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 .
Examiner Note:
Cited references are bold italicized. Examiner interpretations are preceded with an asterisk *.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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, 3-8, 10-11, 13-18 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Horn et al. (US 20230063285 A1; hereinafter Horn) in view of Devoti et al. (US 20220321198 A1; hereafter Devoti).
Regarding claim 1, Horn teaches a controller for controlling an autonomous vehicle (see at least, [0092] A control node may refer to the entity that manages the different parameters and characteristics of the movable relay node 230, such as location, altitude; *Examiner interprets autonomous vehicle as movable relay node, e.g. [0051] a movable relay node…e.g., a flying element or a drone), the controller comprising: a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) transceiver configured to receive RIS signals from a RIS device (see at least, [0087] the UE 115 may request a drone configured with an RIS to augment communications with the base station 105; Fig 8, transceiver-815); a positioning signal receiver configured to receive positioning signals from a positioning signal transmitter (see at least, [0097] The movable relay node 230 may signal the location variance to the UE 115-a via a message 215…may be based on a predefined coordinate system…e.g., such as a geographic coordinate system); and a processor configured to: process the RIS signals to produce RIS data (see at least, [0085] The UE 115 may determine a location and pose where the drone may position itself to provide LOS connectivity (via the RIS) to the base station 105), process the positioning signals to produce positioning data (see at least, [0052] The location variance report may be an accuracy report, where the location variance report may characterize the variance of the drone's location (e.g., per axis) and transmit the information to the UE), and control operation of the autonomous vehicle based on the computed location (see at least, [0099] the control node (e.g., the UE 115-a) may instruct the movable relay node 230 to reposition due to high location variance relative to a measured beam width…whether to change position or not).
Horn does not explicitly teach fuse the RIS data and the positioning data using a data fusion algorithm to compute a location of the autonomous vehicle. However, Devoti teaches this limitation.
Devoti teaches fuse the RIS data and the positioning data using a data fusion algorithm to compute a location of the autonomous vehicle (see at least, [0073] RIS modeling assumes the location of transmitters, receivers and RIS to be known…GPS antennas may be built to keep the drone stable and its location fixed while hovering on selected areas).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Horn to include fuse the RIS data and the positioning data using a data fusion algorithm to compute a location of the autonomous vehicle as taught by Devoti in order to take into account the user location uncertainty (Devoti, [0052]).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the controller of claim 1. Horn further teaches wherein the RIS transceiver is further configured to transmit a wake-up signal to the RIS device thereby triggering the RIS device to transmit the RIS signals to the RIS transceiver (see at least, [0087] the UE 115 may request a drone configured with an RIS to augment communications with the base station 105…may determine a location and pose where the drone may position itself to provide LOS connectivity (via the RIS) to the base station 105).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the controller of claim 1. Horn further teaches wherein the processor is further configured to control operation of the autonomous vehicle by controlling at least one of speed, direction, acceleration, or attitude of the autonomous vehicle to navigate the autonomous vehicle to a destination relative to the RIS device (see at least, [0096] the movable relay node 230 may alter a pitch, a roll, a yaw, or a combination thereof associated with the movable relay node 230 such that an angle of a plane associated with the RIS 220…).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the controller of claim 1. Devoti further teaches wherein the received RIS signals are passive signals transmitted from the RIS transceiver and reflected from the RIS device (see at least, [0060] 1. UAV 210 provided with passive equipment to dynamically and optimally control the reflection angle of an incoming signal towards desired target areas in a proactive manner; [0061] 2. Passive surfaces), or the received RIS signals are active signals transmitted from the RIS device in response to a wake-up signal transmitted from the autonomous vehicle to the RIS device.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Horn to include the received RIS signals are passive signals transmitted from the RIS transceiver and reflected from the RIS device as taught by Devoti in order to apply controllable phase shifts to the incoming signal (Devoti, [0062]).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the controller of claim 1. Devoti further teaches wherein the processor is further configured to compute a relative location of the autonomous vehicle to the RIS device by trilateration based on the received RIS signals (see at least, [0041] FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a system layout with a transmitter, an RIS, and a receiving area…shows a coordinate plane spanning an x-axis (x), a y-axis (y), and a z-axis (z). The center of the RIS is located at position q=[q.sub.x,q.sub.y,q.sub.z]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Horn to include to compute a relative location of the autonomous vehicle to the RIS device by trilateration based on the received RIS signals as taught by Devoti in order to take into account unexpected oscillations which affect the RIS position and orientation (Devoti, [0041]).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the controller of claim 1. Horn further teaches wherein the positioning signal receiver is further configured to receive the positioning signals as at least one of a global positioning system (GPS) signals or cellular signals (see at least, [0097] The location variance may be characterized based on per-axis measurements. The movable relay node 230 may signal the location variance to the UE 115-a via a message 215 (e.g., via physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH) or PDSCH)…may be based on a predefined coordinate system…e.g., such as a geographic coordinate system).
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the controller of claim 1. Horn further teaches wherein the processor is further configured to compute the location of the autonomous vehicle by computing an initial position based on the positioning signals and adjusting the initial position based on channel parameters computed from the RIS signals (see at least, [0096] The movable relay node
230 may move to the signaled location and adjust one or more operating parameters associated with the movable relay node 230 based on the signaled location and pose…may alter a pitch, a roll, a yaw, or a combination thereof associated with the movable relay node 230 such that an angle of a plane associated with the RIS 220).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the controller of claim 1. Devoti further teaches wherein the processor is further configured to weight contributions of the RIS data and the positioning data for computing the location of the autonomous vehicle based on channel parameters computed from the RIS signals and the positioning signals and based on relative location of the autonomous vehicle to the RIS device (see at least, [0046] The RIS configuration processor 302
includes an optimization features derivation block 308 and a maximization over area samples of the minimum expected signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) 310…includes a UAV position and oscillation
statistics extraction block 312 and an area sampling block 314).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Horn to include weight contributions of the RIS data and the positioning data for computing the location of the autonomous vehicle based on channel parameters computed from the RIS signals and the positioning signals and based on relative location of the autonomous vehicle to the RIS device as taught by Devoti in order to take into account the user location uncertainty (Devoti, [0052]).
Regarding claim 11, Horn teaches a method for controlling an autonomous vehicle (see at least, [0092] A control node may refer to the entity that manages the different parameters and characteristics of the movable relay node 230, such as location, altitude; *Examiner interprets autonomous vehicle as movable relay node, e.g. [0051] a movable relay node…e.g., a flying element or a drone), the method comprising: receiving, by a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) transceiver of the autonomous vehicle, RIS signals from a RIS device (see at least, [0087] the UE 115 may request a drone configured with an RIS to augment communications with the base station 105; Fig 8, transceiver-815); receiving, by a positioning signal receiver of the autonomous vehicle, positioning signals from a positioning signal transmitter (see at least, [0097] The movable relay node 230 may signal the location variance to the UE 115-a via a message 215…may be based on a predefined coordinate system…e.g., such as a geographic coordinate system); processing, by a processor of the autonomous vehicle, the RIS signals to produce RIS data (see at least, [0085] The UE 115 may determine a location and pose where the drone may position itself to provide LOS connectivity (via the RIS) to the base station 105); processing, by the processor of the autonomous vehicle, the positioning signals to produce positioning data (see at least, [0052] The location variance report may be an accuracy report, where the location variance report may characterize the variance of the drone's location (e.g., per axis) and transmit the information to the UE); and controlling, by the processor of the autonomous vehicle, operation of the autonomous vehicle based on the computed location ([0099] the control node (e.g., the UE 115-a) may instruct the movable relay node 230 to reposition due to high location variance relative to a measured beam width…whether to change position or not).
Horn does not explicitly teach fusing, by the processor of the autonomous vehicle, the RIS data and the positioning data using a data fusion algorithm to compute a location of the autonomous vehicle. However, Devoti teaches this limitation.
Devoti teaches fusing, by the processor of the autonomous vehicle, the RIS data and the positioning data using a data fusion algorithm to compute a location of the autonomous vehicle (0073] RIS
modeling assumes the location of transmitters, receivers and RIS to be known…GPS antennas may be built to keep the drone stable and its location fixed while hovering on selected areas).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Horn to include fusing, by the processor of the autonomous vehicle, the RIS data and the positioning data using a data fusion algorithm to compute a location of the autonomous vehicle as taught by Devoti in order to take into account the user location uncertainty (Devoti, [0052]).
Regarding claim 13, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the method of claim 11. Horn further teaches comprising: transmitting, by the RIS transceiver, a wake-up signal to the RIS device thereby triggering the RIS device to transmit the RIS signals to the RIS transceiver ([0087] the UE 115 may request a drone configured with an RIS to augment communications with the base station 105…may determine a location and pose where the drone may position itself to provide LOS connectivity (via the RIS) to the base station 105).
Regarding claim 14, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the method of claim 11. Horn further teaches comprising: controlling, by the processor operation of the autonomous vehicle by controlling at least one of speed, direction, acceleration, or attitude of the autonomous vehicle to navigate the autonomous vehicle to a destination relative to the RIS device (see at least, [0096] the movable relay node 230 may alter a pitch, a roll, a yaw, or a combination thereof associated with the movable relay node 230 such that an angle of a plane associated with the RIS 220…).
Regarding claim 15, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the method of claim 11. Devoti further teaches comprising: receiving, by the RIS transceiver, the received RIS signal as passive signals transmitted from the RIS transceiver and reflected from the RIS device (see at least, [0060] 1. UAV 210 provided with passive equipment to dynamically and optimally control the reflection angle of an incoming signal towards desired target areas in a proactive manner; [0061] 2. Passive surfaces), or receiving, by the RIS transceiver, the received RIS signals as active signals transmitted from the RIS device in response to a wake-up signal transmitted from the autonomous vehicle to the RIS device.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Horn to include the received RIS signals are passive signals transmitted from the RIS transceiver and reflected from the RIS device as taught by Devoti in order to apply controllable phase shifts to the incoming signal (Devoti, [0062]).
Regarding claim 16, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the method of claim 11. Devoti further teaches comprising: computing, by the processor, a relative location of the autonomous vehicle to the RIS device by trilateration based on the received RIS signals (see at least, [0041] FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a system layout with a transmitter, an RIS, and a receiving area…shows a coordinate plane spanning an x-axis (x), a y-axis (y), and a z-axis (z). The center of the RIS is located at position q=[q.sub.x,q.sub.y,q.sub.z]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Horn to include to compute a relative location of the autonomous vehicle to the RIS device by trilateration based on the received RIS signals as taught by Devoti in order to take into account unexpected oscillations which affect the RIS position and orientation (Devoti, [0041]).
Regarding claim 17, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the method of claim 11. Horn further teaches comprising: receiving, by the positioning signal receiver, the positioning signals as at least one of global positioning system (GPS) signals or cellular signals (see at least, [0097] The location variance may be characterized based on per-axis measurements. The movable relay node 230 may signal the location variance to the UE 115-a via a message 215 (e.g., via physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH) or PDSCH)…may be based on a predefined coordinate system…e.g., such as a geographic coordinate system).
Regarding claim 18, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the method of claim 11. Horn further teaches comprising: computing, by the processor, the location of the autonomous vehicle by computing an initial position based on the positioning signals and adjusting the initial position based on channel parameters computed from the RIS signals (see at least, [0096] The movable relay node 230 may
move to the signaled location and adjust one or more operating parameters associated with the movable relay node 230 based on the signaled location and pose…may alter a pitch, a roll, a yaw, or a combination thereof associated with the movable relay node 230 such that an angle of a plane associated with the RIS 220).
Regarding claim 20, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the method of claim 11. Devoti further teaches comprising: weighting, by the processor, contributions of the RIS data and the positioning data for computing the location of the autonomous vehicle based on channel parameters computed from the RIS signals and the positioning signals and based on relative location of the autonomous vehicle to the RIS device (see at least, [0046] The RIS configuration processor 302 includes an optimization features derivation block 308 and a maximization over area samples of the minimum expected signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) 310…includes a UAV position and oscillation statistics extraction block 312 and an area sampling block 314).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified Horn to include weighting, by the processor, contributions of the RIS data and the positioning data for computing the location of the autonomous vehicle based on channel parameters computed from the RIS signals and the positioning signals and based on relative location of the autonomous vehicle to the RIS device as taught by Devoti in order to take into account the user location uncertainty (Devoti, [0052]).
Claims 2 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Horn et al. (US 20230063285 A1; hereinafter Horn) in view of Devoti et al. (US 20220321198 A1; hereafter Devoti) in further view of Bhattacherjee et al. (US 20250096849 A1; hereinafter Bhattacherjee).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the controller of claim 1. The combination does not explicitly teach wherein the RIS transceiver is further configured to receive additional RIS signals from at least one additional RIS device, and wherein the processor is further configured to compute the location of the autonomous vehicle relative to a reference location associated with the RIS device and the at least one additional RIS device based on the RIS signals and the additional RIS signals. However, Bhattacherjee teaches these limitations.
Bhattacherjee teaches the RIS transceiver is further configured to receive additional RIS signals from at least one additional RIS device (see at least, [0075] the vehicle 302 includes a plurality of RISs 304), and wherein the processor is further configured to compute the location of the autonomous vehicle relative to a reference location associated with the RIS device and the at least one additional RIS device based on the RIS signals and the additional RIS signals (see at least, [0093] the RIS condition information may include or correspond to a threshold or set of thresholds…thresholds may include…a position threshold …based on vehicle position or heading change).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the combination of Horn and Devoti to include the RIS transceiver is further configured to receive additional RIS signals from at least one additional RIS device, and wherein the processor is further configured to compute the location of the autonomous vehicle relative to a reference location associated with the RIS device and the at least one additional RIS device based on the RIS signals and the additional RIS signals as taught by Bhattacherjee in order to determine whether to change the current RIS configuration based measurement information (Bhattacherjee, [0214]).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the method of claim 11. The combination does not explicitly teach further comprising: receiving, by the RIS transceiver, additional RIS signals from at least one additional RIS device; and computing, by the processor, the location of the autonomous vehicle relative to a reference location associated with the RIS device and the at least one additional RIS device based on the RIS signals and the additional RIS signals. However, Bhattacherjee teaches these limitations.
Bhattacherjee teaches receiving, by the RIS transceiver, additional RIS signals from at least one additional RIS device (see at least, [0075] the vehicle 302 includes a plurality of RISs 304), and computing, by the processor, the location of the autonomous vehicle relative to a reference location associated with the RIS device and the at least one additional RIS device based on the RIS signals and the additional RIS signals (see at least, [0093] the RIS condition information may include or correspond to a threshold or set of thresholds…thresholds may include…a position threshold …based on vehicle position or heading change).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the combination of Horn and Devoti to include receiving, by the RIS transceiver, additional RIS signals from at least one additional RIS device; and computing, by the processor, the location of the autonomous vehicle relative to a reference location associated with the RIS device and the at least one additional RIS device based on the RIS signals and the additional RIS signals as taught by Bhattacherjee in order to determine whether to change the current RIS configuration based measurement information (Bhattacherjee, [0214]).
Claims 9 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Horn et al. (US 20230063285 A1; hereinafter Horn) in view of Devoti et al. (US 20220321198 A1; hereafter Devoti) in further view of Shimizu et al. (US 20250142513 A1; hereinafter Shimizu).
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the controller of claim 1. The combination does not explicitly teach wherein the processor is further configured to fuse the RIS data and the positioning data using the fusion algorithm comprising an extended Kalman filter that adjusts weights of the RIS data and the positioning data to compute the location of the autonomous vehicle. However, Shimizu teaches this limitation.
Shimizu teaches wherein the processor is further configured to fuse the RIS data (see at least, [0041] the control module 220 uses information about the RIS…e.g., position, direction) and the positioning data (see at least, [0082] The automated driving module(s) 160 can determine the position…of the vehicle 100 ) using the fusion algorithm comprising an extended Kalman filter (see at least, [0047] the control module 220 uses a signal processing method…e.g., Kalman filter to fuse multiple sensor measurements and position estimates to derive the current position of the vehicle 100) that adjusts weights of the RIS data and the positioning data to compute the location of the autonomous vehicle (see at least, [0057] the control module 220 computes a position of the vehicle 100 using the signal and a compensation parameter).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the combination of Horn and Devoti to include the processor is further configured to fuse the RIS data and the positioning data using the fusion algorithm comprising an extended Kalman filter that adjusts weights of the RIS data and the positioning data to compute the location of the autonomous vehicle as taught by Shimizu so that reconstructing the path can function as the compensation parameter (Shimizu, [0057]).
Regarding claim 19, the combination of Horn and Devoti teaches the method of claim 11. The combination does not explicitly teach further comprising: fusing, by the processor, the RIS data and the positioning data using the fusion algorithm comprising an extended Kalman filter that adjusts weights of the RIS data and the positioning data to compute the location of the autonomous vehicle. However, Shimizu teaches this limitation.
Shimizu teaches fusing, by the processor, the RIS data (see at least, [0041] the control module 220 uses information about the RIS…e.g., position, direction) and the positioning data (see at least, [0082] The automated driving module(s) 160 can determine the position…of the vehicle 100 ) using the fusion algorithm comprising an extended Kalman filter (see at least, [0047] the control module 220 uses a signal processing method…e.g., Kalman filter to fuse multiple sensor measurements and position estimates to derive the current position of the vehicle 100) that adjusts weights of the RIS data and the positioning data to compute the location of the autonomous vehicle (see at least, [0057] the control module 220 computes a position of the vehicle 100 using the signal and a compensation parameter).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have further modified the combination of Horn and Devoti to include fusing, by the processor, the RIS data and the positioning data using the fusion algorithm comprising an extended Kalman filter that adjusts weights of the RIS data and the positioning data to compute the location of the autonomous vehicle as taught by Shimizu so that reconstructing the path can function as the compensation parameter (Shimizu, [0057]).
Conclusion
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/TOYA PETTIEGREW/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3662