Speed Reduction Any means of speed reduction common in industry may be used in

robotics as well. This includes fixed axis and planetary gear trains with many types of gears.
Additionally, particular types of planetary gear trains called Harmonic DriveTM and OrbidriveTM as
well as a novel design with nutating gears may be used. The following sections describe the
Harmonic Drive concept as well as the nutating gears concept. In planetary gear trains, there are
normally four basic elements: the sun gear, the ring gear, the arm, and the planets. For calculation
purposes, the sun and the ring gears are called firstand last gears. Although we will not develop the
following equation here, it can be stated that for a gear train, with corresponding angular velocities
and number of teeth for the first and last gears, the following is true:24 vLA vFA ¼ vL vA vF vA ¼ NF
N3 N2 NL ð7:24Þ where vF; vL and vA are the angular velocities of the first and last gears and the
arm, vLA and vFA are the angular velocities of the first and last gears relative to the arm, and NL, NF,
N2, and N3 are the number of teeth of the first, last, and the planet gears as in Figure 7.51. In this
gear train example, it is assumed that the first gear is stationary and its angular velocity is zero. The
input to the system is the arm, and the output is the last gear. There are two planets designated as
gears 2 and 3. For vF ¼ 0, from Equation (7.24), we get: NFN3vA ¼ N2NLvL N2NLvA vAð Þ N2NL
NFN3 ¼ N2NLvL and e ¼ vL vA ¼ N2NL NFN3 N2NL ð7:25Þ where e is the gear ratio for the system.
This can be used to calculate the gear ratio based on the number of teeth of the four gears. N2 N3
ωF ωL ωA NF NL Planet gears Internal First gear Internal Last gear Figure 7.51 Schematic drawing of a
planetary gear train. 7.11 Speed Reduction 309 C07 02/15/2014 11:34:4 Page 310 In Harmonic
drives, the number of teeth of the gears are chosen such as to render very large gear ratios with very
few gears. To do this, suppose the teeth are chosen such that NF ¼ N2 þ 1 and NL ¼ N3 þ 1. In that
case, Equation (7.25) will reduce to: vA vL ¼ ðNF 1ÞNL NF NL ð7:26Þ For example, with NL ¼ 50
teeth and NF ¼ 45 teeth, the gear ratio will be 440, which is huge (the negative number of the
answer only indicates a direction change between the input and output of the gear train). The
problem is that although theoretically we can pick the gears such that NF ¼ N2 þ 1 and NL ¼ N3 þ 1,
in practice this will not work, because a pair of internal-external gears engaged with each other and
having this many teeth will not rotate relative to each other. To overcome this problem, the planet
in the strain wave gearing system is a flexible metal band with teeth (flexspline) that rolls over a cam
(wave generator). As the wave generator rotates, it changes the shape of the flexspline planet such
that it remains in contact with the internal gear at two opposing points only, while the remaining
teeth are disengaged (Figures 7.52 and 7.53). For more information, refer to other references.25–27
Cam (Wave generator) Flexspline Last gear Rollers Figure 7.52 Schematic of the strain wave gearing
train. Figure 7.53 A Harmonic DriveTM strain wave gear. (Reprinted with permission from Harmonic
drive, LLC. ‘‘Harmonic Drive’’ is a trademark of Harmonic Drive LLC.) 310 Chapter 7. Actuators and
Drive Systems C07 02/15/2014 11:34:4 Page 311 The nutating gear train concept is somewhat
similar. Gears that are very close in size wobble relative to each other at their edges.28 As a result,
after each revolution, one gear falls slightly behind the other, thus creating a large gear ratio. The
equations governing the systems are the same as Equation (7.25). A simple rendition of the nutating
gears