Actuator and articulated robot arm
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorMasahide Hasegawa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An actuator includes a housing, an output shaft arranged coaxially with the housing, and provided so as to freely rotate with respect to the housing, and a drive mechanism for rotationally driving the output shaft with respect to the housing. The drive mechanism includes a first gear, a second gear, a swing gear, a rotor magnetic circuit, and a stator magnetic circuit. The swing gear is arranged between the first gear and the second gear, and is provided so as to freely rotate about a tilting axis, which is tilted with respect to an axis of the housing. The rotor magnetic circuit is fixed to the swing gear. The stator magnetic circuit is fixed to the housing, and configured to generate an electromagnetic force of attracting or repulsing the rotor magnetic circuit, to thereby swing the swing gear.
Claims13
An actuator, comprising:
- a first shaft;
- a second shaft arranged coaxially with the first shaft, and provided so as to freely rotate with respect to the first shaft;
- and
- a drive mechanism for rotationally driving the second shaft with respect to the first shaft,
- the drive mechanism comprising:
- a first gear including teeth directed toward one side in an axial direction, and arranged coaxially with the first shaft;
- a second gear including teeth opposed to the teeth of the first gear, arranged coaxially with the first shaft, and fixed to the second shaft;
- a first swing gear arranged between the first gear and the second gear, and provided so as to freely rotate about a tilting axis, which is tilted with respect to an axis of the first shaft,
- the first swing gear comprising:
- first teeth different in number by one tooth from the teeth of the first gear, and configured to mesh with the teeth of the first gear;
- and
- second teeth different in number by one tooth from the teeth of the second gear, and configured to mesh with the teeth of the second gear on an opposite side of a meshing portion of the first teeth with the teeth of the first gear in a radial direction and in the axial direction,
- the first swing gear being configured to mesh with the first gear and the second gear at a certain tilting angle;
- a rotor magnetic circuit fixed to the first swing gear;
- and
- a stator magnetic circuit fixed to the first shaft, and configured to generate an electromagnetic force of one of attracting and repulsing the rotor magnetic circuit, to thereby swing the first swing gear.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.