A Methodology for Systematic Synthesis of Two-DOF Gear Differentials

Abstract

A gear differential is a two-degrees-of-freedom(DOF)mechanism, which is made up of a one-DOF geared kinematic chain integrated with a gear box.The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology for the systematic synthesis of two-DOF gear differentials.First, the basic characteristics of two-DOF gear differentials are investigated.Next, an approach is proposed to synthesized admissible graphs of gear differentials from the catalog of the graphs of one-DOF geared kinematic chains.Then, all the configurations of two-DOF gear differentials are enumerated form the corresponding admissible graphs by using the notation of adjacency matrix.The result of this paper is of benefit to the further development of new types of gear differentials.