This is where SRI’s ultra-compact infinitely variable transmission (IVT) can play a key role. For instance, a high-quality electric motor may be 90 percent efficient when operating under high velocity and low torque, but in robotic applications, the system must instead be designed to achieve the needed peak torques and speeds in the smallest package possible, resulting in a system that almost never operates near its peak efficiency.Ī variable-ratio transmission can help align the motor velocity with its peak efficiency or peak power, but their size, weight, and complexity have historically precluded their use in most robotic and industrial applications. When the output speed changes frequently, it is impossible to optimize a motor and fixed-ratio transmission system for size, performance, and efficiency at the same time: The fixed ratio of the transmission causes substantial losses within the motor. It’s not uncommon for a robotic transmission to be less than 50 percent efficient…. In other words, a constant input, like an electric motor turning the same direction at the same speed, can be converted to an output that’s turning faster, turning slower, turning in the opposite direction, or not turning at all (in this “geared neutral” mode, you’d need infinite input revolutions to cause one output revolution, hence the name “infinitely variable transmission”). In an infinitely variable transmission (IVT), which is a specific kind of continuously variable transmission, the transmission ratio includes a zero point that can be approached from either a positive side or a negative side. It’s called Inception Drive, and he describes it as “an ultra-compact, infinitely variable transmission based on a novel nested-pulley configuration” that’s designed to make robots-and all kinds of other things-safer, more affordable, and vastly more efficient.
![xf and spectrum xf and spectrum](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81Kp0eWRyjL._AC_SL1500_.jpg)
Now Kernbaum is back with another ingenious-and cleverly named-transmission design.
![xf and spectrum xf and spectrum](https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/05ed6436-b9a7-4333-9f51-ebd6f42b17b7.1ce2f6bb54df73f60c1784aea26c5949.jpeg)
Last year, SRI’s Alexander Kernbaum introduced us to Abacus Drive, a new kind of rotary transmission based on pure rolling motion that promises to be much cheaper and much more energy efficient than harmonic gears, which are the current (and quite expensive) standard.