PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15867842
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-01
Publication Date: 2019-07
Patent Classification: ["451", "005000"]

Abstract:
An automated hand tool sharpening and cleaning system for sharpening the two opposed cutting edges of domestic, industrial, sport, or hobby hand tool like a knife blade is provided by the invention. The apparatus comprises a six-axis robotic arm, a pneumatic gripper, a vision sensor camera for profiling the blade edges, a robotic controller, and sequentially-arranged grinding, coarse sharpening, fine sharpening, and buffing rotating wheel assemblies used to grind, sharpen, and buff or polish the cutting edges of the knife blade. The blade cutting edges are profiled by the camera image that is processed by associated software to define the blade by multiple points defined along its edge, followed by a set of algorithms that are used to clean up any discrepancies in the profile data. The resulting corrected profile data is then translated into a set of machine control commands fed to the robotic arm and pneumatic gripper via the robot controller for manipulating the knife blade edges via the robotic arm with respect to each of the grinding, coarse sharpening, fine sharpening, and buffing/polishing wheels and an associated wash station for remove bits of metal and other residue resulting from the sharpened knife blade.

Claim (Index 1):
An automated hand tool sharpening system for sharpening at least one cutting edge of a working surface of a hand tool, the apparatus comprising:\n (a) a supply of at least one hand tool having a handle at its first end and a working surface in an unsharpened state at its second end: (b) a robotic arm having a pneumatic gripper for picking up the handle of the hand tool; (c) a vision sensor camera and associated software for profiling the working surface of the hand tool by means of transposing a series of lines over an image taken of the working surface to define a series of points along the length of the cutting edge of the working surface of the hand tool to define a data set comprising a series of two-dimensional coordinates that collectively characterize the cutting edge of the hand tool; (d) at least one rotating wheel for grinding, sharpening, or polishing/buffing the cutting edge or working surface of the hand tool; (e) a controller system for regulating the operation of the rotating wheel and vision sensor camera; (f) a robotic controller for producing a series of machine commands for regulating the movement of the robotic arm in three-dimensional space based upon the two-dimensional data set coordinates characterizing the cutting edge of the hand tool; (g) wherein the robotic controller causes the robotic arm to pick up the hand tool and present the working surface of the hand tool to the vision sensor camera, to produce in association with the software the two-dimensional data set of coordinates characterizing the cutting edge of the hand tool; (h) wherein the robotic controller causes the robotic arm to deliver the hand tool to the rotating grinding, sharpening, or buffing wheel and pass its working surface over the rotating wheel surface along its profiled cutting edge to sharpen the cutting edge of the hand tool at a predetermined angle.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 7.0
- Percentile: 86.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.0
- Patent Class: 451.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15610169', '14822397', '13315101', '14715822', '14802757']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.7906100327600503
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5436588120869273
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7659149106927381
- Mean Citation Score: 376.809922
- Max Citation Score: 472.4275
- Similarity Product: 334.92468042194844

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 0
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test