Self-aligning virtual elliptical drive

A wobble plate drive, comprising:

• a stator gear having a central stator axis and a plurality of stator teeth disposed on an inner cylindrical surface;
• a wobble plate having a wobble axis disposed at a non-zero wobble angle relative to the stator axis, an engaging face perpendicular to the wobble axis, a plurality of face teeth disposed on the engaging face, and a plurality of wobble teeth disposed around a perimeter of the wobble plate in a plane perpendicular to both the engaging face and the wobble axis;
• and
• an output plate substantially aligned with the stator axis and having a plurality of output teeth configured to engage with the face teeth;
• and
• means for self-aligning engagement of the stator teeth with the wobble teeth, such that the wobble angle remains constant as the wobble plate nutates around the stator gear.

A method of operating a wobble plate drive, comprising:

• providing a stator gear, a wobble plate, and an output plate;
• engaging a plurality of stator teeth of the stator gear with a plurality of wobble teeth of the wobble plate in a self-aligning manner;
• engaging a plurality of face teeth of the wobble plate with a plurality of output teeth of the output plate in a self-aligning manner;
• and
• inducing nutation of the wobble plate about the stator gear.