DETAILED ACTION
Amendment of the claims filed on 01/20/2025 is acknowledged. Claims 6, 16, 17, 21, and 23-25.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2, 8, 12-15, 18-20, 22 and 26-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) / 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kikuuwe at al. ( "Admittance and Impedance Representations of Friction Based on Implicit Euler Integration," in IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 1176-1188, Dec. 2006, doi: 10.1109/TRO.2006.886262).
Regarding claim 1, Kikuuwe at al. disclose a computer configured to move a first part of a robot arm (e.g., the computer configured to move the manipulator’s hand grip along a trajectory (Section V-A and Figure 5)), the robot arm (e.g., Figure 15 shows a manipulator with multiple links, wherein the manipulator covers a surgical robot ) comprising
a plurality of arm segments separated by a plurality of driven joints (e.g., Figure 15 shows a manipulator with multiple links and joints (Section V-A and Figure 5) ), in response to an external force being imparted on a second part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., based on a force applied by an experimenter’s hand on the manipulator’s link(s) – (Section V-A)),
the controller (e.g., computer) being configured to:
determine a torque at each of the plurality of joints (e.g., as output force is directly commanded to actuator of the manipulator, it is implicated within the admittance control loop to determine a torque in each joint of the manipulator – (Section V-A) ) which results from the force imparted on the second part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., based on a force applied by an experimenter’s hand on the manipulator’s link(s) – (Section V-A));
calculate from the determined torques a resultant force which acts on the first part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., calculating an output force to an actuator of the manipulator’s link(s) (Section IV-D ) ) as a result of the external force being imparted on the second part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., based on a force applied by an experimenter’s hand on the manipulator’s link(s) – (Section V-A));
calculate a desired velocity of the first part of the surgical robot arm for a time subsequent to a current time (e.g., “The output velocity from the model A was integrated into a position to be used as the desired position of the manipulator’s end-effector. The end-effector’s position was controlled to follow this desired position using stiff proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control on the joint angles” (Section V-A)) by evaluating an equation of motion modelling Coulomb and viscous frictional forces using a backward Euler approximation (e.g., by deriving it from implicit Euler integration
of Coulomb-like discontinuous friction and linear mass spring-damper dynamics, and have closed-form expressions (Abstract and Section I)), the equation of motion having inputs of:
the calculated resultant force which acts on the first part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., e.g., implementing calculated output force for the manipulator link(s) within equations 10-26c (section III-A)); and the current velocity at the current time of the first part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., implementing velocity at a timestep size for the manipulator link(s) within equations 10-26c (section III-A) ); and
drive the surgical robot arm in accordance with the calculated desired velocity (e.g., “The output velocity from the model A was integrated into a position to be used as the desired position of the manipulator’s end-effector. The end-effector’s position
was controlled to follow this desired position using stiff proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control on the joint angles” (Section V-A)).
Regarding claim 2, Kikuuwe at al. disclose a computer configured wherein evaluating the equation of motion comprises evaluating a deadband function of a value (e.g., “The simulated friction force realized by the model A can act as a deadband on the force measurement” (Section V-A)) based on: the current velocity at the current time of the first part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., implementing velocity at a timestep size for the manipulator link(s) within equations 10-26c (section III-A) ), and the calculated resultant force which acts on the first part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., e.g., implementing calculated output force for the manipulator link(s) within equations 10-26c (section III-A)).
Regarding claim 8, Kikuuwe at al. disclose a computer, wherein the controller is configured to: receive a measurement of the position of the first part of the surgical robot arm from the surgical robot arm (e.g., The end-effector’s position was controlled to follow this desired position using stiff proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control on the joint angles (Section V-A)), which requires to process measured position of the manipulator links and end-effector); and calculate from the measurement of the position, the current velocity at the current time of the first part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., output velocity from the model A is used as the desired position of the manipulator’s end-effector (Section V-A), which required to determine the output velocity)
Regarding claim 12, Kikuuwe at al. disclose a computer, wherein driving the surgical robot arm in accordance with the calculated desired velocity comprises:
calculating from the desired velocity a desired position of the first part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., determining a desired position of the manipulator’s end-effector based on the output velocity from the model A (Section V-A)).
determining an angle of each of the plurality of joints which would allow the first part of the surgical robot arm to have the desired position (e.g., measuring a joint angle via optical encoder of the manipulator’s link(s) ( Section V-A) ); and
sending a signal which causes the surgical robot arm to drive the plurality of joints to the determined angles (e.g., “The output velocity from the model A was integrated into a position to be used as the desired position of the manipulator’s end-effector. The end-effector’s position was controlled to follow this desired position using stiff proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control on the joint angles” (Section V-A)).
Regarding claim 13, Kikuuwe at al. disclose the computer, wherein the first part of the surgical robot arm is an arm segment of the surgical robot arm (e.g., Figure 15 shows a manipulator with multiple links and joints (Section V-A and Figure 5) ).
Regarding claim 14, Kikuuwe at al. disclose the computer, wherein the first part of the surgical robot arm is the most distal arm segment of the surgical robot arm (e.g., Figure 15 shows a manipulator with a second link having an end-effector (Section V-A and Figure 5)).
Regarding claim 15, Kikuuwe at al. disclose the computer, wherein the first part of the surgical robot arm is a joint of the plurality of driven joints of the surgical robot arm (e.g., Figure 15 shows a manipulator comprising multiple joints connected to multiple links (Section V-A and Figure 5) ).
Regarding claim 18, Kikuuwe at al. disclose the computer, wherein the second part of the surgical robot arm is an arm segment of the surgical robot arm (e.g., Figure 15 shows a manipulator with multiple links and joints (Section V-A and Figure 5) ).
Regarding claim 19, Kikuuwe at al. disclose the computer, wherein the second part of the surgical robot arm is a joint of the plurality of driven joints of the surgical robot arm (e.g., Figure 15 shows a manipulator comprising multiple joints connected to multiple links (Section V-A and Figure 5) ).
Regarding claim 20, Kikuuwe at al. disclose the computer, wherein e.g., Figure 15 shows a manipulator comprising (i) a first link different than a second link and (ii) a first joint different than a second joint (Section V-A and Figure 5) ) (alternative limitation).
Regarding claim 22, Kikuuwe at al. disclose the computer, wherein the external force imparted on the second part of the surgical robot arm is a rotational force (e.g., a force applied by an experimenter’s hand on the manipulator’s link(s) (Section V-A), which cover a rotational force) and the resultant force which acts on the first part of the surgical robot arm as a result of the external force is a rotational force (e.g., calculating an output force to an actuator of the manipulator’s link(s) (Section IV-D ) based on the force applied by an experimenter’s hand on the manipulator’s link(s) – (Section V-A)).
Regarding claim 26, Kikuuwe at al. disclose a computer method for moving a first part of a surgical robot arm (e.g., the computer configured to move the manipulator’s hand grip along a trajectory (Section V-A and Figure 5)), the surgical robot arm (e.g., Figure 15 shows a manipulator with multiple links, wherein the manipulator covers a surgical robot ) comprising a plurality of arm segments separated by a plurality of joints (e.g., Figure 15 shows a manipulator with multiple links and joints (Section V-A and Figure 5) ), in response to an external force being imparted on a second part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., based on a force applied by an experimenter’s hand on the manipulator’s link(s) – (Section V-A)), the method comprising:
determining a torque at each of the plurality of joints (e.g., as output force is directly commanded to actuator of the manipulator, it is implicated within the admittance control loop to determine a torque in each joint of the manipulator – (Section V-A) ) as a result of the force imparted on the second part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., based on a force applied by an experimenter’s hand on the manipulator’s link(s) – (Section V-A));
calculating from the determined torques a resultant force which acts on the first part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., calculating an output force to an actuator of the manipulator’s link(s) (Section IV-D ) ) as a result of the external force being imparted on the second part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., based on a force applied by an experimenter’s hand on the manipulator’s link(s) – (Section V-A));
calculating a desired velocity of the first part of the surgical robot arm for a time subsequent to a current time (e.g., “The output velocity from the model A was integrated into a position to be used as the desired position of the manipulator’s end-effector. The end-effector’s position was controlled to follow this desired position using stiff proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control on the joint angles” (Section V-A)) by evaluating an equation of motion modelling Coulomb and viscous frictional forces using a backward Euler approximation (e.g., by deriving it from implicit Euler integration
of Coulomb-like discontinuous friction and linear mass spring-damper dynamics, and have closed-form expressions (Abstract and Section I)), the equation of motion having inputs of:
the calculated resultant force which acts on the first part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., e.g., implementing calculated output force for the manipulator link(s) within equations 10-26c (section III-A)); and
the current velocity at the current time of the first part of the surgical robot arm (e.g., implementing velocity at a timestep size for the manipulator link(s) within equations 10-26c (section III-A) ); and
driving the surgical robot arm in accordance with the calculated desired velocity (e.g., “The output velocity from the model A was integrated into a position to be used as the desired position of the manipulator’s end-effector. The end-effector’s position
was controlled to follow this desired position using stiff proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control on the joint angles” (Section V-A)).
Regarding claim 27, Kikuuwe at al. disclose a computer configured to move the manipulator’s hand grip along a trajectory (Section V-A and Figure 5) based on (i) a force applied by an experimenter’s hand on the manipulator’s link(s) (Section V-A), (ii) calculated output force to an actuator of the manipulator’s link(s) (Section IV-D ),and Euler integration of Coulomb-like discontinuous friction and linear mass spring-damper dynamics (Abstract and Section I), which requires the computer to execute program instruction stored in a memory for controlling a manipulator’s end-effector based on outputting velocity from the model A (Section V-A).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 7, and 9-11 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jorge O. Peche whose telephone number is (571)270-1339. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM.
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 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, Khoi H. Tran can be reached at 571 272 6919. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/Jorge O Peche/Examiner, Art Unit 3656
Prosecution Insights