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 .
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) 1-4 and 8-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by .
Claim 1
A method for braking a multi-part vehicle having a tractor (tractor vehicle 10) and two trailers (first trailer vehicle 11, second trailer vehicle 12) each having an electrically actuatable brake modulator (Page 4, “All vehicles comprise electropneumatic brakes and are fitted with an electronic brake system EBS”), wherein the method comprises:
detecting a braking request to brake the vehicle (Page 8, ECU 38 of second vehicle detects tipping risk based on lateral acceleration, this represents the braking request)
by using the braking request, determining actuating signals for a time-offset actuation of the brake modulators (Page 8, after detecting tipping risk, the second trailer both initiates braking of the second trailer and sends a “VDC active” signal to the other vehicles, and after receiving “VDC active signal”, other vehicles operate their brakes as a supporting measure, therefore the VDC active signal represents the actuating signal for time-offset actuation of the brake modulators. See also Page 6 “The braking of the leading trailer vehicle 11 is a supporting measure for the preceding braking of the following second trailer vehicle 12…”); and,
outputting the actuating signals for asynchronous actuation of the brake modulators (Page 8, VDC active signal is output).
Claim 2
The method of claim 1, wherein: the braking request is transmitted to the trailers via a vehicle bus (page 8, VDC active sent to other vehicles together with sender information by means of the CAN bus); and, one of the actuating signals for actuating the brake modulator of one of the trailers is determined by a controller of the respective trailer (page 6, EBS in first trailer responds to the received message and brakes the first trailer vehicle).
Claim 3
The method of claim 1, wherein one of the actuating signals for actuating the brake modulator of one of the trailers is determined as a function of at least one of the following: i) an address relating to the trailer; and, ii) a position of the trailer (page 3, “Each vehicle ahead or its ECU can recognize from said message and from the identifier that the stability system in the following vehicle is active”, braking determination is made based on the sending trailer’s location and the responding trailer’s position in front of the sender).
Claim 4
The method of claim 1, wherein the braking signals are determined in such a way that a trailer leading in a direction of travel is braked later than a trailer trailing in the direction of travel (Page 8, after detecting tipping risk, the second trailer both initiates braking of the second trailer and sends a “VDC active” signal to the other vehicles, and after receiving “VDC active signal”, other vehicles operate their brakes as a supporting measure, therefore the VDC active signal represents the actuating signal for time-offset actuation of the brake modulators. See also Page 6 “The braking of the leading trailer vehicle 11 is a supporting measure for the preceding braking of the following second trailer vehicle 12…”);.
Claim 8
A controller for a trailer of a multi-part vehicle having a tractor and two trailers, wherein the controller is configured to carry out the method of claim 1 (Page 7, Lines 1-5).
Claim 9
A trailer comprising: an electrically actuatable brake modulator; and, a controller configured to: detect a braking request to brake a vehicle; by using the braking request, determine actuating signals for a time-offset actuation of the electrically actuatable brake modulator; and, output the actuating signals for asynchronous actuation of the electrically actuatable brake modulator (see rejection of claim 1 above).
Claim 10
A computer program and/or computer-readable medium, comprising commands stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, said commands being configured, when the program or the commands are executed by a computer, to cause the computer to: detect a braking request to brake a vehicle; by using the braking request, determine actuating signals for a time-offset actuation of brake modulators; and, output the actuating signals for asynchronous actuation of the brake modulators (see rejection of claim 1 above).
Claim 11
The method of claim 1, wherein the multi-part vehicle is a commercial vehicle (page 1, road trains).
Claim 12
The controller of claim 8, wherein the multi-part vehicle is a commercial vehicle (page 1, road trains).
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(s) 5-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Risse et al. (AU 2013292777) in view of Broome (US 5,277,485)
Claim 5
Risse et al. does not disclose a method of claim 1, wherein the braking signals are determined in such a way that only the brake modulator of exactly one of the trailers actuates a solenoid valve in an attraction phase at one point in time.
However Broome discloses a trailer braking system wherein the braking signals are determined in such a way that only the brake modulator of exactly one of the trailers actuates a solenoid valve in an attraction phase at one point in time (Column 2, Lines 32-28; Column 8, Lines 8-16).
Therefore it would have been obvious to modify the method disclosed by Risse et al. with the staggered actuation disclosed by Broome in order to prevent excessive current consumption during brake activation.
Claim 6
Risse/Broome disclose a method of claim 1, wherein the braking signals are determined in such a way that a time offset between attraction phases of the brake modulators is 1 ms to 30 ms (Broome, Column 8, Lines 41-48).
Claim 7
Risse/Broome disclose a method of claim 1, wherein the braking signals are determined in such a way that a time offset between attraction phases of the brake modulators meets a threshold value condition or falls below a threshold value (Broome, Column 8, Lines 8-20 and 41-48).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SIZO BINDA VILAKAZI whose telephone number is (571)270-3926. The examiner can normally be reached 10am-6pm.
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/SIZO B VILAKAZI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3747
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