, state detection, and the like. For example, the expert system may utilize ambient noise, or the overall sound environment of the area and/or overall vibration of the device of interest, optionally in conjunction with other sensor data, in detecting or predicting events or states. For example, a reciprocating compressor in a refinery, which may generate its own vibration, may also have an ambient vibration through contact with other aspects of the system.) (Para. [1021]).
10. Regarding claim 4, Cella discloses:
The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one proactive management process comprises migrating management of the another device to a local control plane that is not dependent on the at least one device (e.g., A storage backup plan 12590 or profile may account for or specify a plan for backup or redundancy of stored data, such as indicating redundant locations and managing any or all of the above factors for a backup storage location. In certain embodiments, the storage security plan 12586 and/or storage backup plan 12590 may specify parameters such as data retention, long-term storage plans (e.g., migrate the stored data to a different storage media after a period of time and/or after certain operations in the system are performed on the data), physical risk management of the data and/or storage media (e.g., provision of the data in multiple geographic regions having distinct physical risk parameters, movement of the data when a storage location experiences a physical risk, refreshing the data according to a predicted life cycle of a long-term storage media, etc.)) (Para. [1616]).
11. Regarding claim 7, Cella discloses:
The method of claim 1, wherein the failure likelihood is further obtained using condition data for the distributed system, the condition data indicating conditions impacting the distributed system (e.g., The selection of the plurality of sensors 8106 for a data monitoring device 8100 designed for a specific component or piece of equipment may depend on a variety of considerations such as accessibility for installing new sensors, incorporation of sensors in the initial design, anticipated operational and failure conditions, resolution desired at various positions in a process or plant, reliability of the sensors, and the like. The impact of a failure, time response of a failure (e.g., warning time and/or off-nominal modes occurring before failure), likelihood of failure, and/or sensitivity required, and/or difficulty to detect failure conditions may drive the extent to which a component or piece of equipment is monitored with more sensors, and/or higher capability sensors being dedicated to systems where unexpected or undetected failure would be costly or have severe consequences.) (Para. [0607]).
12. Regarding claim 8, Cella discloses:
The method of claim 7, wherein the conditions comprise at least one selected from a list consisting of: available computing resources for use during a next control window for the distributed system; estimated workload during the next control window; a security posture of at least the device; and a network security risk level of a network to which the distributed system is exposed (e.g., Other features that may be provided and/or be integrated with the hydrogen-based systems described herein may include data collection, analysis, and modeling for improvement, data security, cyber security, network security to avoid external attacks on control systems and the like, monitoring and analysis to facilitate preventive maintenance and repair.) (Para. [2181]).
13. Regarding claim 9, Claim 9 recites a non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor that implement the method of claim 1, with substantially the same limitations, respectively. Therefore the rejection applied to claim 1 also applies to claim 9 respectively.
Wherein Cella further teaches a non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor (Refer to Para. [1807]).
14. Regarding claim 10-12, as to claim 10-12, applicant is directed to the citation for claim 2-4 above.
15. Regarding claim 15-16, as to claim 15-16, applicant is directed to the citation for claim 7-8, respectively above.
16. Regarding claim 17, Claim 17 recites a data processing system that implement the method of claim 1, with substantially the same limitations, respectively. Therefore the rejection applied to claim 1 also applies to claim 17 respectively.
17. Regarding claim 18-20, as to claim 18-20, applicant is directed to the citation for claim 2-4 above.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
18. 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.
19. Claim 5, and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cella in view of Sforzin (Pub: 2023/0236753).
20. Regarding claim 5, Cella teaches the method of claim 1 but does not specifically teach wherein the at least one proactive management process comprises reducing a duration of a prediction window for the at least simplified directed flows.
Sforzin teaches wherein the at least one proactive management process comprises reducing a duration of a prediction window for the at least simplified directed flows (e.g., and reducing a margin of the minimum window limit and predicting whether the detected region will have at least one error in the future) (Claim 14).
Because Sforzin is also directed to a predictive sanitization method for preventing the occurrence of a failure in memory to enhance media reliability, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, having teachings of cella and Sforzin before him/her, to modify the teachings of Cella to include the teaching of Sforzin in order to predict the possibility of failure and prevent the occurrence of an error in advance, to thereby prolong the life of components (Sforzin: Para. [0005]).
21. Regarding claim 13, as to claim 13, applicant is directed to the citation for claim 5 above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's
disclosure.
Kumar P (Pub: 2020/0034211) disclose methods, techniques, and systems for determining reliability of workload migration activities in the virtual computing environments (Para. [0002]).
Perneti (Pub: 2022/0091915) disclose In the present embodiment, alerts or notifications generated by the device failure prediction service 102 are provided over network 106 to client devices 104, or to a system administrator, information technology (IT) manager, or other authorized personnel via one or more security or host agents (Para. [0033]).
Examples of such remedial measures may include, for a storage device that is predicted to fail, backing up data from that storage device to another prior to failure, applying file system check or other utilities to mitigate the risk of failure, replacing the storage device, etc. Similar remedial measures may be used for other types of device. For example, for a server that is predicted to fail, remedial measures may include migrating workloads or applications hosted on that server to another, running utilities to mitigate the risk of failure, replacing components of the server that are likely to cause the predicted failure, etc. (Para. [0033]).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIGNESHKUMAR C PATEL whose telephone number is (571)270-0698. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 7:00 AM - 5:00 PM.
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/JIGNESHKUMAR C PATEL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2116
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