Back to results
US 5,769,748 AGranted
Gimbal employing differential combination of offset drives
AssigneeHughes Electronics Corporation
InventorsBruce N. Eyerly, Vytas J. Katilius, Umesh S. Ketkar
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A gimbal system includes a pair of stepper motors that drive respective drive trains of a differential drive assembly such as a differential gear assembly. Either the drive ratios or the step sizes for the two motors are offset from each other to provide four modes of operation, including modes for improved resolution and faster slew rate, and two intermediate modes with more balanced resolution and slew rate.
Claims15
A gimbal system, comprising:
- a plurality of stepper motors,
- a plurality of drive actuators driven by respective ones of said stepper motors,
- a differential drive assembly having simultaneous drive engagements with each of said drive actuators, and
- an output shaft rotated by said differential drive assembly,
- said stepper motors operating collectively to produce a net output shaft rotation, and each operating individually to produce mutually different output shaft rotations per step.
2 more elements
A gimbal system, comprising:
- a pair of stepper motors,
- a pair of drive actuators respectively driven by said stepper motors,
- a differential drive assembly having drive engagements with each of said drive actuators, said drive engagements having different drive ratios, said differential drive assembly receiving and combining drive outputs from each of said drive actuators to produce a net rotational output, and
- an output shaft driven by the rotation of said differential drive assembly.
1 more element
A gimbal system, comprising:
- a pair of stepper motors having different drive step magnitudes,
- a pair of drive actuators respectively driven by said stepper motors,
- a differential drive assembly having drive engagements with each of said drive actuators, said differential drive assembly receiving and combining drive outputs from each of said drive actuators to produce a net rotational output which reflects the difference between the drive step magnitudes of said stepper motors, and
- an output shaft driven by the rotation of said differential drive assembly.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.