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 . 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)(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) 1-10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Oda et al. (WO2024157341).
Regarding claim 1: Oda discloses an article transport facility (Paragraph 0012), comprising:
at least one transport vehicle configured to move along a travelable path to transport an article; and a control system configured to control the at least one transport vehicle (Paragraph 0033-0038), and
wherein: the at least one transport vehicle comprises a power storage and a drive drivable by electric power stored in the power storage, the control system is configured to perform (Paragraph 0018):
a power amount obtaining process of obtaining information indicating a battery level of the power storage ,a pathfinding process of finding a candidate path that is a candidate for a travel path of the at least one transport vehicle and setting the found candidate path as the travel path, a usable power determination process of determining, based on the battery level obtained in the power amount obtaining process, a usable power amount that is an upper limit of electric power usable by the at least one transport vehicle (Paragraph 0033-0038), and
an estimated power consumption deriving process of deriving estimated power consumption that is an estimated power amount to be used by the at least one transport vehicle for a target operation (Paragraph 0033-0038), and
the control system is configured to determine, in the pathfinding process for setting a first travel path that is the travel path from a specified travel origin to a specified travel destination, whether first estimated power consumption that is the estimated power consumption derived using, as the target operation, an operation for moving along the candidate path for the first travel path exceeds the usable power amount, and exclude, from candidates for the first travel path, a path for which the first estimated power consumption is determined to exceed the usable power amount during search for the candidate path to continue to search for the candidate path at least partially different from the excluded path (Paragraph 0033-0038).
Regarding claim 2: Oda discloses in response to a transport command to transport the article from a transport origin to a transport destination, the control system performs the pathfinding process for setting the first travel path including the transport origin as a travel origin and the transport destination as a travel destination (Paragraph 0033-0038).
Regarding claim 3: Oda discloses the control system performs, for the at least one transport vehicle moving along the first travel path set in the pathfinding process, the pathfinding process for resetting a first partial path that is the travel path from a current location of the at least one transport vehicle to the transport destination, and the control system determines, in the pathfinding process for resetting the first partial path, whether first partial estimated power consumption that is the estimated power consumption derived using, as the target operation, an operation for moving along the candidate path for the first partial path exceeds the usable power amount, excludes, from candidates for the first partial path, a path for which the first partial estimated power consumption is determined to exceed the usable power amount during search for the candidate path to continue to search for the candidate path at least partially different from the excluded path, and changes, in response to no candidate path with the first partial estimated power consumption less than or equal to the usable power amount being found, a destination of the at least one transport vehicle from the transport destination to an article storage device disposed within an area reachable with electric power less than or equal to the usable power amount (Paragraph 0033-0038).
Regarding claim 4: Oda discloses wherein: the at least one transport vehicle comprises a plurality of transport vehicles configured to move along the travelable path, and the control system determines, in the pathfinding process for setting a second travel path that is the travel path from a current location of a target transport vehicle among the plurality of transport vehicles to the specified travel destination, whether second estimated power consumption that is the estimated power consumption derived using, as the target operation, an operation for moving along the candidate path for the second travel path exceeds the usable power amount of a candidate transport vehicle that is a candidate for the target transport vehicle, and excludes, from candidates for the target transport vehicle, a candidate transport vehicle for which the second estimated power consumption is determined to exceed the usable power amount during search for the candidate path to continue to search for the candidate path (Paragraph 0037-0040).
Regarding claim 5: Oda discloses wherein: the at least one transport vehicle comprises a plurality of transport vehicles configured to move along the travelable path, in response to a transport command to transport the article from a transport origin to a transport destination, the control system performs the pathfinding process for setting the first travel path including the transport origin as a travel origin and the transport destination as a travel destination and the pathfinding process for setting a second travel path that is the travel path from a current location of a target transport vehicle among the plurality of transport vehicles to the transport origin, the control system performs, in the pathfinding process for setting the second travel path, search for the candidate path starting from the transport origin in an upstream direction opposite to a travel direction of the target transport vehicle, determines whether second estimated power consumption that is the estimated power consumption derived using, as the target operation, an operation for moving along the candidate path for the second travel path exceeds a target usable power amount of a candidate transport vehicle that is a candidate for the target transport vehicle, excludes, from candidates for the target transport vehicle, a candidate transport vehicle for which the second estimated power consumption is determined to exceed the target usable power amount during search for the candidate path to continue to search for the candidate path, selects, in response to the candidate path reaching the candidate transport vehicle with the second estimated power consumption less than or equal to the target usable power amount, the candidate transport vehicle as the target transport vehicle, and sets, as the second travel path, a path from a current location of the candidate transport vehicle to the transport origin along the candidate path reaching the candidate transport vehicle, and the target usable power amount is a value obtained by subtracting, from the usable power amount, a sum of the first estimated power consumption, the estimated power consumption derived using, as the target operation, an operation for receiving the article at the transport origin, and the estimated power consumption derived using, as the target operation, an operation for transferring the article at the transport destination (Paragraph 0033-0040).
Regarding claim 6: Oda discloses wherein: the control system determines the usable power amount of each of the plurality of transport vehicles in the usable power determination process, and the control system excludes, in the pathfinding process for setting the second travel path, a transport vehicle with the target usable power amount less than or equal to zero from candidates for the target transport vehicle in searching for the candidate path (Paragraph 0033-0040).
Regarding claim 7: Oda discloses wherein: the control system performs, for a transport vehicle moving along the second travel path set in the pathfinding process, the pathfinding process for resetting a second partial path that is the travel path from a current location of the transport vehicle to the transport origin, and the control system determines, in the pathfinding process for resetting the second partial path, whether second partial estimated power consumption that is the estimated power consumption derived using, as the target operation, an operation for moving along the candidate path for the second partial path exceeds the target usable power amount, excludes, from candidates for the second partial path, a path for which the second partial estimated power consumption is determined to exceed the target usable power amount during search for the candidate path to continue to search for the candidate path at least partially different from the excluded path, and performs, in response to no candidate path with the second partial estimated power consumption less than or equal to the target usable power amount being found, the pathfinding process for setting the second travel path to direct another transport vehicle among the plurality of transport vehicles to the transport origin (Paragraph 0033-0040).
Regarding claim 8: Oda discloses wherein: the travelable path comprises a charging area configured to feed electric power to the at least one transport vehicle, and in the estimated power consumption deriving process, the control system derives, in response to the candidate path including the charging area, the estimated power consumption using zero or a negative value as a power amount to be used by the at least one transport vehicle in the charging area (Paragraph 0030).
Regarding claim 9: Oda discloses wherein: in the pathfinding process, the control system performs a low-cost path finding process of preferentially finding, as the candidate path, a low-cost path from a plurality of paths using a cost that is a value derived from a factor affecting a travel time of the at least one transport vehicle and is higher for a longer travel time of the at least one transport vehicle (Paragraph 0033-0038).
Regarding claim 10: Oda discloses wherein: the control system finds, in the pathfinding process, the candidate path by sequentially connecting point-to-point paths to each other, the point-to-point paths each connecting points, the control system derives, in the low-cost path finding process, the cost for the candidate path based on a sum of respective costs for the point-to-point paths included in the candidate path, and the control system derives, in the estimated power consumption deriving process, the estimated power consumption for the candidate path based on a sum of respective values of the estimated power consumption for the point-to-point paths included in the candidate path (Paragraph 0033-0040).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Michael D Lang whose telephone number is (571)270-3213. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 9am-11am and 2pm-6pm.
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/MICHAEL D LANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3667
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