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.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to because Figs. 3 and 4 are in gray-scale rather than composed of solid line drawings. See 37 CFR 1.84(a)(1) and 37 CFR 1.84 (l). Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being clearly anticipated by Pickett et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0177449).
In reference to claim 1, Pickett discloses an agricultural harvester 10 comprising:
a header 16;
a feeder-house 18;
one or more processors 86; and
memory (par. 0046) storing instructions, executable by the one or more processors 86, that, when executed by the one or more processors 86, cause the one or more processors 86 to:
identify one or more topographic characteristics of upcoming terrain at a worksite based on data indicative of the one or more topographic characteristics of the upcoming terrain at the worksite (par. 0032, topographic database 76);
identify a future alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 at the upcoming terrain at the worksite based, at least, on the identified one or more topographic characteristics of the upcoming terrain at the worksite (Fig. 4, steps 126 and/or 128);
identify one or more adjustments based on the identified future alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 at the upcoming terrain at the worksite (Fig. 4, steps 130 and/or 132); and
control one or more controllable subsystems of the agricultural harvester 10 based on the identified one or more adjustments (Fig. 4, step 134).
In reference to claim 2, Pickett discloses an attachment frame 12 coupled to the feeder-house 18 and moveable control arms 68 coupled to the attachment frame 12 and the header 16, wherein the future alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 comprises a future alignment between a reference point on the header 16 and a reference point on the attachment frame 12 (Fig. 1, any alignment between the header 16 and feeder-house 18 would result in an alignment between some arbitrary reference points on the header 16 and feeder-house 18).
In reference to claim 3, Pickett discloses that the data indicative of the one or more topographic characteristics comprises one of: a map of the worksite (par. 0032); data generated during a historical operation at the worksite (par. 0032); or sensor data generated by an observation sensor system 74 on the agricultural harvester (par. 0045).
In reference to claim 4, Pickett discloses that the one or more adjustments include a feeder-house 18 position adjustment (par. 0029, via lift cylinders 68), wherein the one or more controllable subsystems include one or more feeder-house position actuators 68, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors 86, cause the one or more processors 86 to control the one or more feeder-house position actuators 68 based on the feeder-house position adjustment (Fig. 3, steps 102-114).
In reference to claim 5, Pickett discloses that the one or more adjustments include a header position adjustment (par. 0029, via tilt cylinder 69), wherein the one or more controllable subsystems include one or more header position actuators 69, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors 86, cause the one or more processors 86 to control the one or more header position actuators 69 based on the header position adjustment (Fig. 4, steps 122-134).
In reference to claim 6, Pickett discloses that the one or more adjustments include a feeder-house position adjustment and a header position adjustment (par. 0029), wherein the one or more controllable subsystems include one or more feeder-house position actuators 68 and one or more header position actuators 69 (Fig. 1), and wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors 86, cause the one or more processors 86 to control the one or more feeder-house position actuators 68 based on the feeder-house position adjustment and to control the one or more header position actuators 69 based on the header position adjustment (Figs. 3 and 4).
In reference to claim 7, Pickett discloses that the one or more adjustments include an alignment adjustment that indicates an adjusted target alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18, wherein the one or more controllable subsystems include one or more actuators 69 (par. 0029) operable to adjust alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors 86, cause the one or more processors 86 to control the one or more actuators 69 based on the alignment adjustment (Fig. 4).
In reference to claim 8, Pickett discloses that the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors 86, further cause the one or more processors 86 to:
compare the identified future alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 at the upcoming terrain at the worksite to a target alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 (Fig. 4, steps 124-128); and
identify the one or more adjustments based on the comparison between the identified future alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 at the upcoming terrain at the worksite and the target alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 (Fig. 4, steps 130 and 132).
In reference to claim 9, Pickett discloses a computer implemented method of controlling an agricultural harvester 10, the computer implemented method comprising:
obtaining data relative to upcoming terrain at a worksite (par. 0032, within database 76);
identifying one or more topographic characteristics of upcoming terrain at the worksite based on the data (Fig. 4, step 126);
identifying a future alignment between a header 16 of the agricultural harvester 10 and a feeder-house 18 of the agricultural harvester 10 at the upcoming terrain at the worksite based, at least, on the identified one or more topographic characteristics of the upcoming terrain at the worksite (Fig. 4, steps 126 and 128);
identifying one or more adjustments based on the identified future alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 at the upcoming terrain at the worksite (Fig. 4, steps 130 and 132) ; and
controlling one or more controllable subsystems 69 of the agricultural harvester 10 based on the identified one or more adjustments (Fig. 4, step 134).
In reference to claim 10, Pickett discloses that identifying the future alignment comprises identifying a future alignment between a reference point corresponding to the header 16 and a reference point corresponding to the feeder-house 18 at the upcoming terrain at the worksite based, at least, on the identified one or more topographic characteristics of the upcoming terrain at the worksite (Fig. 1, any identified alignment between the header 16 and feeder-house 18 would result in an identified alignment between arbitrary reference points on the header 16 and feeder-house 18).
In reference to claim 11, Pickett discloses that obtaining data relative to the upcoming terrain at the worksite comprises obtaining a map of the worksite (par. 0032); obtaining data generated during a historical operation at the worksite (par. 0032); or obtaining sensor data generated by an observation sensor system 45 on the agricultural harvester 10 (par. 0045).
In reference to claim 12, Pickett discloses that identifying the one or more adjustments includes identifying a feeder-house position adjustment (Fig. 3, step 110), wherein controlling one or more controllable subsystems includes controlling one or more feeder-house position actuators 68 (par. 0029) based on the identified feeder-house position adjustment (Fig. 4, step 114).
In reference to claim 13, Pickett discloses that identifying the one or more adjustments includes identifying a header position adjustment (Fig. 4, steps 130 and 132), wherein controlling one or more controllable subsystems includes controlling one or more header position actuators 69 (par. 0029) based on the identified header position adjustment (Fig. 4, step 134).
In reference to claim 14, Pickett discloses that identifying the one or more adjustments includes identifying an alignment adjustment that indicates an adjusted target alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 (Fig. 4, steps 130 and 132), wherein controlling one or more controllable subsystems includes controlling one or more actuators 69 (par. 0029) to adjust alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 based on the alignment adjustment (Fig. 4, step 134).
In reference to claim 15, Pickett discloses comparing the identified future alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 at the upcoming terrain at the worksite to a target alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 (Fig. 4, steps 124-128); and
wherein identifying the one or more adjustments comprises identifying the one or more adjustments based on the comparison between the identified future alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 at the upcoming terrain at the worksite and the target alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 (Fig. 4, steps 130 and 132).
In reference to claim 16, Pickett discloses an agricultural system comprising:
one or more processors 86; and
memory (par. 0046) storing instructions, executable by the one or more processors 86, that, when executed by the one or more processors 86, cause the one or more processors to:
identify one or more topographic characteristics of upcoming terrain at a worksite based on data indicative of the one or more topographic characteristics of the upcoming terrain at the worksite (par. 0032, topographic database 76);
identify a future alignment between a header 16 of an agricultural harvester 10 and a feeder-house 18 of the agricultural harvester 10 at the upcoming terrain at the worksite based, at least, on the identified one or more topographic characteristics of the upcoming terrain at the worksite (Fig. 4, steps 126 and/or 128);
identify one or more adjustments based on the identified future alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 at the upcoming terrain at the worksite (Fig. 4, steps 130 and 132); and
control one or more controllable subsystems of the agricultural harvester based on the identified one or more adjustments (Fig. 4, step 134).
In reference to claim 17, Pickett discloses that the one or more adjustments include a feeder-house position adjustment (Fig. 3), wherein the one or more controllable subsystems include one or more feeder-house position actuators 68 (par. 0029), and wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors 86, cause the one or more processors 86 to control the one or more feeder-house position actuators 68 based on the feeder-house position adjustment (Fig. 3, step 114).
In reference to claim 18, Pickett discloses that the one or more alignment adjustments include a header position adjustment (Fig. 4), wherein the one or more controllable subsystems include one or more header position actuators 69 (par. 0029), and wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors 86, cause the one or more processors 86 to control the one or more header position actuators 69 based on the header position adjustment (Fig. 4, step 134).
In reference to claim 19, Pickett discloses that the one or more adjustments include an alignment adjustment that indicates an adjusted target alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 (Fig. 4, steps 130 and 132), wherein the one or more controllable subsystems include one or more actuators 69 operable to adjust alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors 86, cause the one or more processors 86 to control the one or more actuators 69 based on the alignment adjustment (fig. 4, step 134).
In reference to claim 20, Pickett discloses that the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors 86, further cause the one or more processors 86 to:
compare the identified future alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 at the upcoming terrain at the worksite to a target alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 (Fig. 4, steps 124-128); and
identify the one or more adjustments based on the comparison between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 at the upcoming terrain at the worksite and the target alignment between the header 16 and the feeder-house 18 (Fig. 4, steps 130 and 132).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Schlipf (US Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0000034) discloses controlling the alignment between a header 22 and a feeder-house 34 (Figs. 4-6); Vendeven et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0100155) discloses controlling a header 1100 relative to a feeder-house 1102 (Figs. 11 and 12); Vandike et al. (US Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0110237) discloses a combine harvester 100 with a feeder-house 106 and header 102 controlled by an actuator 107 (Fig. 1).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRAD HARCOURT whose telephone number is (571)272-7303. The examiner can normally be reached Monday through Friday, 9am to 6pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Doug Hutton can be reached at (571)272-4137. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/BRAD HARCOURT/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3674
7/09/26
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