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
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, 13, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over McClelland (US Patent Publication 2023/0004161) in view of Ichinose et. al. (JP 200806787).
Regarding claims 1, 13, and 15, McClelland discloses a travel control system for an agricultural machine performing self-driving while sensing a surrounding environment thereof, the travel control system comprising: (¶14, 18; “a vehicle 10 (e.g., work vehicle or agricultural vehicle) towing an agricultural implement 12 within an area 14 (e.g., agricultural field). The vehicle 10 may be an autonomous work vehicle, semiautonomous work vehicle, or work vehicle with auto guidance system.”)
a storage to store a travel history including a mapping client system 60 that may provide a map or map data that includes mapped landmark data that may be useful in field operations ( e.g., planning and navigating a route through the field that avoids obstacles). The map may be stored in a memory 65 of the controller 49. The recorded map data may be inaccurate due to a variety of Reasons” “an embodiment of a method 80 for groundtruthing and remarking mapped landmark data utilized by the vehicle 10” “The map data 82 includes mapped landmarks that were previously recorded. The map data 82 may be stored in and accessed from a memory ( e.g., memory 65 in FIG. 2 of the controller 49) on the vehicle”)
a processor configured or programmed to cause the agricultural machine to perform an avoidance operation to avoid an obstacle, based on sensor data obtained by a surrounding environment being sensed the method 80 may also include causing the vehicle to take a corrective action (block 104). The corrective action may include stopping the vehicle. In certain embodiments, the corrective action may include dynamically changing the route of the vehicle to avoid the landmark and then return to the route as previously planned after avoiding the landmark”)
McClelland does not appear to disclose storing the travel state of the vehicle for use in an avoidance action.
Ichinose however teaches a storage to store a travel history including a travel state of the agricultural machine in the past and information on a position of an obstacle candidate detected during travel of the agricultural machine a processor configured or programmed to cause the agricultural machine to perform an avoidance operation to avoid an obstacle, based on sensor data obtained by a surrounding environment being sensed and based on the travel history. (Page 11, bottom half of page; “After S 16, for the obstacles that pass the earliest, and that are obstacles other than the obstacles detected for the first time this time, and for all the obstacles of avoidance method A (S41 ), generated in the previous S16 It is checked whether or not the avoidance direction of the route is the same as the avoidance direction (S42). If not, the current time is recorded as T1 (S43).” “In order to prevent the obstacle and the self from avoiding the state where the obstacle and the self simultaneously switch”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of filing to provide the invention of McClelland with a travel state of the agricultural machine in the past and based on the travel history as taught by Ichinose with a reasonable expectation of success because the technique for improving a particular class of devices was part of the ordinary capabilities of a person of ordinary skill in the art, in view of the teaching of the technique for improvement in other situations, would have yielded predictable results to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of the invention.
Regarding claim 2, McClelland further discloses wherein when an obstacle candidate is detected based on the sensor data, the processor is configured or programmed to change the travel state of the agricultural machine and/or raise an alert level for the sensing of the surrounding environment, based on the sensor data and the travel history. (Fig 3; ¶37)
Regarding claim 3, McClelland further discloses wherein when an obstacle candidate is detected based on the sensor data and the travel state of the agricultural machine is changed based on the sensor data and the travel history, the processor is configured or programmed to add, to the travel history, a position where the obstacle candidate was detected and the post-change travel state of the agricultural machine. (¶19, 33)
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-12, and 14 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art fails to disclose or render obvious absent impermissible hindsight reasoning the claims below.
4. The travel control system of claim 1, wherein during the travel of the agricultural machine, the processor is configured or programmed to set an alert level for the sensing of the surrounding environment based on the travel history.
5. The travel control system of claim 1, wherein to raise an alert level for the sensing of the surrounding environment, the processor is configured or programmed to increase a frequency at which the sensor data is to be acquired or broaden a range of the surrounding environment from which the sensor data is to be acquired, thus increasing an amount of the sensor data.
6. The travel control system of claim 1, wherein the travel history further includes at least one of information on a type of an obstacle candidate detected during the travel of the agricultural machine in the past, information on a size of the obstacle candidate, information on whether or not the obstacle candidate was determined to be an obstacle, information on a date/time when the obstacle candidate was detected, and information on weather at the time when the obstacle candidate was detected.
7. The travel control system of claim 1, wherein when an obstacle candidate is detected based on the sensor data, the processor is configured or programmed to identify a type of the detected obstacle candidate.
8. The travel control system of claim 1, wherein when an obstacle candidate is detected based on the sensor data and the detected obstacle candidate is a moving object, the processor is configured or programmed to cause the agricultural machine to halt for a predetermined time period and to sense the surrounding environment after an elapse of the predetermined time period, and when no obstacle candidate is detected, cause the agricultural machine to resume traveling.
9. The travel control system of claim 1, wherein when an obstacle candidate is detected based on the sensor data and the detected obstacle candidate is a non-moving object, the processor is configured or programmed to generate or change a target path for the agricultural machine such that the agricultural machine avoids the detected obstacle candidate.
10. The travel control system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured or programmed to: when an obstacle candidate is detected based on the sensor data, acquire information on a position at which the obstacle candidate exists; and when the travel history includes information on an obstacle candidate detected in the past at the position, cause the agricultural machine to perform the avoidance operation by use of data on the travel state of the agricultural machine included in the travel history.
11. The travel control system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured or programmed to: when the travel history includes information on an obstacle candidate detected in the past on a target path of the agricultural machine, raise an alert level for the sensing of the surrounding environment during the travel of the agricultural machine; and when the travel history does not include information on any obstacle candidate detected in the past on the target path of the agricultural machine, maintain the alert level for the sensing of the surrounding environment during the travel of the agricultural machine.
12. The travel control system of claim 1, wherein when the travel history includes information on an obstacle candidate detected in the past on a target path of the agricultural machine, the processor is configured or programmed to set, during the travel of the agricultural machine, an alert level for the sensing of the surrounding environment to be higher than when the travel history does not include information on any obstacle candidate detected in the past on the target path of the agricultural machine.
14. The agricultural machine of claim 13, wherein when the agricultural machine includes a work vehicle and an implement linked to the work vehicle, the processor is configured or programmed to change the avoidance operation based on the type of the implement and/or the width of the implement.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ALAN D HUTCHINSON whose telephone number is (571)272-8413. The examiner can normally be reached 7-5 Mon-Thur.
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/ALAN D HUTCHINSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3669