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 .
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 1-4, 11, 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Olin (US 2025/0074416) in view of Heath (US 20250332926)
As to claim 1 Olin discloses a method of controlling a first battery and a second battery for supplying power to a wheel driving motor placed in a vehicle, the method comprising:
obtaining, by a controller, driving habit data of a driver related to a discharging power of the first battery or the second battery to supply to the driving motor or a charging power supplied to the first battery or the second battery by regenerated energy from the driving motor for one or more driving situations(Paragraph 33 “For example, at 202, the method 200 may recognize a driving style based on one or more driving features (e.g., which may include one or more measurements). The systems and methods described herein may be configured to analyze driving behavior to store data in a driver profile that can be used for the prediction of a speed profile or for alerts related to energy savings. The driving features may include instantaneous velocity, pedal positions (e.g., acceleration and braking), distance to stop signs, distance to speed limit charge, speed limit offset, any other suitable driving feature, or a combination thereof. The systems and methods described herein may be configured to determine, based on the driving features, aggressiveness related driving style parameters, which are used in speed profile prediction. For example, an increase in aggressive driving may lead to a decrease in energy efficiency, while an increase in conservative driving may produce the opposite effect, which has an impact on RDR in the vehicle.”, Paragraph 98 “The PAC 124 may determine a current SoC of a vehicle battery of the vehicle 10. For example, the PAC 124 may receive data from one or more of the sensors of the vehicle 10, including, but not limited to, a battery sensor configured to determine the SoC of the vehicle battery. It should be understood that while a single vehicle battery is described herein, the vehicle 10 may include any suitable number of batteries and the PAC 124 may estimate the remaining range of the vehicle 10 using the SoC of each battery. THE sPAC 124 may use a state of energy of the battery in addition to or instead of the state of charge of the battery.”);
determining, by the controller, at least one or more driving sections based on the one or more driving situations for an expected driving route (Paragraph 36 “At 206, the method 200 analyzes segment energy usage using a physics-based model and a road load equation. For example, the systems and methods described herein may be configured to determine battery energy consumption for the predicted speed profile using a ML approach or a stochastic approach. The route may be composed of individual segments. The systems and methods described herein may be configured to identify speed profiles and elevation profiles for each segment using the information generate at 202 and 204.”);
determining, by the controller, an expected power based on the driving habit data for each of the at least one or more driving sections(Paragraph 33 “For example, at 202, the method 200 may recognize a driving style based on one or more driving features (e.g., which may include one or more measurements). The systems and methods described herein may be configured to analyze driving behavior to store data in a driver profile that can be used for the prediction of a speed profile or for alerts related to energy savings. The driving features may include instantaneous velocity, pedal positions (e.g., acceleration and braking), distance to stop signs, distance to speed limit charge, speed limit offset, any other suitable driving feature, or a combination thereof. The systems and methods described herein may be configured to determine, based on the driving features, aggressiveness related driving style parameters, which are used in speed profile prediction. For example, an increase in aggressive driving may lead to a decrease in energy efficiency, while an increase in conservative driving may produce the opposite effect, which has an impact on RDR in the vehicle.”);
determining, by the controller, use plans of the first battery and the second battery based on the corresponding expected power for each of the at least one or more driving sections (Paragraph 34 “At 204, the method 200 predicts a speed profile, using a physical-based model. The systems and methods described herein may be configured to use the route information, the traffic conditions, and/or the driving style parameters to predict the speed profile for a route. The systems and methods described herein may be configured to extract route features from maps or navigation systems that may provide information regarding the road typology, distance between coordinates, elevation and/or grade, speed limit, stop sign (SS) locations, traffic light (TL) locations, alternative routes, location of charging/refill stations on the route, and/or the like.”); and
Olin does not explicitly disclose executing, by the controller, discharging or charging of the first battery and the second battery according to the use plans.
Heath teaches executing, by the controller, discharging or charging of the first battery and the second battery according to the use plans (Paragraph 23 “An eco mode activation planner according to implementations of this disclosure can anticipate road sections where a more responsive performance may be beneficial, thus temporarily deactivating eco mode for optimal energy use. For example, if the eco mode activation planner predicts an upcoming freeway on-ramp, merge zone, or significant incline along the vehicle's route, the system can proactively deactivate eco mode. This ensures that the driver has immediate access to the full acceleration capabilities of the BEV for these maneuvers. Additionally, the planner can leverage route data such as upcoming downhills. In anticipation of a downhill section where regenerative braking is possible, the eco mode activation planner might strategically keep eco mode deactivated on a preceding uphill section. This helps manage battery state-of-charge, ensuring ample capacity to capture the energy generated during regenerative braking on the downhill section.”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Olin to include the teachings of controlling the charging and discharging of the battery for the purpose of optimizing battery efficiency.
As to claim 2 Olin discloses a method wherein the one or more driving situations are determined based on map data (Paragraph 69).
As to claim 3 Olin discloses a method wherein the at least one or more driving sections include at least one of a city road section, a mountain road section, a highway section, a national highway section, or a regenerative braking section (Paragraph 42).
As to claim 4 Olin discloses a method wherein the expected driving route includes a route to a destination based on map data (Paragraph 40).
As to claim 11 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 1.
As to claim 13 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 3.
As to claim 14 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 4.
Claims 5, 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Olin (US 2025/0074416) in view of Heath (US 20250332926) as applied to claim 1 above, and in further view of Wray (US 12,523,481)
As to claim 5 Wray teaches a method wherein obtaining the driving habit data comprises:
repeating for a predetermined number of times the obtaining of the driving habit data for each driving situation to determine an average power during a predetermined driving distance (Column 27 lines 34-58); and
determining an average value by applying a standard normal distribution to data of the average power obtained by the repeating for the predetermined number of times (Column 17 lines 4-17). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Olin to include the teaching of determining an average power for the purpose of determining the amount of energy used in a given segment.
As to claim 15 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 5.
Claims 6-8, 12, 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Olin (US 2025/0074416) in view of Heath (US 20250332926) as applied to claim 1, and in further view of Kelty (US 2012/0041627)
As to claim 6 Kelty teaches a method wherein determining the use plans comprises comparing the expected power corresponding to each of the at least one or more driving sections with a predetermined high-efficiency output power of a lower voltage battery between the first battery and the second battery (Paragraph 45, 58). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Olin to include the teachings of determining expected power split between for the two batteries for the purpose of optimizing the operation of the power sources of the vehicle.
As to claim 7 Kelty teaches a method wherein determining the use plans further comprises:
determining to use the lower voltage battery in a section where the corresponding expected power is equal to or smaller than the output power among the at least one or more driving sections(Paragraph 7); and
determining to use another battery than the lower voltage battery in a section where the corresponding expected power is greater than the output power(Paragraph 7).
As to claim 8 Kelty teaches a method wherein executing the discharging or the charging comprises, in response to a required power exceeding a maximum output of a currently used battery between the first battery and the second battery, supplying power to the wheel driving motor by using both the first battery and the second battery(Paragraph 44).
As to claim 12 Kelty teaches a vehicle wherein the first battery is fixedly placed in the vehicle, and the second battery is electrically, mechanically, and detachably connected to the vehicle(Paragraph 8). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Olin to include the teachings of a first and second battery between for the two batteries for the purpose of optimizing the operation of the power sources of the vehicle.
As to claim 16 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 6.
As to claim 17 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 7.
As to claim 18 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 8.
Claims 9-10, 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Olin (US 2025/0074416) in view of Heath (US 20250332926) as applied to claim 1 above, and in further view of Burkell (US 2022/0271363)
As to claim 9 Burkell teaches a method further comprising executing a conditioning control on the first battery and the second battery according to the use plans (Paragraph 29). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to modify Olin to include the teachings of conditioning batteries for the purpose of prolonging the life of the batteries in the vehicle.
As to claim 10 C Burkell teaches a method wherein executing the conditioning control comprises controlling to use a power of the second battery for conditioning the first battery, and controlling to use a power of the first battery for conditioning the second battery(Paragraph 50).
As to claim 19 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 9.
As to claim 20 the claim is interpreted and rejected as in claim 10.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IMRAN K MUSTAFA whose telephone number is (571)270-1471. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 9-5.
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IMRAN K. MUSTAFA
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3668
/IMRAN K MUSTAFA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3668
2/6/2026