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 § 102
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 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)(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.
Claim(s) 1-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Kitamura U.S. Patent No. 12,466,645.
Claim 1, Kitamura teaches a transport facility SYS, comprising: a plurality of transport vehicles V configured to transport articles M; a control system HC, BC configured to control the plurality of transport vehicles V; and a power feeder 40 configured to supply electric power to the plurality of transport vehicles V and the control system HC,BC C12 L23-40, and wherein: each of the plurality of transport vehicles V comprises a transporter 18 operable to transport the articles M, the control system 50,HC, BC is configured to obtain operating state information 58 indicating an operating state of the transporter 30 in each of the plurality of transport vehicles, the control system HC,BC is configured to perform C13 L4-53: in response to electric power supply 40 to the plurality of transport vehicles V being interrupted, an interruption information obtaining process of obtaining the operating state information of each of the plurality of transport vehicles V as preliminary operating state information and storing the obtained preliminary operating state information within a period after the electric power supply 10 is interrupted and before the transporter 18 stops operating, after the electric power supply 40 is restored, a post-restoration information obtaining process of obtaining the operating state information 58 of each of the plurality of transport vehicles V as post-restoration operating state information 58, an automatic recovery target determination process of determining whether each of the plurality of transport vehicles is a target of automatic recovery based on a result of comparison between the preliminary operating state information and the post-restoration operating state information 58, and an automatic recovery process of controlling, among the plurality of transport vehicles V, a transport vehicle V determined to be the target of the automatic recovery through the automatic recovery target determination process, and causing the transport vehicle V to resume operating in a same manner as before the electric power supply 40 is interrupted C12 L40-67; C13 L1-3; C14 L5-20.
Claim 2, Kitamura teaches the transporter 18 comprises a holder 13 configured to hold an article M, and a mover 20 configured to move the holder 13 to transfer the article M to and from a transfer area, the mover 20 in each of the plurality of transport vehicles V moves the holder 13 to a reference position when the transport vehicle V travels and to a transfer position when the article M is transferred to and from the transfer area, the operating state information comprises holder position information indicating a position of the holder 13, and in response to at least one of the preliminary operating state information 58 or the post-restoration operating state information 58 of a transport vehicle V, among the plurality of transport vehicles V, including the holder position information indicating that the holder is outside a predetermined allowable range including the reference position, the control system determines that the transport vehicle is not a target of the automatic recovery in the automatic recovery target determination process C9 L20-55 Fig. 3.
Claim 3, Kitamura teaches the transporter 18 comprises a traveler 20 configured to travel along a travel path and an obstacle detector 38 configured to detect an obstacle on the travel path, the control system 50 switches a mode of each of the plurality of transport vehicles V between an automatic mode in which the traveler 20 travels to a set destination and stops traveling while the obstacle detector 38 is detecting an obstacle and a manual mode in which the traveler 20 travels based on a command from an operation terminal operated by a manager 50, the operating state information 58 of each of the plurality of transport vehicles V comprises travel mode information indicating the mode of the transport vehicle V, and in response to at least one of the preliminary operating state information or the post-restoration operating state information of a transport vehicle V, among the plurality of transport vehicles V, including the travel mode information indicating that the transport vehicle V is in the manual mode, the control system 50 determines that the transport vehicle V is not a target of the automatic recovery in the automatic recovery target determination process C11 L30-67; C12 L15-67.
Claim 4, Kitamura teaches the transporter 18 comprises an obstacle detector 38 configured to detect an obstacle on a travel path on which the plurality of transport vehicles V travel, the operating state information comprises obstacle detection via 38 information indicating a detection state of the obstacle detector 38, and in response to at least one of the preliminary operating state information or the post-restoration operating state information of a transport vehicle V, among the plurality of transport vehicles V, including the obstacle detection information indicating that an obstacle is detected, the control system 50,HC,BC determines that the transport vehicle V is not a target of the automatic recovery in the automatic recovery target determination process C13 L4-67.
Claim 5, Kitamura teaches the transporter 18 comprises a traveler 20 configured to travel along a travel path, the operating state information 58 of each of the plurality of transport vehicles V comprises traveling position information via 38 indicating a position of the transport vehicle V on the travel path, the traveling position information via 38 included in the preliminary operating state information 58 is preliminary traveling position information via 58, and the traveling position information via 38 included in the post-restoration operating state information 58 is post-restoration traveling position information, and in response to a difference between a position indicated by the preliminary traveling position information via 38 and a position indicated by the post-restoration traveling position information 58 of a transport vehicle V, among the plurality of transport vehicles V, being greater than or equal to a predetermined determination threshold, the control system 50,HC,BC determines that the transport vehicle V is not a target of the automatic recovery in the automatic recovery target determination process C14 L8-67.
Claim 6, Kitamura teaches detectable members C12 L15-25 at a plurality of predetermined positions on a travel path, and wherein: the transporter 18 comprises a traveler 20 configured to travel along the travel path and a detector C12 L15-25 configured to detect the detectable members, the traveler 20 comprises a drive wheel 21, a drive 33 configured to drive the drive wheel 21, and a rotation position detector 53 configured to detect a position of the drive wheel 21 in a rotation direction, the operating state information 58 of each of the plurality of transport vehicles V includes traveling position via 38 information indicating a position of the transport vehicle V on the travel path, the traveling position via 38 information includes in the preliminary operating state information 58 is preliminary traveling position information via 38, and the traveling position via 38 information included in the post-restoration operating state information 58 is post-restoration traveling position information, the control system 50,HC,BC controls, in response to the electric power supply 40 being interrupted, the drive 33 to stop the drive wheel 21 before the drive stops operating via 53, and identifies a stop position of the drive wheel 21 based on a detection result from the detector 53 and a detection result from the rotation position detector 53, and stores, as the preliminary traveling position information 58, the identified stop position of the drive wheel 21 and the detection result from the rotation position detector 53, obtains, after the electric power supply 40 is restored, the detection result from the rotation position detector 53 as the post-restoration traveling position information via 38 in response to the preliminary traveling position information being stored, and determines, in response to a difference between the detection result from the rotation position detector 53 included in the preliminary traveling position information via 38 and the detection result from the rotation position detector 53 included in the post-restoration traveling position information of a transport vehicle V, among the plurality of transport vehicles V, being greater than or equal to a predetermined setting value, that the transport vehicle V is not a target of the automatic recovery in the automatic recovery target determination process, and identifies, for the transport vehicle V determined to be a target of the automatic recovery through the automatic recovery target determination process, the stop position of the drive wheel after the electric power supply 40 is restored based on the stop position of the drive wheel 21 included in the preliminary traveling position information via 38 and the difference between the detection result from the rotation position detector 53 included in the preliminary traveling position information via 38 and the detection result from the rotation position detector 53 included in the post-restoration traveling position information C13 L4-55.
Claim 7 C12 L15-25 detectable members C12 L15-25 at a plurality of predetermined positions on a travel path, and wherein: the transporter 18 comprises a traveler 20 and a detector 38 configured to detect the detectable members C12 L15-25, and the traveler 20 comprises a drive wheel 21 and a drive 33 configured to drive the drive wheel 21 to travel along the travel path, the control system 50, HC, BC transmits, in the automatic recovery process, a reconstruction command to reconstruct the preliminary operating state information 58 to a target transport vehicle V as a transport vehicle V, among the plurality of transport vehicles V, determined to be the target of the automatic recovery through the automatic recovery target determination process, and the control system 50,HC,BC causes the target transport vehicle V with the reconstructed preliminary operating state information 58 to start traveling, and controls the traveling target transport vehicle V to travel at a speed lower than a normal speed of traveling without interruption of the electric power supply 50 via 53 until the target transport vehicle V detects a first detectable member C12 L15-25 among the detectable members C12 L15-25; C13 L4-55.
Conclusion
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/KAVEL SINGH/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3651
KS
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