Similarity and Equivalence of Nutating Mechanisms to Bevel Epicyclic Gear Trains

This paper addresses similarities between various nutating or wobbling mechanisms, especially kinematic similarities. A case is made for the generalization of several mechanisms into a mechanism “class” having common kinematic characteristics. This mechanism class is shown to be typified by bevel epicyclic gear trains. It is proposed that not only kinematic analysis, but static-force, power-flow, and efficiency analyses of mechanisms belonging to this “class” can be simplified by modeling them as bevel-gear trains. Simplified kinematic, force, and efficiency analyses are demonstrated for a novel wobbling speed reducer using this concept of “equivalent” geared mechanisms. The reduction in complexity of these analyses is the main motivation for this work.