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 .
Status of Claims
This Office Action is in response to the application filed 01/02/2025. Claims 1-9 are presently pending and are presented for examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information Disclosure Statement filed on 01/02/2025 has been considered. An initialed copy of the Form 1449 is enclosed herewith.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claim 2 recites the limitation "the robotic arm" in P3, L. 1. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim, as it is unclear which arm of the dual arm manipulator "the robotic arm" refers to.
Claims 2-9 are rejected 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 2 recites “[a] force guidance telerobotic control method based on the dual-arm collaborative potential field using the system according to claim 1,” but claim 1 is directed at “[a] force guidance telerobotic system based on a dual-arm collaborative potential field”. There is no positive recitation for the dual-arm collaborative potential field, and therefore the limitation lacks sufficient antecedent basis.
Claims 3-9 recites the limitation "The force guidance telerobotic control method based on the dual-arm collaborative potential field according to claim 2” in the first line of the claim 3, and subsequently includes a similarly worded preamble in each of claims 4-9. However, there is not claim directed at the dual-arm collaborative potential field, as claim 1 is directed at “[a] force guidance telerobotic system based on a dual-arm collaborative potential field” and claim 2 is directed at “[a] force guidance telerobotic control method based on the dual-arm collaborative potential field using the system according to claim 1”, but there is no positive recitation of the deal-arm collaborative potential field in either claim 1 or 2, and therefore, each of claims 3-9 have insufficient antecedent basis for the deal-arm collaborative potential field.
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.
Claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhu et. al. (C.N. Publication No. 114,098,981 A)-IDS in view of Chizeck et. al. (U.S. Publication No. 2018/0232052).
Regarding claim 1
Zhu discloses “A force guidance telerobotic system based on a dual-arm collaborative potential field, comprising two robotic arms, a haptic device, a router, a vision unit, a remote-site computer, a local-site computer, a display screen, and a mobile platform;” (See Zhu “Disclosure of Invention” reciting “The invention provides a head and neck auxiliary traction surgical robot with two cooperative arms, which comprises mechanical arms, force feedback equipment, a force sensor, a switch, a master control computer and a display”, the arms arranged on a trolley (mobile platform), and also see “As a further improvement of the robot, a camera is arranged between the two mechanical arm working parts.”).
Zhu discloses “the two robotic arms are respectively installed on the mobile platform and are connected to the remote-site computer;” (See Zhu “Disclosure of Invention” reciting “the two mechanical arms are respectively arranged on two movable mechanical arm trolleys”).
Zhu discloses “the haptic device is located on an operator console, connected to the remote-site computer via data cables, and configured to acquire a six-degree-of-freedom pose in a Cartesian coordinate system and to acquire control commands for the robotic arms,” (See Zhu “Disclosure of Invention” reciting “the force feedback equipment is positioned on the operating platform, … adopts two six-degree-of-freedom force feedback equipment, is used for acquiring the pose of six degrees of freedom under a Cartesian coordinate system, receives the data of the force sensor and feeds back the force to an operator, and realizes the force sensing function of the main hand end;”).
Zhu discloses “and to send the control commands to the local-site computer, as well as to receive dynamic virtual constraint force data generated by a dual-arm collaborative potential field force guidance control module algorithm from the local-site computer, and to feed the data to an operator;” (See Zhu “Disclosure of Invention” reciting “the master control computer collects data of the force sensor through a network cable and the switch;”, & “the main control computer is positioned beside the operation table, integrates the function of force feedback equipment pose information acquisition, the mechanical arm forward kinematics algorithm, the force control algorithm, the compliance control algorithm, the force sensor data acquisition processing algorithm and the force feedback function, and also integrates and communicates the functions among the control modules.” The force is fed back to an operator.).
Zhu discloses “the router is configured to establish a local area network for an entire control system, enabling real-time data exchange between the robotic arms, the remote-site computer, the vision unit, the router, the local-site computer, and the haptic device;” (See Zhu “Disclosure of Invention” reciting “the switch is responsible for establishing a local area network of the whole control system, so that real-time data exchange among the mechanical arm, the force sensor, the switch and the master control computer is realized, and the master control computer collects data of the force sensor through a network cable and the switch;”).
Zhu discloses “the vision unit uses a structured light camera and is located on the mobile platform and installed between the two robotic arms,” (See Zhu “Disclosure of Invention” reciting “As a further improvement of the robot, a camera is arranged between the two mechanical arm working parts.”).
Zhu discloses “and the vision unit is connected to the remote-site computer and configured to acquire ” (See Zhu “Disclosure of Invention” disclosing the camera provides real-time feedback to the display corresponding to image data of the environment.).
Zhu discloses “the remote-site computer is located inside the mobile platform and comprises a robotic arm drive module, a mobile platform control module, a network communication module, and the remote-site computer further comprises integration and communication functions of all control modules;” (See Zhu “Disclosure of Invention” and claim 5 reciting “an industrial personal computer of the mechanical arm” with IP network communication for controlling the robotic arm.).
Zhu discloses “the local-site computer is located beside the operator console and comprises a haptic device drive module, a dual-arm collaborative potential field force guidance control module, a robotic arm kinematic model, a robotic arm dynamics model, ” (See Zhu “Disclosure of Invention” reciting “the main control computer is positioned beside the operation table, integrates the function of force feedback equipment pose information acquisition, the mechanical arm forward kinematics algorithm, the force control algorithm, the compliance control algorithm, the force sensor data acquisition processing algorithm and the force feedback function, and also integrates and communicates the functions among the control modules.”).
Zhu discloses “the display screen is located directly in front of the operator console and is configured to show and virtual constraint force data;” (See Zhu “Disclosure of Invention” reciting “The three displays are located right in front of the console and are installed on special brackets to display force sensor data, images returned by each camera, and virtual scenes;”).
Zhu discloses “and the mobile platform is configured to install the robotic arms, the vision unit and the remote-site computer.” (See Zhu Fig. 1 Chars. 1, 2, & 4 disclosing the arms and the camera fixed together with the trolleys (mobile platform) and “Disclosure of Invention” disclosing the industrial computer of the robotic arms.).
Zhu discloses all the elements of claim 1 except “and the vision unit is connected to the remote-site computer and configured to acquire point cloud data of a surrounding environment of a robot in real-time and transmit the data to the local-site computer;”, “the local-site computer … comprises … a point cloud information processing module,”, & “the display screen is located directly in front of the operator console and is configured to show point cloud images …”
Chizeck discloses “and the vision unit is connected to the remote-site computer and configured to acquire point cloud data of a surrounding environment of a robot in real-time and transmit the data to the local-site computer;” (See Chizeck [0049]-[0050] & [0056] disclosing streaming point cloud data to a master console.).
Chizeck discloses “the local-site computer … comprises … a point cloud information processing module,” (See Chizeck Fig. 9A, [0056], & [0118] disclosing the master console may facilitate display of the 3D imagery (point cloud data) to a display.).
Chizeck discloses “the display screen is located directly in front of the operator console and is configured to show point cloud images …” (See Chizeck Fig. 9A, [0056], & [0118] disclosing the master console may facilitate display of the 3D imagery (point cloud data) to a display.).
Zhu and Chizeck are analogous art, because they are in the same field of endeavor, robotics. It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Zhu to incorporate the teachings of Chizeck to include providing point cloud data to an operator display. Doing so provides known data in the environment of tele-operated robotics, incorporated with a reasonable expectation of success as doing so advantageously provides an operator with critical geometrical information of a grasp target while simultaneously preventing the robot end effector from colliding with the grasp target, see Chizeck [0050].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 2 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include 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:
Regarding claim 2
The recitation corresponding to the steps S1-S7 overcome the art of record, rendering the claims in a manner specific enough to overcome the methods disclosed in the closest prior art Zhu et. al. (C.N. Publication No. 114,098,981 A)-IDS. The claims specifically overcome the art of record, because of the limitation directed to performing the recited method of telerobotic control for operating a dual arm manipulator using force feedback controllers by continuously generating virtual forces to steer an operator to a target while avoiding obstacles as specifically recited in S3. For example, Zhu discloses dual arm co-operative control of robotic manipulators, however the specifically recited method, for example corresponding to S3, for performing symmetric collaboration depending upon a distance between a target object at the work-space boundary is neither disclosed or rendered reasonably obvious in view of the art of record.
Conclusion
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/JERROD IRVIN DAVIS/Examiner, Art Unit 3656