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 .
Status of Claims
This Office Action is in response to the application filed on May 5, 2025. Claims 1-20 are pending. Claims 1 and 14 are independent.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers submitted under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d), which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on July 1, 2025 has been considered. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. The Forms PTO-1449 are signed and attached hereto.
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 1-4, 8, 11, 13, 15 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by U.S. Patent Publication No. 20170013777 to Posselius et al. (hereinafter “Posselius”).
Claims 1-4, 8, 11, 13, 15 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Posselius.
With respect to independent claims 1 and 15, Posselius discloses a sensor system configured to determine a vegetation stand of a field; and an evaluation unit coupled to the sensor system, the evaluation unit is configured to analyze the vegetation stand and further configured to determine a target cutting plane that lies at a level of an upper edge of a crop stand, the upper edge of a crop stand lying below an upper edge of an entirety of the vegetation stand (see paragraphs [0007] and [0028]: a header height control system with a non-contact sensor at the front of the header, a contact sensor at the rear of the header, and an electrical processing circuit which receives signals from each of the non-contact sensor and the contact sensor and predicts an upcoming ground position based upon the received signals. The electrical processing circuit 86 can predict the upcoming ground position, dependent upon the sensed crop canopy and the height of the crop. Since the crop canopy height can be assumed to be fairly constant over a short distance, the upcoming ground position can be determined by subtracting the height of the crop from the sensed crop canopy. The height of the crop can be determined based on the distance between the sensed crop canopy and the sensed actual ground position.).
With respect to dependent claim 2, Posselius discloses wherein the sensor system comprises at least one contactless sensor (see paragraph [0024]: a header height control system 80 includes a non-contact sensor 82, a contact sensor 84, and an electrical processing circuit 86. The non-contact sensor 82 is positioned to sense a crop canopy ahead of the header 18.).
With respect to dependent claims 3 and 16, Posselius discloses wherein the sensor system only comprises contactless sensors (see paragraph [0026]: the contact sensor 84 is a wheel which is mounted to the rear of the header 18, relative to a travel direction of the harvester.).
With respect to dependent claim 4, Posselius discloses wherein the sensor system comprises at least one of the following sensors: an optical sensor a laser sensor, a LiDAR sensor, an acoustic sensor, or a radar senso (see paragraph [0025]: the non-contact sensor 82 can be configured as an ultrasonic sensor, a radar sensor, a sonar sensor, a laser sensor, a microwave sensor, and/or a video camera.).
With respect to dependent claim 8, Posselius discloses wherein the sensor system comprises an ultrasonic or radar sensor and the evaluation unit is configured to verify an already determined target cutting plane based on an output of the ultrasonic or radar sensor (see claim 1: the contact sensor positioned to sense an actual ground position relative to the header, wherein the electrical processing circuit receives signals of the crop canopy position ahead of the header from the non-contact sensor and signals of the actual ground position from the contact sensor on the ground adjacent the header, and a distance between the sensed crop canopy at a location ahead of the header and the actual ground position below the header is determined, thereafter an actual ground position is sensed and determined by the contact sensor at the location in which the crop canopy was sensed by the non-contact sensor, and the electrical processing circuit moveably adjusts the header for receiving upcoming crop based upon at least those determinations.).
With respect to dependent claim 11, Posselius discloses wherein the evaluation unit is coupled or configured to be coupled to at least one output unit configured to output a signal indicating a position of the target cutting plane (see paragraph [0017]: the harvester can also be in the form of other types of self-propelled harvesters with height adjustable headers, such as self-propelled windrowers, forage harvesters, sugarcane harvesters, cotton pickers, etc.).
With respect to dependent claim 13, Posselius discloses wherein the output unit is configured to be coupled to a control unit of the cutting system and to output a control signal to the control unit, the control signal setting a cutting plane of the cutting system in accordance with the target cutting plane (See claim 10: a distance between the sensed crop canopy at a location ahead of the header and the actual ground position adjacent the header is determined, thereafter an actual ground position is sensed and determined by the contact sensor at the location in which the crop canopy was sensed by the non-contact sensor, and the electrical processing circuit moveably adjusts the header for receiving upcoming crop based upon at least those determinations.).
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.
Claims 9 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Posselius in view of U.S. Patent to Ishida et al. (hereinafter “Ishida”).
With respect to dependent claims 9 and 17, Posselius does not explicitly teach the evaluation unit is configured to determine the upper edge of the entirety of the vegetation stand or an upper edge of a weed stand in a stem region of the crop stand or a ground plane.
Ishida teaches since plants other than the crop, such as weeds, for example, also proliferate in an actual field, NVDI is a value that includes weed vegetation, Thus, the reliability of NDVI may be low, and in such cases, the predictive accuracy of crop yields drops markedly. A specification unit configured to collate height distribution data indicating a distribution of a height of plants that exist in a target region with predicted height data of a crop targeted for calculation of a vegetation index, and specify a region where the crop exists within the target region (see paragraphs [0007] and [0009]).
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the vegetative height discrimination logic of Gregg with the cutting system that determines a cutting height of Ishida in order to provide an evaluation unit that is capable of determining the upper edge of the vegetation, the upper edge of the weed stand in the stem region and the ground plane.
Claim 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Posselius in view of U.S. Patent Publication No. 2020/0286630 to Gregg.
With respect to dependent claim 19, Posselius do not explicitly teach Posselius discloses wherein the height guide is configured for a weed cutter or a weed seed collection unit.
Gregg teaches a farm implement removes weed growth above the crop canopy. The implement has a chassis with at least three wheels connected to the chassis, a cutting mechanism, mounted at a front end of the chassis, a means for collecting weed growth cut by the cutting mechanism. the cutting is restricted to an area above a canopy of the crop, especially when the crop grows close to the ground. (See abstract and paragraph [0002]).
It would have been obvious to one skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the weed cutter and weed seed collection platform of Gregg with the height guide architecture on a combine harvester header of Posselius in order to automatically detect canopy height and direct cutting to the correct plane.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-7, 10, 12, 18 and 20 are 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 DEMETRA R SMITH-STEWART whose telephone number is (571)270-3965. The examiner can normally be reached 10am - 6pm.
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/DEMETRA R SMITH-STEWART/Examiner, Art Unit 3661
/PETER D NOLAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3661
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