DETAILED ACTION
Responsive to the claims filed May 16, 2025. Claims 1-20 are presented. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Specification
The title of the invention is not descriptive. A new title is required that is clearly indicative of the invention to which the claims are directed.
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Gauvreau, Jr. (US 2020/0022312).
As per claim 1, Gauvreau, Jr. teaches a method of performing pollination of a flower of a plant, the method comprising the steps of:
accessing, by an aerial drone from a central server, a mission identifying a set of plants within a region, a list defining an order in which the plants are to be pollinated, and an amount of time the aerial drone is to hover over each plant (see at least paragraphs [0012-0015, 0066]; flight plan);
navigating, by the aerial drone, to a location associated with a first plant within the ordered list; hovering, by the aerial drone, over the first plant for the amount of time identified by the mission (see at least paragraphs [0015, 0018-0020]); and
repeating the navigation and hovering by the aerial drone for each additional plant identified by the mission (see at least fig 6); wherein the set of plants, the ordered list, and the amounts of time identified by the mission are selected to avoid collisions with additional aerial drones (intended use language).
As per claim 2, Gauvreau, Jr. teaches wherein the amount of time the aerial drone hovers over the first plant is selected from one of the following time intervals: 5 s to 60 s, 10 s to 30 s, and 10 to 15 seconds (see at least paragraph [0014]).
As per claim 3, Gauvreau, Jr. teaches wherein the mission further identifies a number of times the aerial drone is configured to hover over each plant, wherein the number of times is selected from one of the following ranges: 1 to 20 times, 2 to 10 times, and 3 to 5 times (see at least paragraph [0066]).
As per claim 4, Gauvreau, Jr. teaches wherein hovering over the first plant comprises positioning the aerial drone such that a flower of the first plant is located within a downwash of propellors of the aerial drone (see at least paragraph [0036]).
As per claim 5, Gauvreau, Jr. teaches wherein the propellers comprise one or more dedicated propellors for generating the airflow and an airflow actuator configured to rotate the dedicated propellors to direct the airflow towards the flower (see at least fig 1).
As per claim 6, Gauvreau, Jr. teaches wherein the aerial drone and the additional aerial drones are part of a fleet of aerial drones configured to operate within an indoor farming facility (non-functional descriptive language). The limitation is non-functional descriptive language that does not actively recite a function and therefore does not add any meaningful limitations to the scope of the claim. “A claim term is functional when it recites a feature by what it does not what it is" (MPEP 2173.05g). Non-functional descriptive material does not impart a patentable distinction to a claim. Patentable weight will only be given when such descriptive material has a functional relationship to the substrate (MPEP 2111.05).
As per claim 7, Gauvreau, Jr. teaches wherein the aerial drone is configured to autonomously pollinate flowers of the plants identified by the mission (see at least paragraph [0012]).
As per claim 8, Gauvreau, Jr. teaches wherein the aerial drone is configured to produce turbulent airflow instabilities while hovering over the first plant (see at least fig 1).
As per claim 9, Gauvreau, Jr. teaches wherein the aerial drone is configured to produce vortex-indexed airflow instabilities while hovering over the first plant (see at least fig 1).
As per claim 10, Gauvreau, Jr. teaches wherein the aerial drone is configured to, while hovering over the first plant, induce vibrations within flowers of the first plant sufficient to induce pollination within the flowers of the first plant (see at least fig 1, paragraph [0007-0012]).
Claims 11-20 contain similar limitations as the claims above and therefore are rejected under similar rationale.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Ramsey Refai whose telephone number is (313)446-4867. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9am-5pm EST.
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/RAMSEY REFAI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3664
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