The Boeing Company
Self-aligning virtual elliptical drive

Abstract:

A self-aligning wobble plate drive, including a stator gear, a wobble plate, and an output plate. The stator gear has a central stator axis and a plurality of stator teeth. The wobble plate has a wobble axis, a plurality of face teeth, and a plurality of wobble teeth, and is disposed such that the wobble axis is at a non-zero wobble angle relative to the stator axis. The output plate includes a plurality of output teeth and is substantially aligned with the stator axis. At least two of the pluralities of teeth are configured to engage with each other in a self-aligning manner such that as the wobble plate nutates around the stator gear, the wobble angle remains constant.