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 April 16, 2025. Claims 1-4 are presently pending and are presented for examination.
Priority
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. JP2024-066980, filed on April 17, 2024.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on April 16, 2025 and June 3, 2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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)(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.
Claims 1-4 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being unpatentable in view of Kono et al., US 20220342423 A1 (Hereinafter “Kono”).
Regarding Claim 1, Kono discloses an article transport facility comprising: a predetermined route; a transport vehicle configured to travel along the route and transport an article; and a control system configured to designate, with respect to the transport vehicle, a movement destination and a movement route to the movement destination, and See Fig.1 and [0027].
wherein: the route comprises a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links connecting adjacent nodes among the nodes to each other, the article transport facility is configured to set in advance, for each of the plurality of links, See [0031], “As shown in FIG. 2, the travelable route 1 includes a plurality of nodes N at which a route branches or routes merge, and a plurality of links L.”
a standard cost corresponding to a time it takes for the transport vehicle to pass through that link, and the control system is configured to execute: route extraction processing for extracting a plurality of candidate routes that are candidates for the route along which the transport vehicle is capable of moving from a movement origin to the movement destination by referring to map information that is information regarding the route; See [0042-0048], in particular “[0044] In the present embodiment, as shown in the flowchart of the route setting control #10 in FIG. 7, based on current position information of a setting vehicle 3C, destination information, and the map information, the controller H sets one or more candidate routes 1B as routes that enable traveling from the current position to the destination (#11).”.
cost correction amount deriving processing for deriving, with respect to each of the plurality of candidate routes, a cost correction amount of the candidate route based on a combination of shapes of the plurality of links included in the candidate route; and See [0049] and [0081-0084] “[0081] Also, in the present embodiment, the controller H further corrects the variable cost DY (adjusted variable cost DYc) with use of the density value d. The controller H corrects the link cost LC in the route setting control #10 such that the link cost LC increases as the density value d increases. “ + [0102] “(5) In the above description, an example is described in which the link cost LC is corrected using the density value d. However, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration. For example, a configuration is possible in which the link cost LC is not corrected using the density value d. Also, the link cost LC may be corrected using a value representing the route length of the target link LA, for example. In this case, the link cost LC may be corrected such that the link cost LC decreases as the route length of the target link LA increases, for example. Alternatively, the link cost LC may be corrected using an index value other than those described above.” Here in [0102] Kono teaches correcting of link cost based on the length (i.e. shape); the various link costs are then summed to form the route cost (i.e. based on the combination of shapes) the overall route cost is corrected.
route selection processing for selecting a candidate route having a smallest route cost out of the plurality of candidate routes, as the movement route of the transport vehicle, by calculating a route cost of each candidate route based on a sum of the standard costs of all links included in the candidate route and the cost correction amount determined for that candidate route in the cost correction amount deriving processing. See [0096-0098], “The controller H then compares the route costs TC determined for the candidate routes 1B, and sets the candidate route 1B having the lowest route cost TC among the candidate routes 1B as the set route 1A. As a result, it is possible to appropriately consider the influence of other vehicles 3B present in the travelable route 1 and increase the likelihood that the route with the shortest time to reach the destination can be set as the set route 1A in the actual traveling situation … reference cost ST is set based on the transit time when the target vehicle 3A actually travels on the target link LA in a state where the other vehicles 3B are not present in the target link LA. However, the present invention is not limited to such a configuration. For example, a configuration is possible in which the reference cost ST is set based on the route length and the shape of the target link LA without actually causing the target vehicle 3A to travel. Specifically, a configuration is possible in which an ideal traveling speed for the article transport vehicle 3 is obtained for each of various positions based on the shape of the target link LA, the reference transit time of the target link LA for the article transport vehicle 3 is obtained based on the traveling speeds at the positions and the route length of the target link LA, and the reference cost ST is set based on the reference transit time.” Also [0102-0111].
Regarding Claim 2, Kono discloses the following limitation dependent on Claim 1:
wherein the links comprise one or more straight links and one or more curved links, and wherein the cost correction amount is derived in the cost correction amount deriving processing such that, if a candidate route includes a target straight section whose continuous straight travel distance is smaller than a predetermined threshold, the route cost of that candidate route becomes larger than the route cost of a candidate route that does not include a target straight section whose continuous straight travel distance is smaller than the threshold, the target straight section is a section in which one or more straight links are arranged continuously between two curved links, and the continuous straight travel distance is a length of the target straight section. See [0102] as the route cost is corrected based on length this implies that there is a neutral (threshold length) which above the length cost is corrected via reducing cost and/or below which cost length is increased; the decreasing of cost as length increases is equivalent to/a rephrasing of increasing of cost as length decreases, Also [0095]-[0096] selects lowest route cost candidate route based on LC (which includes Standard cost) + [0102] correction of ST cost based on length of link.
Regarding Claim 3, Kono discloses the following limitation dependent on Claim 2:
wherein a straight line distance is set for each straight link, and the straight line distance is a length of the straight link, and wherein the standard cost of each straight link is set based on at least the straight line distance. See [0098] discloses that the standard cost is based on length (distance) for each link; which in [0032] is known that each shape (straight versus curved) has own travel speeds; i.e. the standard transit cost is based on at least the straight length distance for the link
Regarding Claim 4, Kono discloses the following limitation dependent on Claim 2:
wherein the cost correction amount is derived for each target straight section in the cost correction amount deriving processing, and wherein, in the route selection processing, the route cost of each candidate route is calculated based on a value obtained by correcting a target straight section standard cost of each target straight section included in the candidate route with the cost correction amount derived foreach target straight section, and the target straight section standard cost is a sum of the standard costs of all links included in the target straight section. See [0081-0088], [0095-0096] Here teaches that the route cost is based on the link costs of the individual links, and [0102] teaches cost correction based on length of link (i.e. derives a cost correct for each straight section based on that sections length).
Additional Relevant Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure and may be found on the accompanying PTO-892 Notice of References Cited:
US Publication US 20100242783 A1 by Oguro et al.
Japanese Publication JP 2019124507 A by Hiroo et al.
WIPO Publication WO 2023132101 A1 by Harasaki et al.
NPL, “Robot Collaboration Intelligence with AI” by Hwang et al
Conclusion
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/B.K.P./Examiner, Art Unit 3669
/KENNETH M DUNNE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3669
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