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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/14/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement(s) is/are being considered by the examiner.
Status of Claims
This Office action is in reply to filing by applicant on 10/14/2024.
Claims 1 – 20 are currently pending and have been examined.
This action is made non-final.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112(b)
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Independent claim 1 (and the dependent claims thereon, 2 – 20) are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Independent claim 1 utilizes the claim term:
… the target object comprises a boundary and an obstacle;
which claim term renders the independent claim herein as vague and indefinite.
A person of ordinary skill in the art might come to at least two different yet reasonable conclusions as to what thing or what things actually satisfy the claim term:
“… the target object comprises a boundary and an obstacle.
The above term could reasonably mean that there are both an obstacle and a boundary here that comprise one single “object” /thing. For example, a brick wall that’s designated as a boundary may also easily be a physical “obstacle” to the autonomous lawnmower. However, an imaginary or surveyed map-based boundary line in the field may not necessarily also be an “obstacle” (in addition to its boundary representation) to the autonomous lawnmower. The line is sometimes just projected from the map to the field so that interested persons would have knowledge as to where such line is. The lawnmower however could propel itself right over such a boundary “line” (or where it’s projected to be). So, a brick wall physical impediment which is also used as a boundary line seems to satisfy the claim term, but a map-based boundary line’s projection (a painted stripe, for example) into the field (quite common) would not.
There is nothing in the entire Disclosure that draws any distinction and /or attention to the above potential scenario, whereby a brick wall (which clearly could be both a boundary and a physical obstacle) might satisfy the rejected claim limitation (the invention), however a map based projected line in the field (painted boundary but non-physical obstacle) may not, at least without also bringing in some other “obstacle”, which would then force the claim term to refer to two different things. An “object” as it were can refer to several things (i.e., a caravan - an object - could easily be a grouping of cars, i.e., things).
There is nothing at all in the entire disclosure to indicate that the “boundary” can permissibly be a brick wall, but cannot be a map based boundary (not necessarily impenetrable to the lawnmower movement, and very common), i.e., that any such boundary must be physical to function with the invention, or that the invention is only compatible with physical barriers as boundary, and does not work with map based boundaries.
The claim term is indefinite.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 1 – 20 would be allowable if rewritten or amended to overcome the additional rejection herein pursuant to 35 U.S.C. 112(b), and/or rewritten in independent claim form. The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Independently, while the claims' limitations most recently set forth herein may individually be disclosed by the prior art, the claims as a whole are not obvious because the examiner would have to improperly use their separate limitations as a road map to combine them.
CONCLUSION
The following prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Please see attached form 892.
Qi (US20190384316A1) – A smart lawn mower comprises a traveling control module configured to control the traveling and steering of the mower, an image capturing module configured to capture the surrounding images of the mower, an operation module configured to provide a surrounding-determination information, and a storage module configured to store the surrounding-determination information. The operation module determines a grass area by analyzing the surrounding images captured by the image capturing module. The mower defines a grass area accurately without a predetermined boundary.
Brown (US11582903B2) – Vision based guidance system and method for lawn mowing devices are disclosed. An exemplary method for operating an autonomous lawn mower includes receiving, via a receiver, a perimeter data set from a handheld computer. The perimeter data set includes a perimeter outline of at least one perimeter that is determined utilizing a GPS unit of the handheld computer. The exemplary method also includes collecting, via at least one camera, images of a set area within the perimeter outline and mowing, via a mowing blade, grass within the set area. The exemplary method also includes autonomously steering, via a controller, the autonomous lawn mower based on the perimeter outline of the at least one perimeter and the images captured by the at least one camera.
Einecke (US10321625B2 – The invention regards an autonomous working machine comprising drive means, current position estimation means, control means including a driving control unit and a camera. With aid of the current position estimation means the current position of the autonomous working machine is estimated. Furthermore, the driving control unit generates driving commands for the driving means on the basis of an intended movement of the autonomous working machine and the estimated current position. The camera is configured to capture images of the environment of the working machine. For estimating the current position, the current position estimation means is formed by the control means, which is configured to apply visual odometry on the captured images for estimating the current position of the working machine.
Milioto (US12310283B2) – A method and apparatus for modeling the environment proximate an autonomous system. The method and apparatus accesses vision data, assigns semantic labels to points in the vision data, processes points that are identified as being a drivable surface (ground) and performs an optimization over the identified points to form a surface model. The model is subsequently used for detecting objects, planning, and mapping.
Franzius (US20170108867A1) - An autonomous vehicle comprises an environment sensing means for sensing an environment of the autonomous vehicle, and a computing unit configured to perform a mapping function and a localization function. The mapping function is based upon signals supplied from the environment sensing means to build a map. The localization function localizes the autonomous vehicle within the map and generates localization information. The autonomous vehicle further comprises boundary distance sensing means configured to generate a distance signal correlated to a distance between the autonomous vehicle and boundary indication means. The computing unit is configured to receive the distance signal and to perform the mapping function or the localization function based upon a signal from the environment sensing means and the distance signal from the boundary distance sensing means. The system also comprises a boundary wire indicating a border of an area in which autonomous driving of the vehicle can be performed.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW COBB whose telephone number is (571) 272-3850. The examiner can normally be reached 9 - 5, M - F.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to call examiner Cobb as above, or to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Peter Nolan, can be reached at (571) 270-7016. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is (571) 273-8300.
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/MATTHEW COBB/Examiner, Art Unit 3661
/PETER D NOLAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3661
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