DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to Applicant's Application filed on 7/14/2025.
Claims 1-2 are pending for examination.
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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 7/14/2025 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
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) 1 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Sato (US20230166625A1).
Regarding claim 1, Sato teaches A charging system comprising:
a charger having a charging connector (Sato: Para 33 “the charging system 1 includes an arm mechanism (e.g. the charge port operation arms A1 to Am) for grasping a charging plug connected to a charging apparatus through a charging cable and automatically performing plugging/unplugging of the charging plug to and from a charge port of a vehicle located at a charging area”);
an arm mechanism that grasps the charging connector(Sato: Para 33 “the charging system 1 includes an arm mechanism (e.g. the charge port operation arms A1 to Am) for grasping a charging plug connected to a charging apparatus through a charging cable and automatically performing plugging/unplugging of the charging plug to and from a charge port of a vehicle located at a charging area”); and,
a control device for controlling the charger, the arm mechanism and a plurality of vehicles(Sato: Fig. 1; Para 35 “The management apparatus 10 includes a vehicle operation management unit 21, a vehicle information storage unit 22, a charging schedule management unit 23, a vehicle position control unit 24, and a charge port operation arm control unit 25”), wherein
the control device configured to
identify positions of the vehicles where a time for inserting the charging connector into charging ports of the vehicles is minimized based on an arm locus illustrating a locus when the arm mechanism grasps the charging connector, shapes of the vehicles, and positions of the charging ports of the vehicles(Sato: Para 36 “The charging schedule management unit 23 generates a charging schedule for efficiently performing charging of a vehicle-to-be-managed based on the state of the vehicle, the operation schedule, and the specifications of the vehicle obtained from the vehicle operation management unit 21 and the vehicle information storage unit 22. Details of the aforementioned charging schedule generation process will be described later”; Para 37 “Based on the charging schedule generated by the charging schedule management unit 23, the vehicle position control unit 24 designates a parking position for a vehicle that has entered the parking area, changes the parking position of the vehicle to that for charging, and instructs the vehicle to travel. The charge port operation arm control unit 25 instructs the charge port operation arms Al to Am to select the charging cable according to the charging schedule generated by the charging schedule management unit 23 and to perform operation of inserting the charging plug into the insertion port of the vehicle”),
cause the vehicles to automatically travel to the identified positions and park therein(Sato: Para 31 “in the charging system, a vehicle-to-be-charged includes not only a vehicle which a person who is a to-be-occupant of the vehicle can get into but also includes a vehicle that can travel autonomously without any human driver on board. Further, in a parking area which is a region to be managed by the charging system, vehicles travel by following instructions from the charging system”; Para 39 “in the charging system 1 according to the first embodiment, the vehicle-to-be-charged are given a parking position adjustment instruction according to which the vehicles-to-be-charged are made to move from the uncharged vehicle parking area to be parked in the charging area in such a way that the first spacing W1 is made wider than a third spacing W3 which is a spacing between the adjacent vehicles parked in the uncharged vehicle parking area”), and
insert the charging connector grasped by the arm mechanism into the charging ports to start charging(Sato: Para 37 “Based on the charging schedule generated by the charging schedule management unit 23, the vehicle position control unit 24 designates a parking position for a vehicle that has entered the parking area, changes the parking position of the vehicle to that for charging, and instructs the vehicle to travel. The charge port operation arm control unit 25 instructs the charge port operation arms Al to Am to select the charging cable according to the charging schedule generated by the charging schedule management unit 23 and to perform operation of inserting the charging plug into the insertion port of the vehicle”).
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.
Claim 2 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sato (US20230166625A1) in view of Sato836 (US20200139836A1).
In regards to claim 2, Sato teaches The charging system according to claim 1, wherein the control device further configured to
determine, in a case where charging is sequentially performed on the vehicles, an order of charging the vehicles so that a time for operating the arm mechanism for the vehicles is minimized based on the arm locus, the shapes of the vehicles, and the positions of the charging ports of the vehicles(Sato: Para 36 “The charging schedule management unit 23 generates a charging schedule for efficiently performing charging of a vehicle-to-be-managed based on the state of the vehicle, the operation schedule, and the specifications of the vehicle obtained from the vehicle operation management unit 21 and the vehicle information storage unit 22. Details of the aforementioned charging schedule generation process will be described later”), and
cause the vehicles to automatically travels to the identified positions and park therein(Sato: Para 31 “in the charging system, a vehicle-to-be-charged includes not only a vehicle which a person who is a to-be-occupant of the vehicle can get into but also includes a vehicle that can travel autonomously without any human driver on board. Further, in a parking area which is a region to be managed by the charging system, vehicles travel by following instructions from the charging system”; Para 39 “in the charging system 1 according to the first embodiment, the vehicle-to-be-charged are given a parking position adjustment instruction according to which the vehicles-to-be-charged are made to move from the uncharged vehicle parking area to be parked in the charging area in such a way that the first spacing W1 is made wider than a third spacing W3 which is a spacing between the adjacent vehicles parked in the uncharged vehicle parking area”).
Yet Sato do not explicitly teach receive charging reservations from the vehicles.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Sato836 teaches receive charging reservations from the vehicles(Sato836: Para 20 “the management system can communicate with the vehicles 100 parked in the parking spaces 11 to 18, receive various pieces of information such as a charging request and a leaving request from the vehicle 100, and transmit an instruction signal for unlocking a charging port of the vehicle 100 and freely opening/closing a charging lid”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify the charging system of Sato with the feature of receive charging reservations from the vehicles disclosed by Sato836. One would be motivated to do so for the benefit of “automatically charge a plurality of vehicles by the arm mechanisms” (Sato836: Para 97).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Sato (US20230166626) disclosed an arm mechanism configured to grasp a charging plug connected to a charging apparatus through a charging cable and automatically perform plugging/unplugging of the charging plug to and from a charge port of a vehicle parked in a charging area; a storage unit configured to store vehicle information including at least a type of the vehicle and information about a charge port of the vehicle; a charging schedule management unit configured to generate, based on the vehicle information of vehicles being charged and vehicles-to-be-charged, a charging schedule including respective parking sections and respective vehicle postures for parking in the respective parking sections according to which a moving time required for the arm mechanism to move in performing a charging operation of a plurality of vehicles is reduced to the minimum; and a vehicle position control unit configured to indicate the plurality of vehicles of the respective parking sections and the respective vehicle postures for parking in the respective parking sections based on the charging schedule.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WENYUAN YANG whose telephone number is (571)272-5455. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 9:00AM-5:00PM EST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hitesh Patel can be reached at (571) 270-5442. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/W.Y./Examiner, Art Unit 3667
/Hitesh Patel/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 3667
6/17/26
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