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 .
DETAILED ACTION
Status of the Claims
This action is in response to the applicant’s filing on November 4, 2025. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
At [0022], “configured to received” appears to be intended as “configured to receive”.
At [0062], “illustrated by in FIGS 6A-D” appears to be either “illustrated by FIGS 6A-D” or “illustrated in FIGS 6A-D”.
At [0069], “may be provide for display” appears to be intended as “may be provided for display”.
At [0083], “visualization may parallel lines extending out from” appears to be intended as “visualization may be parallel lines extending out from”.
At [0089], “may be accesses as a dropdown menu” appears to be intended as “may be accessed as a dropdown menu”.
At [0091], “map display 658 is an virtual geographical map” appears to be intended as “map display 658 is a virtual geographical map”.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claim 1 recites the limitations “implement a phase of an autorotation maneuver of the rotorcraft” and “the actuator commands to corresponding actuators to implement the phase of the autorotation”. The only mention of autorotation in the Specification is at {0061].
[0061] In some embodiments where the aircraft is a rotorcraft, the outer processing loop is configured to facilitate execution of an automatic autorotation process for the rotorcraft. In particular, the automatic autorotation process facilitates autorotation by the rotorcraft during entry, glide, flare, and touch down phases. Additionally, or alternatively, the outer processing loop may be configured to facilitate autorotation by the aircraft in response to one or more emergency conditions (e.g., determined based on the estimated aircraft state 340). Execution of the automatic autorotation process by the outer processing loop offloads operation autorotation rotorcraft maneuvers from a human operator of the rotorcraft, thus simplifying user operation and improving the safety. Furthermore, in embodiments where the aircraft is a fixed-wing aircraft, the outer processing loop may facilitate an automatic landing procedure. In particular, the outer processing loop may facilitate the automatic landing procedure even during emergency conditions, e.g., if an engine of the aircraft has failed. The aircraft state display 385 includes one or more interfaces displaying information describing the estimated aircraft state 340 received from the universal aircraft control router 310. For instance, the aircraft state display may be an embodiment of the aircraft state display 210 described above with reference to FIG. 2. The aircraft state display 385 may display information describing the estimated aircraft state 340 for various reasons, such as to provide feedback to an operator of the aircraft responsive to the universal aircraft control inputs 330 or to facilitate navigation of the aircraft. Example aircraft state interfaces that may be displayed by the aircraft state display 385 are described in greater detail below with reference to FIGS. 6A-D.
This description fails to provide adequate written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, to make and use the invention. It also does not set for the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out the invention. An autorotation maneuver requires specific controls to implement the desired powerless lift for landing the rotorcraft. This is not described in the Specification.
Claims 2-9 are rejected for incorporation of the errors of the base claim by dependency.
Independent claims 10 and 19 recite similar limitations on the autorotation that are rejected for the same reasoning as the rejection of claim 1.
Claims 11-18 and 20 are rejected for incorporation of the errors of their respective base claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. The published application of the present invention is cited. The issued patent of the parent application is cited. A related patent to the Assignee is cited. The issued patent of a publication on the Information Disclosure Statement is cited. Hinman et al. discloses a similar system of establishing an autorotation of a rotorcraft.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL BERNS whose telephone number is (313)446-4892. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 9:00 - 5:00.
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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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MICHAEL BERNS
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 3667
/MICHAEL A BERNS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3667
