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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 07/24/2026, 03/21/2025 were filed before the first action on the merits of the application. The submissions are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
Claims 11-20 are 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.
Regarding Claim 11, it recites a “plurality of traveling vehicles” initially and then in the remainder of the claim appears refers to multiple different individual vehicles of this plurality using the same terminology “the traveling vehicle” this renders the scope of protection indefinite in that it is unclear what vehicle of the plurality is being referenced by “the traveling vehicle”;
Additionally claim 11 recites the limitation:
“and charging wait information that indicates a charging wait status of the traveling vehicle at the charger, if the traveling vehicle requiring charging is present”
This limitation renders the scope of protection unclear in that it is not clear what is meant by “is present” in the context of the claim. Is these merely stating if there is a vehicle detected as needing to be charged? Is “is present” meant to mean present at the charger? Is “is present” meant to mean that there is a vehicle which needs to be charged among the plurality? Is it reciting that the charge waiting time is only calculated if/when a traveling vehicle is currently at a given charger? Further it is unclear if this limitation is reciting that the wait information of “the traveling vehicle at the charger” is referencing a different traveling vehicle of the plurality of traveling vehicles or the already recited traveling vehicle.
Claims 12-20 all depend on claim 11 and fail to cure the lack of clarity concerning which vehicle of the plurality is being referenced by “the traveling vehicle” and the lack of clarity concerning “if the traveling vehicle requiring charging is present”
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)(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) 11-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by US 20230234468 A1; “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SELECTING A CHARGING ENTITY BASED ON OCCUPANCY STATUS”, Maeda et al.
The below rejection is made under the broadest reasonable interpretation of “traveling vehicle” as including road vehicles; this interpretation of “traveling vehicles” is made as while claims are read in light of the specification limitations are not imparted from the specification onto the claims and based on the plain meaning of the term in light of [0105] of the applications specification which makes clear that the example embodiments (i.e. the ceiling based tracked vehicles of the specification) are not meant to be limiting to the claims, “traveling vehicle” is given its broadest reasonable meaning.
Regarding Claim 11, Maeda et al teaches “A traveling vehicle system comprising: a plurality of traveling vehicles;”( [0048] The charge application 118 may be configured to facilitate computer communication between the requesting vehicle 102 and the charging vehicle 120. The charge application may allow the requesting vehicle 102 and/or the charging vehicle to send and receive charging status, location data, sensor data, charging reservation information, and other charging data indicative of the historical charging sessions, present charging, and/or future plans to charge the requesting vehicle 102 and/or the charging vehicle 120. For example, if the charging vehicle 120 is present at the charging entity 116, the charging vehicle 120 may provides sensor data, such as image or ranging data, regarding the parking area of the charging entity 116. The charge application 118 may facilitate communication);” a plurality of chargers capable of charging the traveling vehicles;”( [0055] The data store 308 of the remote server 108 may include a charging entity database 314 that may include respective records of charging stations 112 that may be owned and/or operated by the charging entities 116. The charging entity database 314 may include records that each pertain to particular charging stations 112 that include data that may be pre-updated and/or updated in real-time by one or more charging station entities. In one configuration, the charging entity database 314 may include records that may pertain to particular charging stations 112 and their respective geo-locations (e.g., GPS coordinates of the charging stations 112), charging data regarding previous and/or current charging sessions, and maintenance records and/or maintenance schedules for a charging station, among others. The charging entity database 314 may also include information about the charging entity 116 such as reservation schedules, previous occupancy data, electrical usage, average charging speeds, etc.);” and a controller configured or programmed to control traveling of the traveling vehicles and charging of the traveling vehicles by the charger;”( [0037] “Vehicle,” as used herein, refers to any moving vehicle powered wholly or partially by any form of rechargeable energy. The term “vehicle” includes, but is not limited to, cars, trucks, vans, minivans, SUVs, motorcycles, scooters, boats, go-karts, amusement ride cars, rail transport, personal watercraft, and aircraft. In some cases, a motor vehicle includes one or more engines. Further, the term “vehicle” may refer to an electric vehicle (EV) that is capable of carrying one or more users and is powered entirely or partially by one or more electric motors powered by an electric battery. The EV may include battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). The term “vehicle” may also refer to an autonomous vehicle and/or self-driving vehicle. The autonomous vehicle may carry one or more users. Further, the term “vehicle” may include vehicles that are automated or non-automated with predetermined paths or free-moving vehicles.” Autonomous vehicles implicitly teaches a controller to control traveling of the vehicle);” wherein the controller is configured or programmed to include: a processor configured or programmed to select the charger to charge one of the plurality of traveling vehicles to be charged based on location information of the traveling vehicle to be charged, location information of the charger,”([0120]” In particular, the occupancy module 406 may be configured to access and query the charging entity database 314 to determine one or more charging entities 116 that may be located within the predetermined distance (e.g., 5 miles) or remaining distance of the current geo-location of the requesting vehicle 102. Upon determining the one or more charging entities 116 that may be located within the predetermined distance of the current geo-location of the requesting vehicle 102, the occupancy module 406 may communicate data pertaining to the one or more charging entities 116 to the map user interface presentation module 410 of the charge application 118.”);” and charging wait information that indicates a charging wait status of the traveling vehicle at the charger, if the traveling vehicle requiring charging is present;”( [0105] The user may selectively input threshold preferences related to price schemes, queue/wait times, price incentives, charging types, and the like that may be utilized to pin point one or more charging entities 116 on the charging entity map user interface 500. For example, the user may choose a threshold charging speed to highlight charging entities 116 that are capable of providing at least the threshold charging speed. Accordingly, the charging entity map user interface 500 may be selectively customized to pin point one or more charging entities 116 that may apply with respect to the threshold preferences. The one or more charging entities 116 may be shown as highlighted or accompanied with a user interface graphic (e.g., clock symbol) that may allow the user to easily identify them on the charging entity map user interface 500. In other embodiments, one or more charging entities 116 that may not apply with respect to the threshold preferences may be selectively hidden based on a user interface input received by the user. One or more charging entities 116 may be pin pointed, highlighted, accompanied with user interface graphics, and/or hidden based on user interface inputs that may be associated with various user preferences.” The stations are presented and then selected (by a user) (which then causes the processor to select the corresponding station) based the queue/wait time the chargers being those within a 5miles (from [0120]) of the vehicle/charger (i.e. based on the position of the vehicle and the chargers));” a traveling controller configured or programmed to cause the traveling vehicle to be charged to travel to a charging location where the traveling vehicle can be charged by the charger selected by the processor”( [0037] “Vehicle,” as used herein, refers to any moving vehicle powered wholly or partially by any form of rechargeable energy. The term “vehicle” includes, but is not limited to, cars, trucks, vans, minivans, SUVs, motorcycles, scooters, boats, go-karts, amusement ride cars, rail transport, personal watercraft, and aircraft. In some cases, a motor vehicle includes one or more engines. Further, the term “vehicle” may refer to an electric vehicle (EV) that is capable of carrying one or more users and is powered entirely or partially by one or more electric motors powered by an electric battery. The EV may include battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). The term “vehicle” may also refer to an autonomous vehicle and/or self-driving vehicle. The autonomous vehicle may carry one or more users. Further, the term “vehicle” may include vehicles that are automated or non-automated with predetermined paths or free-moving vehicles.” For the embodiments wherein the vehicle is autonomous this teaches the vehicle controlling itself to drive to the selected charger);” and a charging controller configured or programmed to cause the charger to charge the traveling vehicle at the charging location. “([0021] “Charging station,” as used here, refers to an access point to an energy source that a vehicle may engage to receive a charge. Accordingly, the charging station is an element in an energy infrastructure capable of transferring energy, for example, from the grid to a vehicle. The charging station may include a connector to connect to the vehicle to the charging station. For example, the charge connector may include a range of heavy duty or special connectors that conform to the variety of standards, such as DC rapid charging, multi-standard chargers, and AC fast charging, etc.” + [0035] “Station systems,” as used herein may include, but is not limited to, any system that may be used to enhance the charge capability, use, and/or safety of a charging station. Exemplary station systems include, but are not limited to: a monitoring system, a vehicle identification system, a user detection system, communication system, a charge allocation system, a charge management system, a scheduling system, a sensory system, and a camera system among others.” From the allocation and management systems this teaches a controller which causes the charger to charge the traveling vehicle)
Regarding Claim 12, Maeda et al teaches “The traveling vehicle system according to claim 11, wherein the controller is configured or programmed to include a plurality of communicators to communicate with the traveling vehicles located within different managed ranges in a travel range of the traveling vehicles; wherein the processor is configured or programmed to receive information on the traveling vehicle located within each of the managed ranges from the plurality of communicators, and select the charger within the managed range to which a current location of the traveling vehicle to be charged belongs.”( [0023] “Computer communication,” as used herein, refers to a communication between two or more communicating devices (e.g., computer, personal digital assistant, cellular telephone, network device, vehicle, vehicle computing device, infrastructure device, roadside equipment) and may be, for example, a network transfer, a data transfer, a file transfer, an applet transfer, an email, a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) transfer, and so on. A computer communication may occur across any type of wired or wireless system and/or network having any type of configuration, for example, a local area network (LAN), a personal area network (PAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN), a wireless network (WAN), a wide area network (WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a virtual private network (VPN), a cellular network, a token ring network, a point-to-point network, an ad hoc network, a mobile ad hoc network, a vehicular ad hoc network (VANET), a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) network, a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) network, a vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) network, among others. Computer communication may utilize any type of wired, wireless, or network communication protocol including, but not limited to, Ethernet (e.g., IEEE 802.3), WiFi (e.g., IEEE 802.11), communications access for land mobiles (CALM), WiMax, Bluetooth, Zigbee, ultra-wideband (UWAB), multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO), telecommunications and/or cellular network communication (e.g., SMS, MMS, 3G, 4G, LTE, 5G, GSM, CDMA, WAVE), satellite, dedicated short range communication (DSRC), among others.” Here teaches that the wireless communication occurs via a plurality of different communication types/receivers)
Regarding Claim 13, Maeda et al teaches “The traveling vehicle system according to claim 12, wherein the processor is configured or programmed to select the charger within the managed range to which the current location of the traveling vehicle to be charged belongs, even if all the chargers in the managed range are in use and the charger in another managed range is available.”( [0069] The occupancy module 406 may be configured to access the charging entity database 314 stored upon the data store 308 of the remote server 108. As discussed, the charging entity database 314 may include records that each pertain to particular charging entities 116 that include data that may be pre-updated and/or updated in real-time by the one or more charging entities 116. Such records may pertain to particular charging entities, such as charging entity 116 having charging stations 112a-f and their respective geo-locations. Accordingly, the occupancy module 406 may be configured to access and query the charging entity database 314 to determine one or more charging entities 116 that may be located within a predetermined distance (e.g., 5 miles) of the current geo-location of the requesting vehicle 102 or within a predetermined distance of a type of amenity or selected point of interest location.” Here teaches that it is only charging entities (stations) within a 5mile range (i.e. each station has a managed range of 5 miles) thus the selectioning of an charging station is only among those within this range as such even if they are all occupied (have wait-times) only one charger within this range can be selected)
Regarding Claim 14, Maeda et al teaches “The traveling vehicle system according to claim 11, wherein the processor is configured or programmed to select the charger for which a route length from the traveling vehicle to be charged to the charging location is equal to or less than a predetermined distance, or for which a route cost from a current location of the traveling vehicle to be charged to the charging location is equal to or less than a predetermined value.”([0069] as cited in claim 13, in some emobdiments a predetermine range of 5 miles is used for determining what chargers to present to the user; thus in turn the user can only select a charger that is within this range (the selected by the user charger is then selected by processor of the vehicle as the charger to sent the autonomous vehicle to) thus teaching selecting a charger which the route length of the traveling vehicle is less than or equal to a predetermined distance (five miles))
Regarding Claim 15, Maeda et al teaches “The traveling vehicle system according to claim 11, wherein the charging wait status is a number of the traveling vehicles waiting to be charged at the charger.”( [0109] In another embodiment, the map user interface presentation module 410 may be configured to communicate with the charging entity 116 to determine one or more queues/wait times (e.g., queues of electric vehicles to be charged) that are associated with respective charging stations 112. The one or more queues may be analyzed to determine respective wait times to charge the requesting vehicle 102 if the requesting vehicle 102 were to be added to a respective queue(s). Accordingly, the charge application 118 may present the charging station map user interface that includes a map that may pin point one or more charging stations 112 that include queue and wait time details that may pertain to each of the respective charging stations 112. In one configuration, the charge application 118 may present a user interface input that may be associated to each of the one or more charging stations 112 that may be selected by the user to add or remove the requesting vehicle 102 from a queue of a respective charging stations 112. Accordingly, the charging station map user interface(s) may be utilized by the user to schedule the charging of the requesting vehicle 102 at one or more charging stations(s) 112 at one or more points in time.” Here Maeda teaches queues and wait time are different, i.e. the wait time is based on the queue, thus teaching the queue is the number/amount of vehicles)
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.
Claim(s) 11, 15-16, and 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20140217975 A1, Hayashi Takao and further in view of JPH0490009; (translation of specification provided with this action).
Regarding Claim 11, Hayashi Takao teaches “A traveling vehicle system comprising: a plurality of traveling vehicles; a plurality of chargers capable of charging the traveling vehicles”( [0006] “A transport vehicle system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention causes a plurality of transport vehicles to travel under control of a ground controller with electric storage devices in the transport vehicles as power sources along a predetermined travelling route, the system including chargers provided with rectifiers arranged to rectify alternate current into direct current, electric storage devices in the chargers charged by the rectifiers, and charging couplers arranged to charge the electric storage devices in the transport vehicles and disposed in a plurality of locations along the travelling route;”);” and a controller configured or programmed to control traveling of the traveling vehicles and charging of the traveling vehicles by the charger”([0006] “…and the ground controller includes a charging management unit that selects a transport vehicle in need of charging in accordance with the residual capacities of the electric storage devices in the transport vehicles and the positions of the transport vehicles, selects and specifies a charging coupler for the selected transport vehicle, and performs control so that the selected transport vehicle stops at the specified charging coupler and charges the electric storage device in the selected transport vehicle from the electric storage device in a charger via the specified charging coupler.”);” wherein the controller is configured or programmed to include: a processor configured or programmed to select the charger to charge one of the plurality of traveling vehicles to be charged based on location information of the traveling vehicle to be charged,”( [0029] FIG. 6 shows a charging algorithm. The charging management unit detects a transport vehicle that needs charging, and selects and specifies a charging coupler as the charging position in accordance with the travelling route, the current position of the transport vehicle, and the residual capacity of the secondary battery, etc. The transport vehicle that needs charging is called "transport vehicle A". When an overhead travelling vehicle is being charged, the travelling route is blocked during charging.” + from [0027] “…If a transport instruction or allocation instruction is assigned, the charging management unit 58 determines a position of the charging coupler within a specified travelling route.” As such the charger is selected in part on the position of the vehicle and the traveling route (and the position of the charger as being within said route));” traveling controller configured or programmed to cause the traveling vehicle to be charged to travel to a charging location where the traveling vehicle can be charged by the charger selected by the processor; and a charging controller configured or programmed to cause the charger to charge the traveling vehicle at the charging location.”([0006] “….and the ground controller includes a charging management unit that selects a transport vehicle in need of charging in accordance with the residual capacities of the electric storage devices in the transport vehicles and the positions of the transport vehicles, selects and specifies a charging coupler for the selected transport vehicle, and performs control so that the selected transport vehicle stops at the specified charging coupler and charges the electric storage device in the selected transport vehicle from the electric storage device in a charger via the specified charging coupler.”)
Hayashi Takao however does not explicitly teach that the charging station is selected based on “…and charging wait information that indicates a charging wait status of the traveling vehicle at the charger…”
JPH0490009 however teaches a traveling vehicle charging management system which includes selecting of a charging location based on “location information of the traveling vehicle to be charged, location information of the charger, and charging wait information that indicates a charging wait status of the traveling vehicle at the charger”(Page 5, first full paragraph of the page “As described above, when the automated guided vehicle 2-1 requests charging, the controller l firstrefers to map data based on the position data of the automated guided vehicle 2I and searches fordedicated charging stations 7 in order of proximity to the current location of the automated guidedvehicle 2-1. Next, it searches for charging stations that can be used for work in order of proximity to thecurrent location of the automated guided vehicle 2-1. Then, it determines whether or not each of thesearched stations has an available charger, selects one that has an available charger, and transmits theselection result to the automated guided vehicle 2-1. Based on the received location coordinates andcharger number, the automated guided vehicle 2-1 searches for a route to the station by referring tomap data, travels according to the search results, and charges upon arrival. Therefore, the chargingstation or charging/combination station located in the most suitable position for the automated guided vehicle 2-1 is selected, thus reducing the travel time of the automated guided vehicle 2-1”)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the application to modify Hayashi Takao to include selecting the charger based on the location of the vehicle, charger location, and charging wait (availability) information as taught JPH0490009. One would be motivated to implement such in order to shorten the charging time thereby improving the operational capacity of the overall system (Page 5, end of first full paragraph of the page “…As a result, the travel time required to charge the AGV is shortened and the charging efficiency is improved.”)
Regarding Claim 14, modified Takao teaches “The traveling vehicle system according to claim 11, wherein the processor is configured or programmed to select the charger for which a route length from the traveling vehicle to be charged to the charging location is equal to or less than a predetermined distance, or for which a route cost from a current location of the traveling vehicle to be charged to the charging location is equal to or less than a predetermined value.”( Takao [0040]” By installing two to several charging coupler groups in each intra-bay route 6 and installing several charging coupler groups in the inter-bay route 4 as well, the overhead travelling vehicle is preferably charged at approximately 100 meters or less travelling distance, for example. Further, the charging management unit 58 monitors the positions of the overhead travelling vehicles and the residual capacity of the secondary battery or the like, hence no overhead travelling vehicles run out of battery power.” Here teaches that the chargers are selected as those which are 100 meters or less, i.e. route length from the traveling vehicle is equal or less than a predetermined distance)
Regarding Claim 15, modified Takao teaches “The traveling vehicle system according to claim 11, wherein the charging wait status is a number of the traveling vehicles waiting to be charged at the charger”(End of page 4 into start of page 5, “ Then, after searching for a dedicated charging station, thesystem searches for work/charging stations 7 in order of proximity to the current location of theautomated guided vehicle 2-1, and writes them to the work memory 11 in the same manner as above.After completing these searches, the system reads the data from the first data entry written to the workmemory 11 and determines whether there is a usable charger among the stations corresponding to thatdata. Then, if available, the location coordinates of this station (a charging-only station or a charging
station used for both work and charging) and the charger number are transmitted to the automated guided vehicle 2-…“ As modified in claim 11, JPH0490009 teaches selecting of a charger based on in part if it is available (if number of vehicles waiting to be charged is 0 or not))
Claim(s) 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over modified Takao as applied to claim 11 above, and further in view of WO 2020235255 A1, “TRAVELING VEHICLE SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING TRAVELING VEHICLES”, Kitamura et al.
Regarding Claim 19, modified Takao does not teach “The traveling vehicle system according to claim 11, further comprising: tracks in a grid pattern on which the traveling vehicle travels; wherein the charging location is within a first grid cell among a plurality of grid cells defined by the tracks, in which the charger can charge the traveling vehicle to be charged.”
Kitamura et al teaches a similar traveling vehicle system which includes “further comprising: tracks in a grid pattern on which the traveling vehicle travels; wherein the charging location is within a first grid cell among a plurality of grid cells defined by the tracks, in which the charger can charge the traveling vehicle to be charged.”([0047] “The vehicle V charges its battery (not shown) by connecting the charging electrode 39 to the charging terminal 40 (see Figure 1) provided on the vehicle system SYS. The charging terminal 40 is positioned in a predetermined grid cell C. The charging terminal 40 is connected to a power source (not shown) and supplies power to the battery of the vehicle V. The charging terminal 40 is supported by the frame 41 and moves in the vertical direction. The frame 41 is fixed to one or both of the first orbital R1 and the second orbital R2. The charging terminal 40 moves vertically to a retracted position that does not interfere with the movement space of the driving wheels 21 (described later), and to a charging position that connects to the charging electrode 39 of the driving vehicle V.”)
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the application to modify Takao et al to implement the grid pattern and charging system of Kitamura. One would be motivated to implement this construction to allow for the system to charge traveling vehicles without interfering with the traveling of other vehicles in the grid. (Kitamura [0047] “The charging terminal 40 moves vertically to a retracted position that does not interfere with the movement space of the driving wheels 21 (described later), and to a charging position that connects to the charging electrode 39 of the driving vehicle V).
Claim(s) 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Modified Kitamura as applied to claim 19 above, and further in view of JP 2006313767 A, “CARRYING TRUCK SYSTEM”, Matsuda Hiroyuki.
Regarding Claim 20, Kitamura as modified in claim 19 does not teach “The traveling vehicle system according to claim 19, wherein if another of the traveling vehicles is present in the first grid cell, the traveling controller is configured or programmed to cause the traveling vehicle to be charged to travel to a second grid cell, which is different from the first grid cell, as a waiting location; and the second grid cell is located at a grid cell within a predetermined range from the first grid cell and through which the traveling vehicle passes least frequently.”
Hiroyuki teaches a traveling vehicle track and routing system which includes ordering of a traveling vehicle to a standby location which is a location which the travel vehicle passes least frequently ([0053] “This trolley standby position is a position where trolley 1, which is not currently transporting cassettes and is therefore surplus, can be kept on standby to respond to a transport command without unloading any cargo. In the transport path 2 of Figure 1, for example, this corresponds to the less frequently used shortcut 2a (#1), or an appropriate portion of the inter-process transport path (zones G and H).)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the application, to modify Kitamura to include the setting of standby locations (while waiting to recharge/be commanded to resume moving) of the traveling vehicles in sections which are less frequently used as taught by Hiroyuki. One would be motivated to implement the standby locations in order to allow for the system to keep high priority/use tracks clear improving efficiency of the overall system. ([0067] “This makes it possible to avoid situations where there is an excess of trolleys in a certain zone, causing congestion, or an insufficient supply of trolleys, requiring immediate supply of trolleys 1, thereby enabling more efficient operation of the system.”)
Conclusion
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/KENNETH M DUNNE/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3669
