Mechanical virtual elliptical drive
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsRobert J. Atmur, William Patrick Sargent
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A mechanical virtual elliptical drive, including an input motor, a wobble plate, a stator gear, and an output plate. The input motor may have a rotation axis, a substantially flat surface, and a rounded protrusion extending from the flat surface. The wobble plate may have a wobble axis disposed at a non-zero angle relative to the rotation axis. The rounded protrusion of the motor may engage a substantially flat face of the wobble plate, thereby causing the wobble plate to nutate around the stator gear.
Claims20
A wobble plate drive, comprising:
- an input motor having a rotation axis, a substantially flat surface perpendicular to the rotation axis, and at least one rounded protrusion extending from the substantially flat surface;
- a wobble plate having a wobble axis disposed at a non-zero angle relative to the rotation axis of the input motor, a first substantially flat face perpendicular to the wobble axis and facing generally toward the input motor, a second face defining a plane parallel to the first face and facing generally away from the input motor, a plurality of face teeth disposed on the second face, and a plurality of wobble teeth disposed around a perimeter of the wobble plate between the first and second faces in a plane perpendicular to the wobble axis;
- a stator gear having a plurality of stator teeth configured to engage with the plurality of wobble teeth;
- and
- an output plate having an output axis substantially aligned with the rotation axis and a plurality of output teeth;
- wherein the at least one rounded protrusion is configured to engage with the first face of the wobble plate, and the plurality of face teeth are configured to engage with the plurality of output teeth as the wobble plate nutates around the stator gear.
A wobble plate drive, comprising:
- an input motor including two rounded protrusions extending from a substantially flat surface;
- a stator gear having a stator axis;
- a wobble plate having a wobble axis disposed at a non-zero angle relative to the stator axis and a substantially flat face oriented generally toward the input motor and contacting only one of the protrusions at a time, at a contact point on the flat face of the wobble plate;
- and
- an output plate having an output axis substantially aligned with the stator axis;
- wherein the input motor is configured to rotate the protrusions around the stator axis, thereby causing the wobble plate to nutate around the stator gear with the wobble axis precessing around the stator axis, and also thereby causing the contact point to move ahead of a point of closest approach of the wobble plate to the stator gear, as the point of closest approach of the wobble plate to the stator gear moves around the stator axis.
A method for operating a wobble plate drive, comprising:
- energizing a motor to rotate about a rotation axis, wherein the motor has a substantially flat surface and one or more rounded protrusions extending from the substantially flat surface;
- engaging only one of the one or more rounded protrusions at a time with a substantially flat surface of a wobble plate, thereby causing the wobble plate to nutate;
- engaging a plurality of wobble teeth of the wobble plate with a plurality of stator teeth of a stator gear as the wobble plate nutates, thereby causing the wobble plate to rotate;
- and
- engaging a plurality of face teeth of the wobble plate with a plurality of output teeth of an output plate as the wobble plate nutates and rotates, thereby causing the output plate to rotate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.