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 .
2. This Office Action is sent in response to Applicant's Communication received on September 16, 2025 for application number 19/165,647. This Office hereby acknowledges receipt of the following and placed of record in file: Specification, Drawings, Abstract, Oath/Declaration, and Claims.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on September 16, 2025 was submitted in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the Examiner.
Priority
4. Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. FR 2302479 filed on March 17, 2023.
Disposition of Claims
Claims 1-15 are pending in this application.
Claims 4-5, 9 and 11-15 are objected as allowable subject matter.
Claims 1-3, 6-8 and 10 are rejected.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4-5, 9 and 11-15 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.
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or non-obviousness.
Claims 1-3, 6-8 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over (HUANG – CN 114715123 A), in view of (NILSSON – EP 3808619 A1).
Regarding claim 1, HUANG discloses:
A method for emergency braking of a vehicle wheel equipped with an electric parking brake ([Abstract]: a vehicle control method and device, comprising: determining the wheel speed value of the rear axle wheel of the vehicle and the rotation angle value of the steering rudder; calculating the wheel speed difference value between the two opposite wheels in the rear axle wheel according to the wheel speed value; according to the wheel speed difference value, adjusting the rear axle differential lock of the vehicle into a locking state; when the rotating angle value is greater than or equal to the preset angle value, the rear axle differential lock is adjusted to the unlocking state, and the rear axle wheel in the steering side of the target wheel for braking operation, the rear axle differential lock of the vehicle can automatically unlocking and locking according to the actual requirement, when the rear axle differential lock is unlocked, the steering side rear wheel can be braked according to the rotating angle value of the steering rudder, the steering auxiliary function is automatically realized, therefore, when the user is running on the complex road condition, the rear axle differential lock locking function and the steering auxiliary function can be automatically realized, there is no need to frequently switch rear axle differential lock locking function and steering auxiliary function), the vehicle having:
at least two axles and the wheel being on a first of said at least two axles, by implementing either an anti-lock braking mode, or an incremental braking mode ([Abstract]),
the anti-lock braking mode being provided by controlling the parking brake in compliance with the following rules, whereas the slipping of the wheel is obtained by calculating the difference between the speed of rotation of the wheel and a reference speed obtained using the speed of at least one of the two wheels of a second of said at least two axles of the vehicle ([Abstract, 0032-0045]: Steering rudder 16 connected with the front wheel of the vehicle, by rotating the steering rudder 16 can adjust the steering angle of the vehicle, the steering angle of the vehicle is larger, the radius of the circle corresponding to the vehicle turning path is smaller, that is, the turning radius is smaller. when the steering rudder 16 is in the middle position, the vehicle travels along the straight line, when the steering rudder 16 rotates to the maximum angle, the vehicle steering angle reaches the maximum, the turning radius of the vehicle is the minimum. The embodiment of the present invention provides a vehicle control method and device, comprising: determining the wheel speed value of the rear axle wheel of the vehicle and the rotation angle value of the steering rudder; calculating the wheel speed difference value between the two opposite wheels in the rear axle wheel according to the wheel speed value; according to the wheel speed difference value, adjusting the rear axle differential lock of the vehicle into a locking state; under the condition that the rotating angle value is greater than or equal to the preset angle value, adjusting the rear axle differential lock into an unlocking state, and braking the target wheel in the steering side in the rear axle wheel. In the embodiment of the invention, in order to ensure that the user can automatically realize the rear axle differential locking function and steering auxiliary function in the complex road condition, without frequently opening and closing the rear axle differential locking function and steering auxiliary function, The embodiment of the invention controls the state of the vehicle rear axle differential lock through the wheel speed difference value of the vehicle rear axle wheel and the steering angle value input by the user, so that the rear axle differential lock of the vehicle can automatically unlock and lock, so as to automatically realize the rear axle differential lock locking function and steering auxiliary function, when the user is running on the complex road condition, it does not need frequent switch rear axle differential lock locking function and steering auxiliary function, improves the user using convenience and driving safety):
if the slipping is less than a first predetermined threshold, progressively applying the brake until the slipping becomes greater than this first threshold ([0072]: For example, when the wheel speed difference value of the wheels at two sides of the vehicle rear axle is greater than or equal to 10km/h and less than or equal to 20km/h, the single-side wheel of the vehicle rear axle can be determined to be in the sliding state, at this time, the rear axle differential lock is controlled to be locked. the preset speed value interval can be set according to the actual need, the embodiment of the invention is not particularly limited),
if the slipping is greater than a second predetermined threshold, greater than the first threshold, progressively releasing the brake until the slipping becomes less than this second threshold ([0083]: For example, the preset third speed value is 5km/h. the preset time length value is 30 seconds, after the rear axle differential lock of the vehicle is locked, the vehicle is successfully removed, at this time, the user continues to drive the vehicle, then the change condition of the vehicle driving speed is continuously monitored, if the maximum driving speed of the vehicle in 30 seconds before the current time is detected to be 20km/h, the minimum driving speed is 16km/h, the running speed change of the vehicle is less than 5km/h of time reaches 30 seconds, explaining that the vehicle is trapped and normal running, can unlock the rear axle differential lock, the rear axle differential recovery normal working state. It can be understood that the preset third speed value and the preset time length value can be set according to the actual need),
if the slipping is greater than the first threshold and less than the second threshold, maintaining application at its current level, the incremental braking method being provided by controlling the parking brake by increasing its application in stages of predetermined durations ([0087]: When the rotation angle value is greater than or equal to the preset angle value, the rear axle differential lock is adjusted to the unlocking state, and the rear axle wheel in the steering side of the target wheel for braking operation).
But HUANG does not explicitly and/or specifically meet the following limitations:
(A) the method being characterized in that, when the speeds of the two wheels of the second axle are not known but only one is known, the anti-lock braking mode is applied with, as reference speed, this known speed, corrected by a reducing operation, and when the speed of no wheel on the second axle is known, the incremental braking mode is applied.
However, regarding limitation (A) above, NILSSON ([Abstract, 0029, 0093]) discloses/teaches the following:
An autonomously driven vehicle (1). The vehicle (1) comprises a brake system (3) with an EBS brake system (7) and an auxiliary brake system (8). Furthermore, the vehicle comprises an autonomous driving control system (2). A switching device (13) of the brake system (3) deactivates the EBS brake system (7) and activates the auxiliary brake system (8) when detecting an at least reduced brake performance of the EBS brake system (7). Here, the EBS brake system (7) and the auxiliary brake system (8) are able to process the same brake demands (5) generated by the autonomous driving control system (2) without an adaptation of the brake demand (5) by the autonomous driving control system (2) being required when switching from the EBS brake system (7) to the auxiliary brake system (8).
It is possible that a slip control of a brake actuator during deceleration both by the EBS brake system as well as by the auxiliary brake system relies on one and the same wheel speed sensor of the wheel associated with the brake actuator. In this case the wheel speed signal from this wheel speed sensor can be transmitted via separate lines to the EBS brake system and the auxiliary brake system or forwarded by one brake system to the other brake system. However, in the case that there is a failure of the sensor there is no slip control possible for both brake systems. For one embodiment of the invention, the invention suggests to use a first wheel speed sensor and a second wheel speed sensor, the two sensors being associated with one and the same vehicle wheel. A wheel speed signal from the first wheel speed sensor is then processed by the EBS brake system whereas a wheel speed signal from the second wheel speed sensor is processed by the auxiliary brake system. Accordingly, a redundant slip control is provided on the basis of the redundant wheel speed sensors.
The monitoring of the function of the EBS braking mode 18 might base on an analysis of a wheel speed sensor. In the case that a brake demand 5, 6 requests a brake action but the wheel speed sensors signal that the EBS brake system 7 is not able to produce a brake pressure for generating a decelerating braking force corresponding to the brake request 5, 6, this can be taken as an indicator that a switch from the EBS braking mode 18 to the auxiliary braking mode 19 is required.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to have modified the control system of HUANG incorporating additional controller communications/calculation-unit modules as taught by NILSSON to provide an autonomously driven vehicle comprising a brake system leading to an increased brake performance and/or leading to an increased security and/or providing a fail-safe operation.
Regarding claim 2, HUANG as combined above disclose the method according to claim 1, and further on HUANG as combined above also discloses:
wherein the reducing operation is a multiplication by a multiplying coefficient (0-100% which is equivalent to 0-1).
Regarding claim 3, HUANG as combined above disclose the method according to claim 2, and further on HUANG as combined above also discloses:
wherein the multiplying coefficient is between 0 and 1 (0-100% which is equivalent to 0-1).
Regarding claim 6, HUANG as combined above disclose the method according to claim 1, and further on HUANG as combined above also discloses:
wherein the first axle is a rear axle and the second axle is a front axle (rear and front axles only).
Regarding claim 7, HUANG as combined above disclose the method according to claim 1, and further on HUANG as combined above also discloses:
means adapted to implement the method according to claim 1.
Regarding claim 8, HUANG as combined above disclose the method according to claim 7, and further on HUANG as combined above also discloses:
at least one braking system according to the invention according to claim 7.
Regarding claim 10, HUANG as combined above disclose the method according to claim 6, and further on HUANG as combined above also discloses:
wherein the vehicle has exactly two axles (rear and front axles only).
Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
JP 2007276640 A – SUGAWARA
US 11,052,889 B2 - Wulf
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Ruben Picon-Feliciano whose telephone number is (571)-272-4938. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday within 11:30 am-7:30 pm ET.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Lindsay M. Low can be reached on (571)272-1196. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/RUBEN PICON-FELICIANO/Examiner, Art Unit 3747
/GRANT MOUBRY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3747
Prosecution Insights