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 .
2. This Office Action is sent in response to Applicant's Communication received on September 19, 2025 for application number 19/333,776. This Office hereby acknowledges receipt of the following and placed of record in file: Specification, Drawings, Abstract, Oath/Declaration, and Claims.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on {September 19, 2025} and {March 20, 2026} were submitted in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the Examiner.
Priority
4. 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. KR 10-2025-0014746 filed on February 05, 2025.
Disposition of Claims
Claims 1-10 are pending in this application.
Claims 1-10 are rejected.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(B) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 3, the term “configurd” in the limitation “…wherein the processor is configurd to store a preset hardware design value as the learned end angle in response to a preset learning initialization condition being satisfied…” renders the claim undefined because said term have an “unintended typographical error” failing to set the bounds and metes of what Applicant regards as their invention.
To advance prosecution, the Examiner will interpret and read said limitation as “…wherein the processor is configured …”, as this is consistent with present application written specification, drawings and claims on record.
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.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by (Kurishige – US 2002/0026270 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Kurishige discloses:
A steering control apparatus for an electric power steering system (FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a construction of an electric power steering control system), comprising:
a processor (steering torque controller 2: Fig. 1); and a memory configured to store an instruction that is executed by the processor, wherein the instruction causes the processor (steering torque controller 2: Fig. 1) to generate
a compensation current configured to generate a reaction torque against a steering direction, based on at least one of kinetic energy stored by a mass component of the electric steering system or potential energy stored by a rotational elastic component due to tire torsion, based on a steering angle and a learned end angle ([0014, 0016, 0083, 0085, 0108, 0121]: “The present invention was made to resolve the above-discussed problems and has an object of obtaining an electric power steering apparatus capable of returning a steering wheel without application of a torque in returning direction of the steering wheel when the steering wheel is manipulated within a range wherein road surface reaction torque of tires is small such as a case of going round a curve at a low speed or a case of going round a gentle curve at a high speed, controlling returning property of the steering wheel by using a target steering angle (the target steering angle is 0.degree. when the driver wants to return the steering wheel to the original point) corresponding to the will of the driver, thereby improving the returning property of the steering wheel in any driving condition and improving convergence and damping performance after unhanding the steering wheel by using the steering angle. The invention also provides a method for controlling the electric power steering apparatus” and “It is also possible to obtain a similar result when the foregoing step of obtaining the steering wheel angle .theta.s is omitted and the return torque is directly obtained from the difference between the motor angle .theta.m and the neutral point learned value .theta.m (0). In this embodiment, the neutral point learning counter j is immediately reset to zero when the neutral point learning counter j indicates 2 in steps 110 to 112. However, it is also preferable to reset the neutral point learning counter j when it indicates a numeral larger than 2. For example, it is also preferable that an arithmetic average of the displacement .DELTA..theta.m from the neutral point is continuously obtained until the neutral point learning counter j indicates 100. It is also preferable to use a moving average in 100 times of the displacement .DELTA..theta.m from the latest neutral point instead of carrying out the arithmetic averaging” and “The influence Tfric of the friction torque in the steering mechanism in left steering and that in right steering are approximately the same in intensity and opposite in direction. It is therefore possible to cancel the influence of the friction torque Tfric by computing the displacement of the motor angle from the neutral point through arithmetic averaging when the steering wheel is turned left and right and by storing the result of the computation as the neutral point learned value .theta.m0” and “Numeral 9 is a motor current determiner (motor current setting means) for computing a target current signal from the target torque computed by the first adder 8. Numeral 10 is a motor in which a motor current value corresponding to an applied voltage is generated and an assisting torque approximately in proportion to the motor current value is generated. The assisting torque is applied to the steering wheel used for manipulating the running wheels of the vehicle. Numeral 11 is a motor current detector (motor current detecting means) for detecting the current value (I) of the motor 10” and “Numeral 13 is a motor drive for determining a voltage to be applied to the motor 10 on the basis of the difference between the target current signal computed by the motor current determiner 9 and the motor current value detected by the motor current detector 11. The determined voltage is applied to the motor 10. Numeral 14 is a speed detector (speed detecting means) for detecting a vehicle speed and outputting a signal of the detected speed to the steering torque controller 2, a neutral point learning unit 24, the damping compensator 4, the inertia compensator 6, and the steering angle compensator 26”).
Regarding claim 10, Kurishige discloses:
A steering control method for an electric power steering system (FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a construction of an electric power steering control system), comprising:
obtaining, by a processor (steering torque controller 2: Fig. 1), a learned end angle; and
generating, by the processor (steering torque controller 2: Fig. 1),
a compensation current that is used to generate a reaction torque against a steering direction, based on at least one of kinetic energy stored by a mass component of the electric steering system or potential energy stored by a rotational elastic component due to tire torsion, using a steering angle and the learned end angle ([0014, 0016, 0083, 0085, 0108, 0121]: “The present invention was made to resolve the above-discussed problems and has an object of obtaining an electric power steering apparatus capable of returning a steering wheel without application of a torque in returning direction of the steering wheel when the steering wheel is manipulated within a range wherein road surface reaction torque of tires is small such as a case of going round a curve at a low speed or a case of going round a gentle curve at a high speed, controlling returning property of the steering wheel by using a target steering angle (the target steering angle is 0.degree. when the driver wants to return the steering wheel to the original point) corresponding to the will of the driver, thereby improving the returning property of the steering wheel in any driving condition and improving convergence and damping performance after unhanding the steering wheel by using the steering angle. The invention also provides a method for controlling the electric power steering apparatus” and “It is also possible to obtain a similar result when the foregoing step of obtaining the steering wheel angle .theta.s is omitted and the return torque is directly obtained from the difference between the motor angle .theta.m and the neutral point learned value .theta.m (0). In this embodiment, the neutral point learning counter j is immediately reset to zero when the neutral point learning counter j indicates 2 in steps 110 to 112. However, it is also preferable to reset the neutral point learning counter j when it indicates a numeral larger than 2. For example, it is also preferable that an arithmetic average of the displacement .DELTA..theta.m from the neutral point is continuously obtained until the neutral point learning counter j indicates 100. It is also preferable to use a moving average in 100 times of the displacement .DELTA..theta.m from the latest neutral point instead of carrying out the arithmetic averaging” and “The influence Tfric of the friction torque in the steering mechanism in left steering and that in right steering are approximately the same in intensity and opposite in direction. It is therefore possible to cancel the influence of the friction torque Tfric by computing the displacement of the motor angle from the neutral point through arithmetic averaging when the steering wheel is turned left and right and by storing the result of the computation as the neutral point learned value .theta.m0” and “Numeral 9 is a motor current determiner (motor current setting means) for computing a target current signal from the target torque computed by the first adder 8. Numeral 10 is a motor in which a motor current value corresponding to an applied voltage is generated and an assisting torque approximately in proportion to the motor current value is generated. The assisting torque is applied to the steering wheel used for manipulating the running wheels of the vehicle. Numeral 11 is a motor current detector (motor current detecting means) for detecting the current value (I) of the motor 10” and “Numeral 13 is a motor drive for determining a voltage to be applied to the motor 10 on the basis of the difference between the target current signal computed by the motor current determiner 9 and the motor current value detected by the motor current detector 11. The determined voltage is applied to the motor 10. Numeral 14 is a speed detector (speed detecting means) for detecting a vehicle speed and outputting a signal of the detected speed to the steering torque controller 2, a neutral point learning unit 24, the damping compensator 4, the inertia compensator 6, and the steering angle compensator 26”).
Regarding claim 2, Kurishige discloses the steering control apparatus according to claim 1, and further on Kurishige also discloses:
wherein the processor is configured to store a current steering angle as the learned end angle in response to a preset learning condition being satisfied (Figs. 1-4 and 6; [0014, 0016, 0083, 0085, 0108, 0121]).
Regarding claim 3, Kurishige discloses the steering control apparatus according to claim 1, and further on Kurishige also discloses:
wherein the processor is configured to store a preset hardware design value as the learned end angle in response to a preset learning initialization condition being satisfied (Figs. 1-4 and 6; [0014, 0016, 0083, 0085, 0108, 0121]).
Regarding claim 4, Kurishige discloses the steering control apparatus according to claim 1, and further on Kurishige also discloses:
wherein the processor is configured to attenuate a motor current to be applied to a motor according to an output attenuation ratio preset to the steering angle (Figs. 1-4 and 6; [0014, 0016, 0083, 0085, 0108, 0121]).
Regarding claim 5, Kurishige discloses the steering control apparatus according to claim 4, and further on Kurishige also discloses:
wherein the processor is configured to limit the motor current in response to the steering angle reaching the learned end angle (Figs. 1-4 and 6; [0014, 0016, 0083, 0085, 0108, 0121]).
Regarding claim 6, Kurishige discloses the steering control apparatus according to claim 1, and further on Kurishige also discloses:
wherein the processor is configured to generate a kinetic energy compensation current proportional to a magnitude of the kinetic energy stored by the mass component of the electric steering system (Figs. 1-4 and 6; [0014, 0016, 0083, 0085, 0108, 0121]).
Regarding claim 7, Kurishige discloses the steering control apparatus according to claim 6, and further on Kurishige also discloses:
wherein the processor is configured to adjust the kinetic energy compensation current based on a vehicle speed (Figs. 1-4 and 6; [0014, 0016, 0083, 0085, 0108, 0121]).
Regarding claim 8, Kurishige discloses the steering control apparatus according to claim 1, and further on Kurishige also discloses:
wherein the processor is configured to generate a potential energy compensation current proportional to a magnitude of the potential energy stored by the rotational elastic component due to the tire torsion and apply the potential energy compensation current to a motor current to be applied to a motor (Figs. 1-4 and 6; [0014, 0016, 0083, 0085, 0108, 0121]).
Regarding claim 9, Kurishige discloses the steering control apparatus according to claim 8, and further on Kurishige also discloses:
wherein the processor is configured to adjust the potential energy compensation current based on a vehicle speed (Figs. 1-4 and 6; [0014, 0016, 0083, 0085, 0108, 0121]).
Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
CN 107531279 A – MINAMIGUCHI
US 2023/0130839 A1 – NAGASHIMA
JP 4217724 B2 – Sugi
JP 2002029442 A - WADA
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Ruben Picon-Feliciano whose telephone number is (571)-272-4938. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Thursday within 11:30 am-7:30 pm ET.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Lindsay M. Low can be reached on (571)272-1196. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/RUBEN PICON-FELICIANO/Examiner, Art Unit 3747
/GRANT MOUBRY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3747
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