Orbital tensile drive
AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorJake Robert Read
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An orbital tensile drive is herein disclosed, along with systems and methods associated therewith. The orbital tensile drive uses a tensile element that is conveyed around a static, fixed shaft and a rotating output shaft. This is facilitated via multiple orbiting idler pulleys that are mounted to an orbiter body. The static and rotating shafts, as well as the orbiting assembly, share a common axis. Input rotation to the orbiter body is transformed into lower-speed, higher-torque rotation at the rotating output shaft. The present invention has many potential applications including, but not limited to, robotics.
Claims20
An orbital tensile drive comprising:
- a fixed shaft;
- an output shaft;
- an orbiter body that comprises a plurality of idler pulleys, wherein an axis of rotation of each of the plurality of idler pulleys is tilted at an angle relative to a common axis of rotation of the orbiter body;
- and
- a tensile element movably engaged with the fixed shaft, the output shaft, and the plurality of idler pulleys, wherein the orbiter body is operative to rotate, thereby causing:
- relative rotation between the fixed shaft and the output shaft, and
- relative rotation between the orbiter body and the output shaft.
An orbital tensile drive comprising:
- a fixed shaft;
- an output shaft;
- an orbiter body, with the fixed shaft, the output shaft and the orbiter body sharing a common axis, and the orbiter body being disposed between the fixed shaft and the output shaft;
- a plurality of idler pulleys coupled to the orbiter body, wherein an axis of rotation of each of the plurality of idler pulleys is tilted at an angle relative to the common axis;
- and
- a tensile element movably engaged with the fixed shaft, the output shaft, the plurality of idler pulleys, and the orbiter body, wherein the orbiter body is operative to rotate, thereby causing:
- relative rotation between the fixed shaft and the output shaft, and
- relative rotation between the orbiter body and the output shaft.
A system comprising:
- an orbital tensile drive comprising:
- a fixed shaft,
- an output shaft,
- an orbiter body, with the fixed shaft, the output shaft, and the orbiter body sharing a common axis, and the orbiter body being disposed between the fixed shaft and the output shaft,
- a plurality of idler pulleys coupled to the orbiter body, wherein an axis of rotation of each of the plurality of idler pulleys is tilted at an angle relative to the common axis, and
- a tensile element movably engaged with the fixed shaft, the output shaft, the plurality of idler pulleys, and the orbiter body, wherein the orbiter body is operative to rotate, thereby causing:
- relative rotation between the fixed shaft and the output shaft, and
- relative rotation between the orbiter body and the output shaft;
- an input operative to rotate the orbiter body at a first speed;
- and
- a driven member driven to rotate by the output shaft at a second speed that is less than the first speed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.