DETAILED ACTION
This is the First Office Action in response to the above identified patent
application filed on July 14, 2025
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 .
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.
Claim(s) 14-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Chen (CN 111015720).
Chen teaches a system of modular soft robots comprising: a plurality of modular soft robots (2), each robot comprising: a base (end portion of 2 that engages platform 1); an arm coupled to the base (platform 1), the arm comprising a first surface (top surface, Fig. 3) and a second surface (bottom surface, Fig. 3) opposite and spaced apart from the first surface, wherein the first surface defines a plurality of channels (Fig. 3), each channel comprising a proximal end at the first surface and a distal end spaced apart from the proximal end, wherein each channel has a longitudinal axis extending therethrough; and an actuator (rope, Fig. 3) at least partially disposed within the arm adjacent the base, wherein the actuator is configured to deform the arm between a flat configuration and a curved configuration, wherein, in the flat configuration (Fig. 3), each channel has a first width at the distal end of the channel, and in the curved configuration, each channel has a second width at the distal end of the channel, wherein the first width is greater than the second width, wherein each of the plurality of modular soft robots are rotationally symmetric (about the platform 1) relative to each other, and wherein the plurality of modular soft robots in the curved configuration (such as Fig. 8a) are reconfigurable to create a three-dimensional shape different from the shape of each robot alone.
Claim 15: Chen illustrates (Fig. 1) the plurality of modular soft robots in the flat configuration are reconfigurable relative to each other to create a two-dimensional shape different from the shape of each robot alone.
Claim 16: Chen illustrates each of the plurality of modular soft robots are reconfigurable relative to each other in a three-dimensional shape.
Claim 17: Chen illustrates (Fig. 8a) the three-dimensional shape is a sphere.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 18-27 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art does not teach the modular soft robot of claim 14, including: each of the plurality of modular soft robots correspond to a platonic solid, the platonic solid having a number of faces and a number of edges per face, wherein the number of faces of the platonic solid correlates to the number of modular robots that are arrangeable relative to each other to form the sphere, and wherein the number of edges per face of the platonic solid correlates to a number of arms of each of the modular soft robots (claim 18); each of the plurality of modular soft robots correspond to an Archimedean solid (claim 25); or the plurality of modular soft robots comprises a first plurality of modular soft robots having a first number of arms and a second plurality of modular soft robots having a second number of arms, the second number of arms being different from the first number of arms (claim 26).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Note: the robot arms of Ren (CN 108724239) having channels and the robot arms forming a spherical member of Yu (CN 112847395), Sun (CN 11489718) and Wu (USPub 11,116,450).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIAM C JOYCE whose telephone number is (571)272-7107. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:00.
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/WILLIAM C JOYCE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3618
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