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 § 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.
Claim(s) 1-4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by US 2021/0293548 to Sorensen.
Sorensen discloses (claim 1) a transport vehicle 10 configured to transport a transport article; a movement path along which the transport vehicle moves; a movable object 10, another robot that initially moves through the system, movable separately from the transport vehicle 10 (see paragraphs [0049] and [0061]); and a movable object controller 38 configured to control the movable object 10, wherein the movable object 10 comprises an information obtainer 16, 19, 23 (see also paragraph [0037]) configured to obtain path state information indicating a state of the movement path, the movable object 10 configured to obtain the path state information with the information obtainer while moving along the movement path, and wherein the movable object controller 38 is configured to perform, based on the path state information obtained by the information obtainer, a map generating process 43 of generating map data of the movement path; (claim 2) a transport vehicle controller 38 configured to control the transport vehicle 10, wherein at least one of the transport vehicle or the transport vehicle controller comprises reference map data of the movement path, and the reference map data is referred to for movement of the transport vehicle, and wherein at least one of the transport vehicle controller or the movable object controller compares generated map data generated in the map generating process with the reference map data, and performs a difference extracting process of extracting a difference between the generated map data and the reference map data (see paragraphs [0061]); (claim 3) at least one of the transport vehicle controller 38 or the movable object controller 38 performs a map correcting process of correcting the reference map data based on the difference extracted in the difference extracting process (see paragraph [0061]); (claim 4) the information obtainer comprises a camera configured to capture the movement path, and the camera obtains, as the path state information, at least one of a shape of each part of the movement path, a structure of each part of the movement path, a position of an information holder at a specific location along the movement path, or information held by the information holder (see paragraphs [0052] and [0053]).
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.
Claim(s) 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sorensen in view of USP 10,130,232 to Atchley et al. and further in view of US 2019/0215424 to Adato et al.
With regard to claim 5, Sorensen includes all the claimed features but does not disclose the movement path is a rail, and at a specific location on the rail, an information holder holding position information indicating a position along the rail, the transport vehicle comprises a reader configured to read the position information held by the information holder, and the transport vehicle reads the position information with the reader while traveling on the rail to identify a position of the transport vehicle. Atchley et al. discloses a transport facility that discloses a movement path that is a rail system 1301 that transport vehicles 102 travel along, the transport vehicle having a reader configured to relay the position of the transport vehicle (column 7, lines 25-49). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to have the transport vehicle of Sorensen move along a rail system as taught in Atchley et al. such allowing for more controlled movement of the transport vehicles within the transport facility.
Sorenson in view of Atchley et al. does not disclose the movable object is an unmanned aerial vehicle. However, Sorenson discloses the use of mobile sensors for collecting visual data (paragraph [0049]) and Adato et al. disloses discloses the use of a drone having a camera for capturing visual information in a transport facility and relaying the visual information to a central control system. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to have the movable object of Sorensen in view of Atchley et al. be a unmanned aerial vehicle with a 3D camera such requiring the selection of a well known image information capturing device used to relay image information to a central control system.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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/GENE O CRAWFORD/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3651
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